Day 2--Granada

Cathedral San Francisco

The kids were SOO excited to be in Nicaragua that they woke up early. The time change was in our favor, but that didn't stop Micah from coming in at 4am (2 am PT) and announcing that he couldn't sleep anymore. Fortunately Micah did get back to sleep and after a few more hours, we woke up to wonderful sunshine.

The first hotel we stayed at was Hotel Con Corazon in Granada. The hotel was started by a few Dutchmen as a non-profit with all the profits going back into the community to fund education--helping with books and uniforms. The hotel kind of has a youth hostel kind of feel to it but is very neat and very clean. In other words, perfect for families like us with kids. Our room was the family suite with 2 rooms and a "jack-n-jill" bathroom in between. There was a pool, hammocks and a giant chess board. Every morning they served breakfast in the courtyard. Since Granada is a Spanish Colonial city, nearly every building has a courtyard garden. This made the pool nice since the building provided some shade from the sun.

The first day we walked to the Cathedral San Francisco. Next to the church was a museum with art and some ancient artifacts. Micah read the signs to us in Spanish. I understood about every 3rd word or so and could get the general drift of what the displays were about.

We then walked to the Central Park of the city and took a horse-drawn carriage tour around the city. Granada is a Spanish Colonial city, built in 1520, making it one of the oldest cities in the Americas. One thing that is very interesting is that they still use the horse-drawn carriage as a means of transportation. This isn't something they brought in for the tourists. It has been used here continuously for hundreds of years. We'd see regular people riding to the market or work in a carriage-taxi. Horses, bikes, cars and oxen all shared the road. Our carriage-driver spoke English and took us on a tour of the sites of Granada, including some churches, Lake Nicaraua and an old fort which had protected the city from pirates.

At the Cathedral Gardens

The river Rio San Juan connects the Carribean Sea with Lake Nicaragua, on which Granada sits. Pirates would navigate the river up to the Lake and then attack Granada. Lake Nicaragua is a huge lake (think Great Lakes) and is home to the only freshwater shark in the world. Granada was a very important city before the Panama Canal was built because once boats got to Granada, then it was only 50 miles over to the Pacific via horse. During the gold rush this is how everyone got over to California from the East Coast and Europe.

After our city tour the kids were excited to swim in the pool!!

Day One of our trip to Nicaragua

playing at SeaTac while waiting for our flight

I'm going to post date these to when they actually happened, regardless as to when I actually wrote them. =)

Day one began with us waking early to make our 8:30am flight to Houston. We had a 3 hour lay-over there and then on to Managua. The Houston flight was 3hr 30min and the Managua flight was only 3 hours. It was nice to have it broken up like that. I get REAL antsy on flights now that I have a super active 2 year old. Its like claustrophobia sets in on me too. The boys overall were very good. It helped that now we had a seat for Ethan and he had a car seat. I think that made him more comfortable and he was able to sleep in it for at least part of the time.

Customs and Immigration in Managua was very easy. We had some forms to fill out and we had to pay a tax of $5 each. We were the last flight of the night so there were no lines to wait in. All the bags showed up and then we had to haul them over to our waiting van. Right away I noticed chivalrous nature of their culture. Aaron and I both had a luggage cart. An immigration official noticed me struggling and right away came over to help me with the cart. The van driver insisted on opening the doors for us. This happened over and over to us while there.

The ride from Managua to Granada took longer than expected. It is VERY dark and you never know when a cow will meander into the road. Our driver was very safe, so that meant we drove a bit slowly. We made it safe and sound to Hotel Con Corazón.

They whisked our bags away and put them in our room. We all collapsed on our beds. We had actually made it to Nicaragua!!