Sybaritism

Sybaritism is a love of luxury and delight. This is the word that best sums up my first week in Granada. The week can be divided into sections by pleasures, infiltrated with snapshots of daily life in the city.

Exploring the City

There is a rich colonial heritage, seen in the architecture and layout. Granada is commonly nicknamed the "Gran Sultana del Gran Lago" - the Great Sultan of the Great Lake.

Guadalupe, the most desired place to be wedd in Granada

Calle Calzado, the hub of touristy Granada

Main Cathedral

Oasis Hostel, my home during stay in Granada (blue building)

Irina gets to know the city centre

Favourite building near our hostal

Calle Atravesada, where all the Disney takes place

Central Market with Mombacho volcano behind

The streets of Granada are a chaotic hive of activity. People rise at 4/5am (sensible given the heat from 8am onwards). There are skinny, overworked and sickly horses everywhere, and an equal number of people and dogs in a similar state. There are children and elderly sleeping rough. The dogs are uneducated and many snap or snarl. The men are equally uneducated and many appear to have no respect for women, especially not us of the paler, taller variety. Their comments and actions put me into a state of rage most days - I find these Nica men to be the most intolerable I have come across in the continent of Latin America. From children to wrinkled specimens (minus some more polite exceptions), they shout, grab, leer and sleaze all over us. When Irina and I later come into possession of bikes, they throw eggs and bottles at us in an attempt to get us off our bikes (God only knows what their purpose would be - a girl in our dorm room is attacked one morning at 8am while jogging along the lakefront). It is the men of Granada and the cruelty to humans and animals alike that make me want to leave this city as soon as possible...and if it was not for this sailing course I would have left already! People are extremely poor (the average wage being less that 4 dollars per day), and I entirely sympathise with their misfortunes and will support any cause that aims to pull these people our of poverty. However, cruelty and bad manners are things that I cannot tolerate. On our bikes, dogs snap at our heels and we learn that the only way to prevent getting bitten (and the last thing one wants is to get bitten by one of these diseased dogs) is to pick up a large rock and pretend to throw it at the dog in "the only language they understand".

Health

We find Pure, a natural health and fitness centre who offer a variety of classes including yoga and pilates. Getting good value for money, we attend a minimum of one class per day! The staff are lovely and our yoga teacher is fantastic. I particularly like the morning that she asked us to move our body as if we were a spoon scooping out the dregs of the peanut butter jar. I'll let you use your imagination!

Pure Health Centre

There is an African Desert Tortoise living at the centre, named Snoopy (he knows his name!). In the morning at dawn, the ducks in the garden shout good-morning to us while we practice our Downward Dog! At the end of the week I indulge in two hours of absolute indulgence consisting of reflexology, acupuncture and a full body massage. At about a quarter of the price I might pay at home I cannot resist. I feel I am walking on air for the remainder of the day.

Dancing Salsa

On a tiled terrace overlooking the central plaza and cathedral, we have a private salsa in the evenings. We are slowly getting better and now know the basics! Adam has managed to injure Irina by stamping on her toes, kicking her shin and yanking her arm out of socket. Given that Irina is accident-prone and Adam is accident-provoking, the result is not too unexpected. In Cafe Nuit there is a live band every night, here we practice our new steps along side locals and gringos alike. I bump into a boy from Sligo, the only other Irish backpacker I have met in Central America. He gives me a big friendly Irish hug!

Irina & our fantastic teacher show us the moves

Practising El Tercer Paso!

What a location to learn salsa!

My dance partner for the evening & myself cannot stop laughing (mainly about how long my arms are compared to his!)

Irina + Adam = Accident

Aah that´s how it goes....

Happy ladies after a night of dancing at Cafe Nuit
Irina taking part in salsa lesson at the beautiful Hotel Con Corazon
Elaine needs to find a taller dance partner.....(no chance in Nicaragua)
Our fan club, Hotel Con Corazon

Watersports

Laguna de Apoyo is 48-square kilometer laguna set in the crater of the Apoyo volcano (situated between Granada and Masaya) and boasts the cleanest water in Nicaragua. The water is incredibly clean and turquoise in colour. We set off on a daytrip to a resort called the Crater's Edge where there are hammocks & chairs dotted around a terrace looking over the beautiful laguna. We have a peaceful day of swimming, reading and kayaking. Something happens each time Irina and I get into a canoe or a kayak, we just cannot stop giggling!

Kayaking on Laguna de Apoyo

Snoozing beside the Laguna

After the others leave, Irina and I decide spend Sunday morning sailing around Las Isletas at the Velago Nicaragua. Ferdinand Hoffer is our host and the owner of the sailing school. We meet in the morning at eight am and set out on Elizabeth, a Gruben jolly boat (17 ft). Ferdinand, an Austrian chap who has been wandering back and forth to Nicaragua for the past 10 years. following his dream of creating the first sailing school in Central America.

Las Isletas is an archipelago of 365 volcanic islands situated 3 kilometers from the centre of Granada on the Cocibolga lake (Lago Nicaragua). We are amazed by how many of the islands are inhabited (most of which are owned by rich Nicaraguans or foreigners who visit a few days per year). We have a lovely morning, learning a little about tacking, jibing and putting up the head sail. Ferdinand is good company, and is full of information about the local history and culture. After some lunch in town, we return to the centre and head off on a three-hour kayaking trip around the islands with Oscar (who was born and reared on one of the islands). We kayak through the narrow canals that divide islands and admire a fortification of XIX century, which is on San Pablo Island, and briefly stop at an island hosting a monkey-colony. At one point we consider turning back when the wind picks up and the torrential rain begins, but we push onwards and the bad weather passes quickly. We both decide that this has been one of our favourite days in Granada (and having read the above paragraphs you can see the level of enjoyment has been high). At the end of the day we chat further and discuss the possibility of extending our stay to do some more sailing and perhaps take part in a course....?

Elizabeth

The walkway

Ferdinand

Looking back over Granada

San Pablo island

Oscar, so sweet and shy!

Defense fort on San Pablo

Black clouds begin to appear, the winds pick up & the rain appears

Monkey on Monkey Island

Sit-on-top canoe

Guard-dog on one of the islands

Surely not.....

Oscar sports a t-shirt that says "Mr.Miniblind"

Does this gap in the clouds lead to heaven?

Sunset

Shopping

Irina and I take a local bus to the neighbouring city of Masaya. We arrive a peak time for the local market. The stench of rotting and shit is wretch-provoking. It certainly is an experience to walk through. Rubbish and mud stick to our flip-flops. People with warts all over their body walk by. Men with huge wooden carts laden with goods strain to pass. Everywhere there are filthy, maimed or skinless dogs and boney children. We continue on to the the Old Market which is calmer, cleaner and geared towards tourists. I buy a hammock for the garden I imagine having in the future. On the return to Granada, we pass a horse with a broken leg limping across the main highway. I feel sick at the sight.

It is sooooo hot!

Local "school buses"

Note how much taller I am than the average Nica!

Guess how many hammocks we purchased?!

Eating

The Garden Cafe is my favourite place to have lunch. On the menu there is a love story about an American and a Nicaraguan who fell in love and dreamt about opening a coffee shop inside a restored Colonial building, with a beautiful garden and terrace. This cafe is their reality and the garden inspires me to dream about having my own beautiful garden one day.

The Garden Cafe

El Tercer Ojo (the third eye) is a wonderful place to have dinner. They serve a white fish called dorado with a beautiful garlic and white wine sauce.

El Tercer Ojo (well my blog would not be my blog without eating pictures!)

"El Tercer Ojo" - The third eye

The typical breakfast in Costa Rica and Guatemala is Gallo Pinto; rice, beans, eggs and plantain. It is enormous and will fill you up until dinner time!

Gallo Pinto or "Plato Tipico"

There are fantastic smoothies all over the city for little more than a dollar. We visit a place called Nectar and order a goat´s cheese salad what we are given is a plate of cucumber and green peppers with one teeny-weeny (penny-sized) lump of cheese. Naturally we complain and the waitress shrugs her shoulders, that is how we serve it. Adam finds a hair in his curry. After much discussion with the manager, we manage to get a discount. I have had a number of instances with Nicas where I have not been happy with a service provided (mainly food related, but also when shopping and at the beauty salon). However, I have found complaining or sharing constructive crticism a fruitless exercise here resulting in verbal aggression, accusations or other kinds of emotional outbursts. So now I don´t bother, and my fingers are crossed for quality every time I pay for something.

Eskimo is the Nica brand of ice-cream and it is rather delicious. I cannot decide whether coffee-flavour is my favourite so I buy another the following day, just to be sure..

Caught in the act with an Eskimo ice-cream

It has been a very busy week, but hungry to learn how to sail, Irina and I decide to stay in Granada for three more days.