After the bus dropped me off at Parque Colon in Nicaragua, I headed down the street towards Lake Nicaragua. Aside from the streets in the general area of the market, they are mostly pretty quiet.
This was my first sighting of Lake Nicaragua. It is massive. Looking straight across, you can barely tell that there's another side. Unfortunately, it is so polluted that nobody can swim in it. But that also has a plus side, because the beach is void of tourists.
This is just one such example of all the stray animals in Nicaragua. There are tons of stray dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, goats, and even a couple horses. I saw a car come speeding down this road shortly after, and swerve around the horse as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
This is Iglesia la Merced, one of many old, old churches to be seen. This was a half a block from my hotel.
Granada has a beautiful cemetery with elaborate graves, tombs, and mausoleums. It was a great place to spend a few hours looking at old graves.
Looking through the elaborate graves of Granada's cemetery, it would seem that these people have better homes in death than in life.
My hike to Laguna de Apoyo was supposed to be a "leisurely 2 hour stroll" according to my guidebook. When you factor in intense heat, a washed out road, and no iPod, it suddenly feels much longer.
Seriously, it was a long hike. After passing all the shacks made of scrap wood and aluminum siding, I was out in the middle of nowhere. It was just me and the occasional cow in these regions of Granada's countryside.
Finally, I made it to Laguna de Apoyo, a crater lake made from nearby Volcan Mombacho's eruption many years ago. I swam here with a friendly Belgian couple for a few hours before they gave me a ride back to town.
One day I woke up and decided I wanted to take the tour of the "Isletas," a group of 365 islands (also from a Mombacho eruption) that is a few miles outside Granada. When my taxi dropped me off at the dock, I was the only one there. Luckily there was one "lanchuro," Pedro, waiting for a customer. We hopped on a boat and wandered throughout these many islands.
The islands were inhabited by either rich gringos (tiene mucha plata) with extravagant bungalows or poor locals with tiny shacks.
The Isletas boast great views of Mombacho.
In Parque Colon of Granad, they had a giant Christmas tree (and a Nica Santa). It's always strange to see Christmas celebrated in tropical regions. I'm from Seattle, and we're used to rain or the occasional snow on Christmas.
Sitting outside of Convento San Francisco, I watched the sun set over Granada. 'Twas a beautiful evening.
On my last day in Granada, I decided to hike Mombacho. To complement my Mombacho pics from the Isletas, I snapped a Isletas picture from Mombacho.
Surprisingly, the parks department in Nicaragua takes great care to create comfortable hiking trails. Mombacho's trails were well-marked, clear, and had various plaques and signs pointing out plant and wildlife habitats.
Mombacho has two peaks. The higher one is more technical, requires guides, and took more time than I had allotted. There's always next time.
Mombacho also has a view of Granada. I knew it was a small town, but this really put that into perspective.
After Granada, I headed to Leon. My first day there, I checked out the Cathedral of Leon. This was the biggest, most extravagant church I saw for the duration of my trip. There is a rumor that this church was supposed to have been built in Lima, Peru, but the blueprints got mixed up.
That's one heck of a pulpit. My pastor preaches from a little podium made of metal and plastic.
Cathedral of Leon is enormous. Long halls, high ceilings, and many, many rows of pews. On the columns to the right and left are statues of the 12 apostles (minus Judas, that bastard).
Outside of Cathedral of Leon is the market street. They had many goods, many foods, and many copyright-infringements.
Leon is a very liberal, progressive, artistic town. There are very few bare walls. This is one of the many murals, sporting an anti-CIA message. You can see Sandino up in the top-right corner.
In another of Leon's many churches, there were these two famous statues. They are the two men that were crucified alongside Jesus. This is El Buen Ladron (the good thief)...
...and this is El Mal Ladron (the bad theif).
This is a picture that shows the prominence of the churches in Nicaragua. There were no sky-scrapers, no high-rises, and not even any buildings above four or five floors. The tallest buildings in any town were always the churches. In the distance is Cathedral of Leon.After I left Leon, I stopped for a night in Masaya to buy souvenirs, spent a night in Managua, and then left on an early flight back home.
