Road trip.... Nicaragua

Traveling by bus and walking across borders in Central America is always "an experience" and this time was no exception.  After a slow drive to Liberia, through road construction and student protests, we  left our rental car and caught a bus to the Nicaragua border.  We had been forewarned about the gauntlet of hustlers at this crossing and the warnings were justified.  " No" was a word they don,t seem to know and they totally ignored the admonition of the officials.  After a bit of frustration and a tolerable amount of loss, we finally got on a taxi to Granada.

Granada was a very pretty colonial style town.  It reminded us a bit of Cartagena, Columbia, without the glitzy shopping.  We stayed in a small boutique hotel in a restored building.  The rooms were a bit tired but the food was good and the staff  could not have been  nicer.  On an excellent walking/carriage ride tour of the city we learned that Granada claims to be the longest continually inhabited city in the Americas.  That is quite a feat considering the town was burned to the ground seven times.

We saw how the very wealthy live on a panga tour of the mansions on Lake Nicaragua.  There is definitely a disparity of wealth in Nicaragua.  We hired a driver who took us to see the closest active volcano.  We were warned not to stay at the crater for more than five minutes due to the toxic gases.  Oddly a certain type of bird has developed an immunity to the gas and make their homes inside the crater.  Our driver also took us to a  large artisan market and a town specializing in handmade pottery.   Although we were only there few days we felt like we got a good sense of at least this part of Nicaragua. 

The road trip continues  as we brave a bus back to Costa Rica, super excited about a visit with friends from home.  Back to Liberia, Costa Rica.