Granada

Some of you may remember that I traveled to Nicaragua in January to renew my visa.  It was a strange trip - full of wind storms and not much else.  I recently returned to accompany a friend to renew her visa, and had a wonderfully different experience.  This time, I headed to Granada, which can be found on the northern coast of Lake Nicaragua.  (It's the oldest continuously inhabited city in Latin America, for all you trivia buffs.)

I fell in love with Granada immediately.  Where cities in Costa Rica are relatively organized, Granada is riotous, dirty, and thrilling. It immediately reminded me of Peru. I hadn't before realized how much I missed that chaotic river of people feeling until we were wading through the market, surrounded on all sides by people, animals, and wares.  Women called out about their food or merely waved a banana leaf above their loaves of bread.  Men resoled shoes or hawked the latest cell phone charger.  Kids sifted through knees, market bags, horse legs, and stalls, creating their own small river beneath the larger one. 

The other side of Granada´s charm lies in something very different.  As I mentioned above, it´s an extremely old city, and proud of the fact.  The buildings around the main square in Granada are beautifully restored to bright colonial architecture - crisp white plaster details surrounding warm yellow walls, wooden balconies slowly disappearing under determined vines.

The rest of the city shows a more realistic echo of the city´s age in faded homes and occasional details that reminded me of the decadent beauty of New Orleans.  The contrast between the two, though, is what made the city most interesting to me.  I am a person that tends to like contrasts.  Salty with sweet.  Challenging but fun.  New but old.  Granada fed just that part of me.

I found Nicaraguans to be a kind, polite group of people.  They often went out of their way to be helpful to me, patiently waiting as I made a decision or searched for the right word as I spoke.  Here in Costa Rica, there is some cultural tension between "Nicas" and "Ticos," but I am happy to report that stereotypes are just that.  I am already planning to return to Granada during my upcoming travels, and can´t wait to see more parts of Nicaragua as well.