McBerkoBlog

 A full 3 months after we returned, I finally put a bunch of our photos and video clips together into a single longer video to remember our trip. Fitting that today is just before Thanksgiving, since seeing this all together makes me grateful we were able to go and experience the culture, sights, kind people, and delicious food in Nicaragua. The video doesn't quite get across either how hot and sweaty we were on a daily basis, or how relaxing it was to read in the hammocks and float in the pool each day. For all the activities we had over the month, this trip overall was calm and restful more than anything else. Thanks for the great time, Granada! Summary of activities: Las Isletas Boat Tour Masaya Volcano Sunset Lava Tour Mombacho Volcano Hike Day Trip to Lake Apoyo Volunteering at English School Spanish Classes Pool party with our Spanish teacher and her family Running of the Bulls La Hipica Horse Festival Celebrating my birthday and Zadie's Visiting churches and climbing bel

We were fortunate to be visiting Nicaragua in August, when there's a weeklong festival with many events. Officially, it's a celebration of the patron saint of Granada, the Virgin of the Assumption, though not attending church, we didn't see much of the religious side of the festival. From our perch at the top of the main restaurant and bar street, it was a time for lots of outdoor concerts and beer company sponsorships. Toña set up huge displays like this in several places on the pedestrianized street and around the entrance to bars and restaurants that serve their beer, which is basically everywhere since it's the Bud Light of Nicaragua: Immediately outside our front door Two of the especially fun events during this week were La Hipica, a horse parade, and El Tope de Toros, the running of the bulls. During La Hipica, people decorate their horses with fancy braids, saddles, and ropes and parade them through town. The parade was a lot more informal than we're used to

We did several popular tours while in Granada, including: Boat tour of Las Isletas Sunset lava tour of Masaya Volcano Hiking on the inactive Volcano Mombacho Day trip to Lago Apoyo with swimming & kayaking $ Note: Tour companies typically accept cash only. The only ones we found that would take cards were online tour aggregators like Viator or GetYourGuide, which charged a LOT more than local companies directly. The Selina chain hostel and coworking space also sells tours and would accept credit, but their tours were marked up too. Tour companies quote in USD, but you can pay in Nica cordobas if you'd prefer. (We learned the hard way that it was much cheaper for us to get cordobas from the ATMs here than USD.)  Las Isletas Lake Cocibolca (aka Lake Nicaragua) is the largest lake in Central America and the only lake in the world to have freshwater sharks (!!). There are hundreds of small islands right off the shore formed by volcanic eruption from nearby Mombacho. Boat tours arou