Nicaragua, Sans Maria (Leon and Granada)

After having been pampered by Maria and her family so much, Laura and I decided we should get away for a few days and give them a break from us. We decided upon nearby Leon. But before letting us get away, Maria and her mother did us one more huge favor. They drove us there.

Above is a picture of a large cathedral in the main square of Leon. The main square or plaza in every city we go to is usually the first place we head. And after a short walk to this particular plaza, we were dripping in sweat. We visited Leon for three days. Every day reached 90 degrees. I was hot. I know that everyone back in Wisconsin feels sorry for us.

In front of the cathedral are statues of lions. Legend has it that they come alive at night to protect the cathedral. Laura is trying to inspire them to come alive a little earlier.

There isn't all that much to do in Leon, except take a tour of the rooftop of the cathedral. Only other thing we could find was to climb a volcano, or sand board down the side of a volcano. We were hot enough, so we settled for the visit to the rooftop.

From the roof, pretty much all of Leon is visible. In the background are a few volcanoes.

Here is a shot of the roof itself. Pretty neat. We would have a shot of Laura on top of one of the domes if she hadn't been scolded to get down off of them because there were no supports under them.

Another shot from above.

Here is a shot of Laura looking over the central plaza. It's quite windy.

Another shot of the plaza from above.

And here is the main reason why we didn't do very much in Leon. Below is a shot of the inside of our hostel. Need I say more?

After our short stay in Leon, we spent a few more days with Maria's family, and headed off for good this time. Our next stop was to Granada.

First shot - central plaza. We like to take pictures of the giant Christmas trees in all the cities we've been to, because of how weird it is to see one in such a warm climate. It doesn't make sense to me.

Then we took a walk down to Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in the country. There was a small park along side the shore, which we walked along, and discovered a cow grazing in the middle of a playground. Which seemed odd to no one other than ourselves.

Later that night, we strolled along a pedestrian street and had a bite to eat. As it was New Year's Eve, we hung around this street until midnight, waiting for the crowds of people to begin lighting off fireworks. There were kids throwing firecrackers in the street, plenty of roman candles, and even a stuffed dummy with firecrackers in it and a sign with 2009 written on it. It went up in flames pretty quick. Happy New Year!

After all of the festivities died down a bit, we headed back to our hostel. Once we began to get ready for bed in our room, we noticed some bugs on the wall. Well, we did a bed bug check when we first looked at the room, but only on the actual bed. It appeared that they were instead in the walls, and once we were in the room, sensed our presence and began a slow descent to eat us alive. We immediately did a google search online to compare these bugs to other pictures to confirm our suspicions. Then, we captured a few in a bag, showed the night attendant, and asked if they were in fact, bed bugs. He told us he didn't know because he had never seen them before(which we believe was a total lie), but he got us into another, cleaner room. The next day, we looked online for reviews of the hostal, and sure enough, a lot of people had complaints of bed bugs. It was a close one, but we managed to avoid that problem!

One of the can't miss things in Granada is a trip out to see the isletas. The isletas are a collection of small islands that are just off the shore of Granada within Lake Nicaragua.

Of course, any chance to get onto a boat, we really enjoy!

Here is a shot of one of the smaller islands. It is literally not any bigger than a small to medium sized lot in the U.S. We were told an island of this size would probably go for $400,000-500,000.
This next island, is a bit larger, and has an amazing tropical home built on top of it.

There are a total of 365 islands that make up this collection. One for every day of the year.

Luckily, not every one of the 365 little islands are developed. There is even one for the monkeys! (And by the way, in case you haven't figured it out yet, every time I see a monkey, you are going to see a monkey. I don't care if you get tired of it, though I don't see how you could. They are just so exciting!)

Below, another mansion on a little island. Jerks.

Upon our return, the sun was setting, and we caught a pretty neat glimpse of the city. This church looks a little run down, but it is still fully functioning. In the background is the cathedral in the central plaza, with the pedestrian street leading up to it.
Here is a shot of the wallpaper in our new room. Unforgettable is a word that comes to mind.

Well, it's been far too long since we've visited a volcano, so we did that too. This is a view from atop Mombacho. In the distance on the left is the city of Granada, and just right of my head, are the isletas and Lake Nicaragua.

This was our first encounter with a cloud forest, so we went on a guided tour, which took us through some fun places.
The path was pretty difficult at times, but the views were more than worthwhile.
After a few hours of hiking, we were getting close to the best lookout point on the mountain. Seeing as this is a cloud forest, sometimes the view is not so great.
But if you sit down and have a little lunch, maybe it will clear up. We were there for about 15 minutes surrounded in a haze, but for 10 minutes or so, it cleared up and we got what we came for.

(Quick disclaimer to Laura's sister Sarah: Don't look at the picture following this next one. I don't know how you might do this, but just avoid it.)

There wasn't much for wildlife along the hike, but we did almost step on this little guy. He was probably no more than a foot and a half long, but that didn't stop him from nipping at our feet as we went by. In fact, the guide, Laura, and myself didn't even see him at first. The nice Canadians who we were on the tour with had to point him out.

After the tour and following the descent from the mountain, we weren't all that excited about having to wait for a bus to get back to town.(or the accompanying pleasures of bus travel in Central America). So we hitch-hiked. So far, the people in Nicaragua have been extremely nice hosts, and it is not uncommon for them to pick up people on the side of the road and load them into the back of their trucks. We were back to town much quicker, and it saved us a few bucks as well!

It just so happened that our transport was headed back to the main plaza, but when we got there, we weren't quite sure if were back in Granada, or Disneyland.

This tractor and cars with Mickey and the gang painted on the side is literally used to take people to and from the lake, almost as a public transport.