Nicaragua - Granada

Nicaragua - Granada

Granada is so much nicer than Leon! It's bright, clean, colorful. I went to the Smile Cafe with Martina, Diana, Clara, luming, and Carone. Smile cafe hires deaf people so you point to the menu item you want. They also employ other people with disabilities to weave hammocks, bags, etc.

Hammocks made at Smile Cafe

best bathroom ever!!  all four walls were covered in TP!!

We booked our tour to see lava on the volcano and Martina worked her magic to get us a good deal. Martina is an excellent bargain shopper and an amazing packer - she has one small bag for months of travel.  I went walking around town and down to the lake - it is so gorgeous here. I found Brayden and talked to him while he waited for his island tour and I ate chocolate :)

I went back to the hotel to rest- it is HOT. Dan messaged and was having a bad day - broke his sunglasses, bent his credit card, and cut himself. so I went to commiserate with him and shared his banana split.  This is not a health vacation! He had gotten a day pass at the Mansion Chocolate Museum so he got to use the very nice pool and get a massage (by a blind person). The pool looked amazing and I considered going the next day.  I need to learn to take advantage of these things. 

We are at hotel El Club and it is decent. I rested for a bit then Martina, Luming, Carone, Brayden, Sage, Daniel and I went to see lava on volcano Masaya. We drove for about 1/2 an hour before we got stuck in a line of cars for the lava. When we were close enough to the museum, we got out to walk to it and waited for the van to scoot in traffic to pick us up. It took us to the crater and we could see smoke and lava!  It was so cool!  but my lupus lungs affected my evening.  I have gotten a cold and these things hang around in my lung much longer than other people.  The ash was thick and filtered into my throat and caused massive coughing fits- I could not get air. After about 15 min it calmed down some. It would get worse if I talked but eventually I felt better. It totally reminded me of my pneumonia days where I would cough so hard that I would vomit or hurt my ribs.

In the morning I went to the chocolate museum to have a buffet breakfast. Carone and Luming were there so we chatted. I was going to go back to my room, finish packing and go to the 11 am chocolate tour since we had to be out of our rooms by 11 anyway. I ran into Martina and we decided to go to the grocery store instead. It was on a crazy street way different than the rest of Granada. It felt like Mumbai! Loud, crowded, crazy.

I ended up going to lunch with Sage and Daniel at the taco place we went to last night and I got another quesadilla. We thought we headed back early enough for me to get the front seat on the bus, but it was already there! For the first two weeks I always sat in the front seat and James and Ryan sat behind me. Then all of a sudden this guy kept taking it if I wasn't there first. There were bags in all the seats up to the fifth and I was bummed, but found out James and Ryan had put a bag in the second seat for me - yea for friends!

We drove about an hour and a half then got on a ferry for an hour and a half to Isla Ometepe. The ferry was big and didn't rock too much. I sat behind Clara and Martina and talked to them during the ride. We haven't been getting to know the new people as much as I'd like because many of them are only traveling for 2 weeks so they are cramming in as many activities as they can so they aren't laying around during the day to chat with.

Diane and Luming

sage and brayden

James rocking a life jacket

Martina and I 

We got picked up from the ferry, went to the grocery store, then to our "resort" we had dinner together. It wasn't great but I had a lot of fun at our end of the table with Ryan, Daniel, Sage, and James.

Mario, Brayden, Clara, Martina, Luming, Carone, Tom on the truck

Christmas trees

made of fabric in Smile Cafe