Nicaragua part 5 - Granada

For the last 3 nights of our July trip to Nicaragua, we decided to visit the colonial city of Granada. After a lot of research, we settled on Hotel Spa Granada, which was originally the largest private colonial home in the city, but had recently been renovated and reopened as a hotel. A few days ago, it was actually featured on the Today Show as one of their top hotel bargains for travel this holiday season - you can watch a clip of the show here (HSG portion of the clip starts about 1 minute and 40 seconds in)! We actually spent our last 2 nights (more on that below) in the room they show with the pink bed.

Nicaragua part 4 - Ometepe

After flying from Big Corn Island back into Managua, we were met by a rather surly driver from Adelante Express. After a long wait for another couple who were being dropped off in San Juan del Sur, we finally were on our way to San Jorge, where most of the boats and ferries leave to Ometepe. Two hours and a dash through a rainstorm later, we just barely managed to jump on the boat over to Moyogalpa, Ometepe's main port. There was only a bit of covered space on the boat, and it was already overcrowded so the first part of the ride was a bit damp.

Nicaragua part 3 - Big Corn Island

 Upon arriving back on Big Corn, we grabbed a cab and headed for our hotel, Casa Canada. At $109 + tax per night (including breakfast), this property is a bit pricey by Nicaragua standards, but is also the most luxurious hotel in the Corn Islands.

Nicaragua part 2 - Little Corn Island

We arrived at the La Costena Airlines check in area (a small, smelly, and very crowded room in a building separate from the main part of the airport) and spent the next 45 minutes hoping the long line was not going to make us miss our flight. This fear was unfounded, though, as the flight did not actually take off until 7:30 (in talking to a pilot, this "delay" seems to be pretty typical for this airline/route, as he laughed when we told him the original departure time we'd been given). Note: you do need to pay a small fee (I believe it was $2-$3USD/$40-$60 Nicaraguan Cordobas per person) before going through security, so it's good to have some small bills on hand. Once you get through security, there's a small waiting area with 2 stands selling drinks and food (prepackaged snacks and some "fresh"--I use this word loosely--pastries/rolls).

We finally boarded the plane for the hour or so flight (including a short stop in Bluefields on the Caribbean coast) to Big Corn Island.

Why Nicaragua? And our first night in Managua...

To take advantage of the fact that my husband's company gives the entire week of July 4th off as a holiday (which we did not discover until the end of May!), we decided to head down to Nicaragua for 10 nights. When we told people we were headed down there, 95% of the reactions we got were either:
"Nicaragua? Really? Um....why?" or the similar but slightly more polite, "Oh. Hmmm. Well, that should be...fun."