An Adventure in Granada!!

The kids flew out of the classroom making noises of all kinds on Friday afternoon, and I knew that I was ready for the weekend. The week was great in so many ways: the students were well behaved and my lessons went well. But, there is something about the weekend that I can't help but long for, and this weekend was no exception. This weekend was the trip to Granada, a beautiful colonial city on Lake Nicaragua.

Erin, another student teacher, and I started out our trip by taking a taxi from NCA to the UCA station which is like Managua's bus station. This our first time taking a taxi so we were kind of nervous about it. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long and when we got to the UCA station, the taxi brought us to the right bus. It was nice to not have to search for the right bus, although, I am sure that we could have found one pretty easily.There were people everywhere yelling names of cities or places where buses are going. They are all in competition, so as soon as one bus heard that we wanted to go to Granada, we were guided right onto a bus. Thankfully, we got there in time to get a seat. Even though we were in the micro bus and not the big city buses (school buses), the still like to pack people in so there were people standing in the aisles for most of the trip. When we got to Granada, the bus brought us right by the Oasis Hostel where we had made plans to stay.

We checked in at the Oasis and then we walked around the city a bit. It is a beautiful city with colorful buildings that have a colonial look to them. Our hostel was close to the city square which was packed with market booths, people, carriages, and vehicles. It was fun to stroll around the city and take in the fun atmosphere. We strolled down a touristy street and had supper at a pizzeria. We also made reservation plans for Saturday morning and afternoon. After this, we headed back to our hostel, checked our email, and crashed for the night.

On Saturday morning we slept in until 7:00 and checked out of our hostel. We had some pastries for breakfast at a bakery and relaxed for an hour. At 9:00 we headed to the place where we made a reservation and we headed out to Mombocho Volcano for our....drum roll.... canopy tour!!! We did a zip line course through the beautiful forest. Erin and I were the only two people in our group so didn't have to wait to go on each line. We had 3 guides with us who were funny and friendly. The zip line was so much fun!! I was a little nervous at first, but it was so cool to fly through the air! We got to try some tricks on the zip line like superman and upside down!! It was a great experience, and I would definitely do it again.

After the zip line, we came back to the city and strolled down to the lake, did some shopping, climbed a church bell tower, and relaxed at a cafe. Our next activity was a boat tour through hundreds of islands around a peninsula on the shore of lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America. It was formed from Volcanic activity and at some time was a part of the Ocean. This is the only lake in the world that has fresh-water sharks!! Historians believe that the sharks were trapped in the lake because of the volcano's. There are not as many there anymore, because thousands were killed by the government during the Samosa Dynasty. Our tour guide was very funny and he had information on the history of the lake, city and on the birds in the area. We had another group of people on the boat tour with us and one of them was filming the whole time. They were a part of some promotional or tour program. At the end they asked Erin and me if we liked Nicaragua and the boat tour. They gave us their blog, so we have to check and see if we made it on the video!!

Right after the boat tour, we went right to the bus stop and caught a bus and then a taxi back home. It was a great relaxing weekend for both of us. Now that I know how to get around, I will be anxious to visit other places in Nicaragua with a travel buddy.