When we last left the Alperts, they were very grumpily heading back towards the colonial town of Granada with slightly lighter luggage than when they headed out to Ometepe. Let's see what they've been up to...
The first thing we did upon returning to Granada on Monday was head to the market to buy some shoes for Adina, since we didn't think that our b&b owner's frocs (fake crocs) that were three sizes too big on her would be enough to get by on. On our way we stumbled upon a treasure trove of used/rejected American t-shirts for sale, so I naturally bought all the ones that fit. In a little shoe 'store' Adina successfully negotiated the salesmen down from $23 to $22, so we felt pretty good about buying some crappy knockoffs to tide her over until we got home. On Monday night we continued our search for food we can eat and found that the lack of crunchy-granola-live-off-the-land-hippy-expats that were so abundant on Ometepe meant veggie food much harder to come by. We settled on a place that tripadvisor swore was veggie friendly and had a very chatty owner that tried (in vain) to teach us a bit of Spanish while we waited for our food. He said the key to picking up a language was repetition, so he had us say "My name is Daniel, what is your name?....My name is Adina....It is a pleasure to meet you....The pleasure is mine" about nine times. Not surprisingly, the guy also teaches in his spare time (are we all that annoying?) We ordered the veggie version of 'typical Nica food' and decided there is a reason you don't find hordes of people lining at the door to Nica restaurants across the world.
Tuesday we set off on a chicken bus which dropped us off at the side of the road promising we'd find Mombacho Volcano if we just walked up that hill over there. While on the bus we must have stumbled into an alternate universe or something, because we got a picture of a Nica man wearing an Eagles Super Bowl 39 World Champions t'shirt. After the 1km walk up the hill we entered the national park and started the 6km hike up the steep road to the top from there. About 80 meters later Adina changed her mind and we decided to wait an hour for the truck to take us up. We were super glad we did it that way as 70 minutes later we passed the girls who had set off hiking right before us with the steepest third of the hike still in front of them. Suckers. We were very happy to have saved our energy for the two hour hike through the cloud forest at the top. The plant life up there was phenomenal. Among other things we saw both the smallest and the largest orchids we've ever seen, as well as a plant that goes to sleep when you touch it and a tree with 55 different species of plant growing off of it. We had a guide walking with us who also told us about 30 different scientific names of plants that I'm pretty sure she just made up on the spot. We also stuck our arms into a warm fumarole spewing sulfur steam (right before it started pouring rain on us and we had to run for the cover of the forest again), got a great view of the clouds covering the volcano's craters (which looked very similar to the clouds covering the volcano on Ometepe, so we just took extra pictures to make up for the stolen camera) and hiked up to (just about) the highest point on the volcano. Which was covered in very scenic cell phone towers. And of course, monkeys! This time we caught some white faced monkeys traipsing through the trees off in the distance and a family of howlers (including a tiny baby riding his mother's back - and no, I'm not just assuming it's the mom because it's the woman's job to take care of the kids. I could tell because the other howler just a few branches over was VERY clearly the male. Our photos can back that up if you like.) relaxing in the trees right over our heads.
Wednesday we had a fantastic 4 hour kayaking tour of Las Islettas, a group of a few hundred islands in lake Nicaragua that were all made when the top of Mombacho blew off in an eruption 20,000 years ago. I can see the steam blowing out of the ears of some of my elementary school teachers hearing me say that. A few thousand people live spread out on the islands, but the more interesting ones are the gorgeous private ones owned by super rich Nicaraguans and Americans. There was some cool bird life, a few turtles, and more monkeys on these islands. What's that you say, monkeys can't swim? That is correct. These monkeys are people's pets and are pretty much stuck on their islands (except maybe for the one that likes to hop on boats and once bit the finger of our guide). One of the ones we saw was actually on a leash, but another island with three howlers and a white face actually belongs to a veterinarian that took care of these monkeys and sees to it that they are ok. That island doesn't have any houses or docks on it and it made us feel a little better about it.
This evening we were supposed to do a night tour of the Masaya volcano, but not long after we got there it got washed out by some serious squalls, so we'll have to try again tomorrow.
As for the town of Granada itself, I'm not quite sure what to say. It's an interesting mix of old Spanish colonial architecture and run down dingy buildings pretty well interspersed. We did not find the supermarket to be as interesting and fun as some of the others we've visited in different countries, but we did manage to find the angriest looking Tony the Tiger you've ever seen and even more importantly some shoko b'sakit to cool us off, just as if we'd just gotten down from Masada. Many people really love this town, and while I do appreciate it's somewhat relaxed atmosphere compared to the cities in Thailand we went through, and I do like that the touristy areas and the local hangouts are pretty much in the same place, I just haven't been blown away. I'm far more interested in the volcanoes and lakes in the general area. Though to it's credit this town was certainly able to save our vacation and we are back to having a terrific time.
Tomorrow we head out to a series of artsy villages in the area that are each known for different types of crafts (pottery, furniture, hammocks) and then hopefully back to the volcano for a more successful night tour. After that we spend shabbat on Laguna de Apoyo and head to Panama on Sunday morning. This trip is WAY too short.
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