Granada, Nicaragua

The big 5-0!!! I've hit country number fifty. Only about 153 more to go now. I landed in Managua airport in the evening. After successfully passing the Swine Flu infrared body temperature scanner, I grabbed my bag and headed outside to meet my shuttle to Granada. Well, the shuttle never showed, so I had to swallow my thriftiness and bust out $40 for a cab ride to Granada. The cabbie couldn't find my guesthouse, even though I had a map and was giving what I thought were clear directions in my best Spanglish. "Derecho! Izquierda! Derecha! Es a blanco y azul casa. Casa Silas. Calle de Concepcion. " Arrgh. We finally found it by pure luck.

Granada is a surprisingly sedate, picturesque town in an otherwise poor country. Nicaragua has a per capita GNI of $980 per year, the lowest in all of the Western Hemisphere, except Haiti. As such, I had low expectations. But I found that just as in Laos and Cambodia, poverty need not equate to misery. Granada has a dilapidated elegance. It is lined with colorfully painted Spanish colonial apartments. Schoolchildren in pressed blue and white uniforms run through the streets. Horses adorned with ribbons pull carriages. Granadinos sit in ornately carved wooden rocking chairs in the over sized doorways of their homes watching the world go by. It seems like a placid life. As I walked I passed family after family, two generations of adults rocking back and forth, eyes on the passers-by and ears tuned to the telenovela on TV. Children race about as they calmly rock in front of a fan, as the blazing Nicaraguan sun casts ever-longer shadows down their pastel alleyways.

People move slowly here. One must to survive the boiling heat. The Spanish wisely built their cities with narrow streets and multi-level apartments to allow some shade at all hours. Finding shade is a critical task in Granada.

Granada has some of the most interesting history of any city in the Americas. It is the oldest city in Central America, founded by Spanish conquistadors in 1524. In 1666 it was spectacularly captured by pirates in one of the most daring attacks in history. Henry Morgan paddled up the San Juan River by night with his crew in small dugouts. They then sailed across huge Lake Nicaragua, and caught the city's defenders by surprise. It may be the only case in history of pirates attacking a city 200 miles from the ocean. In 1856 Granada was occupied by American mercenary William Walker. When his plan to conquer all of Central America brought the wrath of Costa Rica and Honduras, he burned Granada to the ground on his retreat. Scorch marks can still be seen on one church that survived. The city was shelled and bombed again during the Sandinista revolution in 1979.

Granada has a lot of bicycles. A romantic evening out seems to begin with the man pedaling his mountain bike with his date sitting side-saddle on the crossbar. You see many couples, young and old, travelling like this. There are a few beggars here, sadly, many are kids hooked on glue. There aren't so many as to be frightening, but it's best to have some small change on you, or be ready to give a firm "no". There are many kids that prowl La Calzada for money. Some small children sell packs of cashews for 50 cents. I made friends with one kid who would hang out at my table and pretend to read Lonely Planet. The man next to me gave the rest of his dinner to a man missing a leg. Some other kids breakdance for change. A couple of them are really good. A big group of kids wear giant costumes and play drums and spin around. I have no idea what the cultural significance is of a giant woman in colonial dress spinning around is, but there are at least two competing groups with the costume.
Granada is a very safe city. I had no problems or felt in danger walking around at night. There is little police presence. Locals tell me that Nicaragua is very safe all over, except parts of Managua, and parts of the Caribbean coast due to drug trafficking. Oh boy is it cheap here too. A taxi across town is 50 cents, a beer in a nice restaurant is $1,A good meal $3-4, a t-shirt $4, An hour of internet $1, a bottle of fantastic Flor de Cana rum $7, a hand made hammock $11.