From Granada
I write this post from an internet cafe in Granada, Nicaragua. Today is January 10, the day that Ortega officially becomes president of Nicaragua and everywhere, the red and black flag of his party is flying.
Granada is a beautiful city- quaint cobbled streets and brightly painted colonial buildings- the sound of horseshoes hitting stone as carriages and wagons roll by- the calls of women selling fruit and other foodstuffs from giant baskets, carried on thier heads- all in all, an interesting city with a quintessential Latin American feel. At night, fireworks erupt by the church where a bell is rung by hand. By day, folks fill the benches in the main square, watching people pass and swallows swoop overhead. Everywhere, there are ice cream sellers and juice sellers and tamale sellers- some food is even cooked directly on camals over flame in little wooden carts on the street.
Amidst all of this, however, is a growing tourist industry which lends a strange contrast to the place. On streets that resemble something from the 1600s, there are Asian Fusion restaurants and cafes featuring cappuchino...and fancy hotels and fancy restaurants and many German and U.S tourists. I imagine a few years ago Granada had more of an undiscovered feel...now the city is clearly marketing its quaintness.
And for good reason. It's quite lovely.
We are staying in a tiny little hotel, 10$ a night. It's a strange little place with a large front entrance hall where the family who owns the place sits around, watching TV. There appears to be some sort of cafe in the front, but we have yet to see anyone actually sitting in the cafe. Our room is tiny and without a bathroom, but fine and quite a bargain! And the bed is pretty good too. And there is even a fan, which works very well!
Last night we had sushi, of all things. Also learned that when you order a "rum and coke" here they bring you half a bottle of rum, a bottle of pepsi, a bucket of ice, salt, and two limes. And it costs about 4 dollars for all that. For lunch, we had some fabulous chicken that cost us about 2 dollars each.
Our journey here was long, but not too challenging. The hardest part was when we got off the bus at the border and were told a bunch of instructions in rapid Spanish. We were the only English speaking folks on the Tica Bus so we had to ask a nice Costa Rican man sitting next to me to help. Crossing the border involved mostly standing around while a man from the bus company ran away with our passports. Luckily then he brought them back. We also had to stand in a line to get our baggage checked..but after standing there for a while, the guard looked at our tiny backpacks, rolled his eyes, and waved us through without checking anything.
I guess he figured we couldn't be carrying too much contraband in a backpack.
More later!
Granada is a beautiful city- quaint cobbled streets and brightly painted colonial buildings- the sound of horseshoes hitting stone as carriages and wagons roll by- the calls of women selling fruit and other foodstuffs from giant baskets, carried on thier heads- all in all, an interesting city with a quintessential Latin American feel. At night, fireworks erupt by the church where a bell is rung by hand. By day, folks fill the benches in the main square, watching people pass and swallows swoop overhead. Everywhere, there are ice cream sellers and juice sellers and tamale sellers- some food is even cooked directly on camals over flame in little wooden carts on the street.
Amidst all of this, however, is a growing tourist industry which lends a strange contrast to the place. On streets that resemble something from the 1600s, there are Asian Fusion restaurants and cafes featuring cappuchino...and fancy hotels and fancy restaurants and many German and U.S tourists. I imagine a few years ago Granada had more of an undiscovered feel...now the city is clearly marketing its quaintness.
And for good reason. It's quite lovely.
We are staying in a tiny little hotel, 10$ a night. It's a strange little place with a large front entrance hall where the family who owns the place sits around, watching TV. There appears to be some sort of cafe in the front, but we have yet to see anyone actually sitting in the cafe. Our room is tiny and without a bathroom, but fine and quite a bargain! And the bed is pretty good too. And there is even a fan, which works very well!
Last night we had sushi, of all things. Also learned that when you order a "rum and coke" here they bring you half a bottle of rum, a bottle of pepsi, a bucket of ice, salt, and two limes. And it costs about 4 dollars for all that. For lunch, we had some fabulous chicken that cost us about 2 dollars each.
Our journey here was long, but not too challenging. The hardest part was when we got off the bus at the border and were told a bunch of instructions in rapid Spanish. We were the only English speaking folks on the Tica Bus so we had to ask a nice Costa Rican man sitting next to me to help. Crossing the border involved mostly standing around while a man from the bus company ran away with our passports. Luckily then he brought them back. We also had to stand in a line to get our baggage checked..but after standing there for a while, the guard looked at our tiny backpacks, rolled his eyes, and waved us through without checking anything.
I guess he figured we couldn't be carrying too much contraband in a backpack.
More later!
posted by Rebekah at 11:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home