Laguna de -- I'm never leaving

This first day of sightseeing with the group was relaxing and fun! We woke up a bit early and went out to our hotel restaurants' porch seating for breakfast. I went for the traditional Nicaraguan food which was gallo pinto. Basically it was rice and beans with some tortilla. It was very good. Then we went on a tour of the city. We saw churches, a huge graveyard, a train station, and Lake Granada. Our tour guide was very informative and nice. In the cemetery the graves toward the front are all marble and elegant. As you go further back they smaller and more modest. The wealthy generally have the nice ones in front, and the poor in the back. Separated by class in life and death. We also learned about the fish in the lake. They have Tilapia, bass, and Bull Sharks come up the river, and into the lake. Overall the city reminded me a little of Antigua, Guatemala.

A very old church. There are so many earthquakes there that a lot of old buildings are not being restored.

This was in the middle. Not as nice as the marble ones, but better than the the ones further in.

The whole group (minus Jim) near Lake Granada

After the tour we made a stop for provisions for the day and headed to the Laguna de Apoyo. It was absolutely gorgeous! It's a lake created in the crater of an old volcano. There are a lot of these in Nicaragua. We swam in waterfall filled pools, saw bats, ate delicious chicken and re-fried beans, and went kayaking and swimming in the laguna. I had a blast and managed not to get sun burnt. We also got to try Victoria Frost, another tasty beverage.

Laguna de Apoyo

The drive to and from the laguna gave us an opportunity to see some of the country side. April is the end of the dry season so it was very brown and dry there. I had imagined it would be more tropical, but some areas were still kind of leafy. I hadn't realized they had wet and dry seasons. I saw a lot of similarities to Senegal that probably hold true for many smaller and developing countries. For example, all of the street dogs look the same. Also all of the shops have the same tile, and outdoor signs. Traffic signs are merely suggestions. The roads were actually much better though.

Lorenzo was really making sure we had a good time, and answered a lot of cultural questions while we were there and on the way home. I could see the undergrads absorbing all of this new information, and some of it was unique to Nicaragua, and so new to me as well. When we got back to Granada we had the rest of the evening free from planned activities. I thought of our group as split into the "adults" and "kids". I was in the kids group, which is fitting really, as I have managed reaching 30 and not growing up. We got showered up and went into the streets. There were a lot of street vendors and I got a few trinkets. A cute purse, some bracelets, and talked to many local people. We went to a restaurant with street side sitting. It was more interesting this way as local vendors continued to show you their goods throughout dinner, or sing to you, or dance for you. It was a very tourist based area. The food was very Americanized, and I just went for the quesadilla. All of the undergrads had been in my entomology class the previous semester as my students so I already kind of knew them. However, as the night went on we got to know each other a lot better! It was such a cool experience to go from being a mentor to hearing about their personal lives, seeing other sides of their personalities emerge, and being free to share more about myself. I got to use my Spanish skills quite a bit, and as the night went on I swear I was fluent haha! We went to another place for more drinks and I asked the server if there was a place to dance. He suggested a place to us and even walked us there. It was like the dance club of the city. I think it was called Kelly's....for some reason I can't remember clearly. We had so much fun, but still made it home early enough to get a good nights sleep.

Fun times!