Nicaragua Trip

Last Tuesday the 8 of us (Us and the Housdens)piled in the pathfinder and headed for Nicaragua. Since we're not residence of the country (Costa Rica)and staying here for longer than 3 months we had to do an exit trip to Nicaragua in order to legally stay in the country.

So we chose Granada, an old colonial city near the border of Nicaragua/Costa Rica. In fact it's the oldest city in all of Central America and has quite a bit of interesting history. We've never been to a city quite like it before. They still have horse drawn buggies, some for tourism and some just simply to get around. The people are very poor and for some of them this is the only means of transportation.
Because of it's uniqueness, history dating back to the 1500's, and culture Granada thrives on tourism. So we saw many things that we havent seen in Costa Rica, like Children/sometimes adults begging for money or food (many times they just want the leftovers on your plate) as well as many different street vendors trying to sell you there local items from sunglasses to hammocks. They bombard you from morning till night.

However, we still enjoyed our stay very much and even embraced some of the street children and one guy who sold us about 5 pairs of sunglasses. We also loved the hotel that we found, it was sooooo tranquilo. It was an original colonial building like all the buildings in Granada and had a beautiful courtyard with a nice little pool for the kids to play in. As well as Air conditioning, hot water, internet and maid service all things we wont be enjoying for quite some time. One other nice benefit about staying in Granada was we got to take a break from all the nasty bugs that we battle on a daily/nightly basis in Costa Rica.

The first picture you see is of an old hospital that was ruined by one of the wars in the last century. You see this type of thing alot in Granada. The picture of the kids is in the center of town where there is a huge church and a beautiful park where everyone hangs out to get shade and socialize during the day. The picture of the old colonial buildings is near the park and you will find buildings like this all over the city. The picture of the street is an area about 5 or 6 blocks from the park where all the local "Nica's" do there shopping and selling of there goods. When we got to this area we realized we were not in Costa Rica let alone the states anymore. We cant wait till we get home so we can share more of our 108 pics that we took and the whole Nicaragua experience that we enjoyed.