GRANADA, NICARAGUA

We are so fortunate to be able to travel to Nicaragua for the holidays and just finished a quick two-day visit to Granada, a beautiful colonial gem just 45 minutes from the Managua airport.  We will be celebrating Christmas in Nicaragua with our family at Playa Iguana (AKA Playa Colorado), for a weeklong stay at the beach, and for us, a trip to Granada proved to be the perfect start to our vacation.  The city itself boasts several colonial churches and buildings, and many of Granada's structures are brilliantly colored.  We found the Nicaraguan people (Nicas) to be incredibly friendly and hospitable, which made the visit particularly enjoyable.

Our first morning was spent visiting a newer local non-profit organization, Education Plus Nicaragua (www.eduplusnicaragua.org), which provides educational services to children in Pantanal, an area on the outskirts of Granada where some of the poorest people in Nicaragua live.  Bringing school supplies, visiting the school and Pantanal neighborhood, and seeing the kids and families at the new school facility, Casa de Los Sueños, was both an educational and enlightening experience.

Other activities in Granada included admiring the the numerous churches, zip lining near the Mombacho Volcano (still active but dormant), climbing the tower of Iglesia la Merced for a great view of the city, visiting the Mercado Municipal, loading up on fireworks for our family Christmas celebration at the beach, taking a spectacular boat trip through the Isletas of Lake Nicaragua, and of course, just strolling through Granada and observing the Nica way of life.

Parque Central in Granada, with La Catedral being its focal point  

A man pedals through Parque Central selling fruits

One of the main streets of Granada, with La Catedral in the background.

Many Nicaraguans in Granada use bicycles and carts as their main form of transportation.  In fact, it is not uncommon to see 2 or 3 people at a time on one bicycle, navigating the streets while loaded up with multiple baskets of goods.  

Granada's Mercado Municipal is sprawling and bustling, and fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, cooked foods, clothing and household goods are all sold here.

The Mercado Municipal opens up early each morning and women line up to sell brightly colored fruits and vegetables.

It's so fun to stroll through the market and admire the many beautiful colors and interesting items sold here.  This is a giant vat of chills, onions, and carrots all mixed together to make a spicy side condiment to Nicaraguan dishes.  

Education Plus Nicaragua is a newer non-profit organization that provides educational services to the children in the Pantanal area of Granada.  The school's primary goals are to address children's needs in the areas of education, health, nutrition, and personal growth and development.  In addition to supplemental academic classes, the school provides each child with a daily snack and almuerzo (lunch), which for many of these children, may be the only nutritional meal they receive each day.  The school initially started about 3 years ago with just over 20 children being taught in a local neighborhood home.  The new facility named Casa del los Sueños (seen in this picture), now serves over 125 students from pre-school to high school.  Education Plus Nicaragua collaborates with several other non-profit organizations in order to provide the many services to the students.  On the day we visited, the school organized a clothing lottery (clothes were donated by another non-profit organization), and each child who participated was able to choose a few pieces of new clothing.  The families clearly showed a great sense of pride in the school and were very excited to receive their new clothing items!

We made a donation to Education Plus Nicaragua and with the help of the Director, were able to purchase some needed school and art supplies which we brought to the school for our visit.  Education Plus Nicaragua serves some of the poorest children and families in all of Nicaragua, and during our visit, we were given a tour of the Pantanal neighborhood, which is shown in the picture above.    

Many people who live in the Pantanal area are squatters.  While a few homes are made of concrete blocks or wood, most are constructed with sheets of corrugated metal, and some with plastic bags.  Most homes have dirt floors, little and unreliable electricity (if any), and the primary source of water is through a spigot outside of the house.  The far majority of families use a latrine.  In fact, during our tour we were told that most of the children in the program were astonished and somewhat baffled by the "flush toilet" at the new school, Casa de los Sueños, as this was the first time they had ever seen such a thing.  Nonetheless, despite living in extreme poverty and challenging conditions, the children seemed happy and joyful, were clean and well-dressed, and the Nicaraguan families in this area were very friendly and showed a strong sense of pride in having their children going to school.  

Matt goes zip lining through the forest.  We even got to see a family of howler monkeys along the way!

Monica decides to go "Superman style"!

Many Nicaraguans in Granada are seen walking through town carrying large baskets, bowls, and other items on their heads.  I love the juxtaposition of this women carrying her fruits to be sold on her head while texting on her cel. phone at the same time.

Granada's brilliantly colored buildings 

A view of Granada from the top of Iglesia La Merced, with Lake Nicaragua in the background

It's the Christmas season and fireworks are abundant at this time of year in Latin America, with Nicaragua being no exception.  We all had a great time visiting a local fireworks market in Granada and picking out a plethora of fuegos artificiales to bring with us to the beach for our Christmas celebration with our family.  So much fun!

The eruption of Volcan Mombacho over 70,000 years ago created a chain of 354 islands called Las Isletas in Lake Nicaragua.  During our stay in Granada, we took a boat tour and got a glimpse of the many Isletas covered in lush vegetation.  Some if the islands (such as the one seen above) are privately owned by wealthy Nicaraguans or foreigners who build second homes on them.  

Beautiful late afternoon view of Volcan Mombacho, seen during our tour of Las Isletas

Fishing is the main source of income for many Nicaraguans who live on the Isletas, and fisherman such as these use nets to catch guapote (a type of bass) and mojarra (a type of perch). 

Our tour to Las Isletas included a visit to Monkey Island.  Visitors often feed the monkeys bananas and other sweet fruits, and monkeys willingly come up close to receive their treats.  We were able to get some pretty incredible close up shots.  This is a spider monkey.

White-faced Capuchin Monkey

Monica and Matt feed bananas to the monkeys!

A mother spider monkey and her precious baby

Monica feeds a spider monkey.

Monica and Matt on our trip through the Isletas during a beautiful sunset, with Volcan Mombacho in the background.  A nice way to end a fun trip to Granada!