Nicaraguan Grandeur - and some things less than grand by Zipline

In the land of lakes and volcanoes we saw:

1. Lake Nicaragua

2. Isla Omtepe (formed by Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas)

3. Cerro Negro (the smallest and youngest volcano in the country - this is where we went volcano boarding).

4. Volcan Masaya (hot lava bubbling in the caldera at night).

5. Laguna Apoyo - a crater lake that is heated to nearly hot tub temperatures by sub surface volcanic steam vents.

In addition to the natural beauty, Nicaragua has a couple of cities (maybe more) with great murals, historic churches, and colonial architecture.

Here are some photos of Granada and Leon, Nicaragua:

Leon Cathedral

Granada Cathedral

La Merced church Granada

Setting of a Lavish Wedding
Flor de Cana rum family

Leon Murals - Kind of feels like Cuba

Yummy Pupusas in Leon

Mural in Omtepe

Less grand were our accomodations and transportation options in Granada.  Booking.com had severed their relationship with our host.  We showed up after several hours of travelling on a chicken bus to find that our guest cottage had been rented to someone else.  Further, although the cottage was only 2.7km from the city, the last 500m of road was nearly impassible - not a good first impression. 

In the end, our hosts at Emma's guest cottage did their utmost to accomodate us, and we made it work, but it was a challenge. We ended up staying in a tasteful furnished but very small cottage that had only one double bed and only 2 chairs at a breakfast nook.  Two of us slept on a bed and two of us slept on a queen sized inflatable air bed in the kitchen.  

Taxis were willing to bring us from Granada to the cottage but they never seemed to show up when our host phoned them and thus we were reliant on the host family to take us in to town.  

There was construction of another cottage on the same property located approximately 3 feet from our cottage and we were literally stepping over sand and pipes and dirt to get to our front step.  Construction began promptly at 7 AM.  Our cottage had no curtains. 

In spite of this, we chose to stay because of the (quirky) kindness of the host family.  Their children - Emma and Mae - were 7 and 9, and since they were on vacation, our kids played together.  They enjoyed swimming, jumping on the trampoline, and playing with the pet guinea pig and parakeet.