mar dulce

I loved Granada! Colonial, with a beautiful plaza where there`s always music and dancing and ice cream men. There`s a pleasant lake front, although you can`t swim from Granada, it`s a good place to cool down and relax. We also checked out the Fundaciòn Casa de los Tres Mundos, an artists` residence and work space where they also showcase their work - a really great place for budding artists and musicians of all ages to get access to materials, other artists and teachers, and the public eye.

Our couchsurfing host was kind of a thorn in our enjoyment of Granada... he built a ridiculous home/nightclub/hotel with the hopes of turning it into the premier spot for rich people to squander their money in town, but after a year of construction and living there, all he could do was bitch and moan about the country and it`s people, that he`s selling the place and moving to Panama. We took it all with a grain of salt and didn`t let his negativity influence our perspective of the place. On the other hand, he had a pool, a maid, 5 chihuahuas and all that luxury stuff, so it was comfortable digs.

Now we`ve made it to Isla de Ometepe, a wonderfully unspoiled island in Lake Nicaragua. The ancient Nahuatl prophecy was to find twin volcanoes in a freshwater sea - and it`s easy to feel like we`re in the middle of the ocean here, it`s the largest lake in Central America. There`s also the only species of freshwater shark in the world in this lake, but they`ve been hunted and their population is decreasing, so we`re not too scared to swim in the lake (although I would have liked to shark fish). We´re camping on the south side of the bigger volcano Concepción, a little area called Charco Verde for the green lagoon, where we have beaches and hiking trails (we saw monkeys yesterday!) pretty much to ourselves. There`s no real center of tourism on the island, since the tourism is the natural beauty, all the towns and accomodations are scattered around the volcanoes. Today we biked some 7 miles from Charco Verde to one of the main towns, Moyogalpa, where we came in on the ferry. Getting supplies and internet is our day´s itinerary.

Unfortunately, becuase of our lolly gagging nature and because our trip is coming to an end, we can only spend a fews days here, but I wish we had more time!