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Granada: Exceeding Expectations!

One theme that keeps repeating itself in Granada:  Everything exceeds expectations:  the food, the landscape, the people, the architecture, the variety of activities.

We found a gym/spa just a block away called Pure, owned by a great young American couple–Warren and April.  So we did yoga tonight with Warren and it was awesome! Why don’t I do yoga every day??!! So good for body and soul!

Afterward we were walking to dinner and when we passed the Church San Francisco.  A big concert was going on in front of the church–Wow!  Incredible singers and musicians from here and neighboring countries.We stopped and the music was sooooo romantic and great!   There’s a full moon out did I mention?

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Then after the concert, we walked a few blocks to the street to our recommended restaurant.  As we walked down the street, it was the most charming scene!  It was a promenade lined with trees and lanterns hanging from the trees and some really grand colonial buildings mixed with hole-in-the-wall restaurants, but all so charming!

What the h*** are we doing in Nicaragua? Day One

We arrived in Nicaragua last night at 11:00. On our flight from Houston, we sat by Pastor Bob from Wichita. He was with a group going down to do volunteer work in a remote Nicaraguan village. Super guy!! Great energy and easy to talk to. He is pastor of a Disciples of Christ congregation. They take a very pragmatic and non-dogmatic approach to Christianity. There’s a fair amount of philosophical diversity in their church, but united around a few core principles and a focus on applying Christian principles in their lives. He knew surprisingly little about Mormonism, so we talked quite a bit about it and our experience.

Old Hospital--damaged by earthquake. Soon to be restored
We arrived in Granada at this nice little boutique Hotel called Casa de San Francisco.   They serve a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit and freshly squeezed oj and a Nica breakfast of eggs, rice and beans and petite pieces of wheat bread.
The townspeople are so sweet (except for the one that stole my bag this morning). Landscaping is easy here:  just don’t put a roof on and vegetation will take over and it will look like the garden of Eden in no time!
View from Iglesia Merced bell tower

View from Iglesia Merced bell tower

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We took a horse-drawn buggy ride around the town to get the lay of the land.    A son and his father (the old) took us and gave us a history of the city.  The first church was built in 1529 – Iglesia de San Francisco–right next to our hotel.  Anyway, one church has a bell tower that the driver said we could climb and view the whole city. I grabbed my bag to leave and he said “Oh no, just leave it, my dad will watch it”.    The spiral stairway to the top was sooooo narrow—20″ stair treads.  The view was incredible!  A volcano on one turn, Lake Nicaragua on the next.  Beautiful (insert Annabelle’s voice!).       Well….upon returning to the carriage—my bag was gone and so was The Old.  The son went looking at him and he returned with his father looking distraught, while hand gesturing quite a bit.  Long story short:  the old “Abe’d” it and someone stole my bag!   I felt so bad for the old man.  The son was sooooo mad at him!  He was yelling about commissions and money.   My bag didn’t have any REALLY valuable stuff—lip glosses, sunglass cases, ibuprofen, etc.   They didn’t speak much English except what the son had memorized for the tour and the Dad didn’t speak any English,   so I hugged the Dad and told him not to think a thing about it and that it wasn’t valuable. Man he hurt my nins!  A good CHEAP lesson!

We ate lunch at a fantastic place!  A couple from Toronto own the restaurant (El Garaje)  and grow their own produce outside of town.  It was so fresh and unique!

We went to an amazing restaurant for dinner–the Garden Cafe.  It had these amazing fresh fruit smoothies ($2) and great food!

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