Sue's Textile Art: Granada

Later on the journey to Granada we pulled off the Pan American Highway and headed up the mountain to a place called Vista de Angeles. From a vantage point you can see the side of the very active volcano. People here are all trying to sell their properties, because there was a very recent eruption in 2015 and the next eruption is predicted to be catastrophic.
The view was magnificent, overlooking the first national park of Nicaragua and looking over towards the volcanic lava flow on the side of the volcano and then into the sunken caldera below where recent lava is still visible.
Our hotel in Granada is Hotel Colon. It is situated right in the central plaza of Granada looking directly towards the Cathedral. The plaza is full of life with horse-drawn carriages, street venders and small cafes.
We stolled around the city in the late afternoon looking for somewhere to eat and decided upon Wok and Roll (we think it should be called Wok and Woll!). This is a roof top restaurant facing the volcano Mombatombo. But unfortunately we couldn't see the red hot lava pouring out of the crater. Not a particularly good choice of restaurants, tasy enough, but not enough veggies, which is why we went there in the first place. The local plantain chips bought from a street vendor for about .30 cents are delicious.
At eight o'clock the next day we were collected by Alex our guide for a walk around Granada city.

Granada is a beautiful city, very old and building are predominantly made from adobe bricks, covered in stucc and painted in typical Spanish colours.

Our tour guide lead us to an arts centre bought and paid for by an ex-Danish resident, who set up this charitable organisation to ensure that everyone could have a chance to practice their culture through art, music, theatre, dance and poetry. Lessons are available free of charge in the aftenoons, for any interested children, who can take advantage of exellent tutoring and mentoring from renown Nigaraguan artists. The arts centre was an inspirational place to visit with practising artists painting, drawing and printing whilst we were there and who were able to explain the various techniques that they were using.

A visit to the central gallery filled in some of the missing history of Nicaragua not given to us by our previous guide in Leon. Here we were able to see the very strong Aztec influence from Mexico with totems brough to this place from the biggest island in Lake Nicaragua. Archeology seems to have stopped in Nicaragua for the time being. The envisaged Chinese venture to built another "Panama" canal in Nicaragua, will go through at least 1500 expected archeslogical sites of significance. All work on this project seems to have stopped for the time being. Whether the sites are the reason or lack of funds we can't find out.

The cemetary of Granda was extraordinary. Great emphasis is placed on the monuments and crypts that you leave for the dead. Plots here are more valuable that large blocks in the centre of town with a full house on it!

A funeral went passed us on the way to the cemetary as we left. Both rich and poor pay for an elaborate funeral procession with lavish flowers and horse drawn hearse.

After walking the streets of Granada, sometimes in tropical downpours of rain, the weather as is typical if this area, cleared up for a sunny afternoon. We drove down to Lake Nicaragua for a trip on a boat around the hundreds of small islands. Local Nicaraguan families are now selling these islands to foreign investors who built small boutique hotels or holiday homes on them. One island we passed - very small was for sale for USD$50,000.

After a short cool down in our air conditioned room, we ventured out again to a private museum containing a history of archeology in Nicaragua and a gallery of ceramics. This was really interesting and contained an extraordinarily wide range of pre-Columbian ceramics.

Then we went to the chocolate museum. A group of twenty or so women were there who came from Missouri, USA. They were having a wonderful "girls" only holiday in Central America.

Not far from the central plaza is a street that can only be used by pedestrians. It is here where most of the restauants are. We chose to have dinner in a bar/restaurant down near the end of this street. Here we met a young boy of 10 who had aspergers. His family were really wonderful with him. When we greeted him, they insisted that he respond and come to introduce himself. His mum apologised for him, but there was no need, he was a great young man! Dinner was a steak with jalepeno salsa - delicious!