Granada: Shopping for Hammocks and Pottery

Colonial buildings in the evening
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Granada is a 15th century colonial town full of colorful old buildings, mango trees and stinking hot weather. Luckily we managed to find a nice hostel called the Oasis with a pool and plenty of fans to help us escape the heat. The only downside of this hostel were the rooms which were absolutely tiny and had fans that really did nothing! Anyway despite the heat we set out to explore as much of Granada as we could stand.

Our first day we spent just wandering around the town admiring the colonial architecture. It was interesting seeing these very grand buildings falling into disrepair. We also felt the difference in the local people compared to the locals of Costa Rica and Panama. Here they hound you a lot more, we would be sitting in a restaurant and local children come up to you wanting you to buy trinkets and things and put on really sad faces and don't really leave you alone unless you buy something. The people of Nicaragua are really poor and you can always tell how poor a country by how persistant the beggars are and how often the people try to scam you. It's hard to know whether you should give these people a little something or if by doing that you encourage them to hassle more tourists.

Granada is a 15th century colonial town full of colorful old buildings, mango trees and stinking hot weather.

Amazing hammocks in Masaya market
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Our second day in Granada we decided to do a day trip to the town of Masaya to buy some locally crafted hammocks and perhaps also visit the town of San Juan del Oriente which is renowned for its pottery in an area called Los Pueblos Blancos (The White towns). We caught a local bus to get into Masaya and then set off to find the workshops where the cotton hammocks are made. There is a map which you can get which lists all the local workshops in the area but unfortunately the tourist office had all run out so we just settled with taking a photo of the map they had. We ended up looking at three little workshops where they made the cotton hammocks but ended up getting 2 at the first place we looked at for a 5th of what you would pay for something similar but not as nice at home!

Pottery in San Juan del Oriente
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After hammock town we set off to the town where they make the really nice pottery. Apparently the pottery is made by local women with mud found in the area, which is fired and then painted with natural dyes with sticks and paintbrushes made from old biros with childrens' hair in it! We were extremely hot and bothered by the time we got to the pottery town so we just bought a couple of things from one shop.

After this we caught a little tuk tuk (motorbike with a carriage behind it) to the viewpoint in Catalina overlooking a lake filled volcanoe crator which was nice until it started raining! So we got back on the tuk tuk to try and catch a bus back to Granada. We ended up waiting for about an hour inside a friendly old lady's cantina.  She helpfully screeched "Granada! Granada!" to us everytime a bus went past, no matter that it was headed in the opposite direction to Granada! Finally a bus that actually went to Granada came by, but she said nothing as we got on and waved goodbye.