A Little Retail Therapy.....

Central Square Granada
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We have officially settled into Granada and are loving it, minus the hot dry heat that leaves us exhausted by 2pm everyday. Everyday we keep getting up earlier and earlier because the city seems to function best in the mornings. Love our morning breakfasts of warm croissants baked fresh that morning and the 20 cent fruit we buy from the street vendors. The food continues to be amazing and I won't be surprised if I can't fit into any of my clothes when I get home. Vacations are definitely not good for the waistline, especially with the cheap beer and water retention from the heat.

The Spanish Influence
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We finally braved the heat and sun and ventured out to see the city. The city is amazing, unlike anything else we have seen in Nicaragua. Very colonial in style and the buildings have so much character. All the door ways to every building are at least 10 ft tall, are arched and made of solid wood. The buildings are all made of cement and marble that mostly is starting to crumble but which only adds charisma. Love checking out the city streets and peaking into homes that would probably cost milions in Canada. We walked around the city square both during the day and at night and the differences between the two are outstanding. During the night the sqaure is serene, calm, almost mystical but at day break it becomes full of people, is loud, obnoxious and home to rotting/living dogs and old women and children begging for food or money. It's sad to see how things really are. The garbage on the streets is unreal, and you have to watch so you don't get hit by dirty water as the street vendors toss it on the street. It's bizarre really because the city is a combination of old and new. You see expensive automobiles mixed with horse drawn carriages on the one way streets. I feel sorry for the horses who look like they have seen better days, who's ribs you can count and who are forced to where bithday ribbons on their bodies and hair.

Count The Ribs
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We toured the cities most popular Catholic church today and were pretty much speechless when we left. We started by climbing 5 flights of winding staircases to the top of the bell tower where we were able to view the whole city, Monbache volcano and surrounding lake. The staircase was difficult as me and Jackie had to climb single file and even that was difficult in a space that seemed to breed claustrophobia. Once in the church words can't begin to describe how beautiful it was. We have never been in a church that was surrounded by stainglass windows depicting biblical times and where the statues were more lifelike than we felt comforatble with. Their was even a coffin that was home to Jesus and would have been beautiful except for the wig they palced on him that had ringlets and made him look more like a little girl. Was it sacriligious for us to have been disturbed by this......

The Catholic Church
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We also took in the famous Masaya market and were able to get most of our souvenir shopping done. It was so overwhelming. We weren't prepared for how busy it was or for the stench of burning garbage and rotting meat in the air. It was disturbing to watch the chickens prior to being slaughtered, and to watch the locals buying chicken that was rooting in the sun. All the baking was left open in the air and the women had wands that they used to chase the flies away. Not my idea of a good meal.  We had to take a big yellow bus half an hour out of the city to  get to the market and were more than glad to get back to the city a lot more dishevelled than from when we left.

Climbing and Climbing
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We are starting to adjust to the little things that make Granada, Granada. It doesn't even phase us to go to the bank that has security guards with automatic machine guns out front, or for the constant sound pollution of blaring music, honking horns, church bells and fire crackers. You kinda get used to it after awhile and learn to tune it out.

Anyways, plan on heading out of the city tomorrow to swim in a near by laggon, soak up the sun and to try our hand at kayaking. Should be interesting to say the least.