Day 5 Nicaragua

Day 5 July 7th, 2007:

Ak wakes Amy and me up in the morning and says to pack for one night because we are leaving for Grenada in twenty minutes. Grenada is a bigger city further past Rivas. It’s about an hour and half, maybe two hours away from our house in Gigante. We packed our things and all of us got in the truck again. We were going there because I guess Ak didn’t want to drive Velvet and Isa back to the airport in Managua because it is such a long drive. So from Granada she could get a ride from her hotel. Also it’s just a really cool city. We stopped in Rivas to eat lunch. It was nice restaurant next to one called “Chop Suey” but we didn’t know what the one we were eating in was called. Lee and I had “chicken fajitas” which were actually just pieces of fried chicken. It was really good tho, very well cooked but moist and good inside. Everything comes with rice and it looks like just plain white rice but it tastes awesome! Salty with some spices that we can’t really pick out but its good in any case. After lunch we kept heading to Grenada. It was fun to see more of the country, although a lot of it looks similar. I have no idea how Ak figures out where he is going most of the time because they hardly look at a map. Grenada is such an awesome city though! It’s huge. Well that’s a relative term since Boston has 4 million people and this whole country has 5 million but all the streets are narrow. However, behind all the tall walls there are courtyards with gorgeous pools and things. We dropped Velvet at her hotel. The Hotel Colonial, Grenada (fancy and gorgeous) then headed to where Ak and Lee had stayed before, The Oasis. From the street it was just a blue concrete wall in a street of concrete walls. But inside….it was a room surrounding an open (to the sky) center, with palm trees and other plants. Hammocks hung between all the beams and chairs sat along the edges. Through a small hallway (with computers!!) there was another similar room except there was a pool in the middle instead of plants and things. Our room was pretty small for having two double beds in it but it was nice enough. Ak and Lee’s room smelled gross a dead mouse or something was rotting but they removed it and sprayed something. After using the internet for a few quick minutes we were going to head out on a boat tour of some sort. So we went to go get Velvet and Isa from their hotel (about a couple blocks or so away). When Ak looked around her hotel though he immediately wanted to switch. So we checked in to that one and went back to the other to grab our stuff. In the new hotel we had so much more room, a small balcony, a beautiful shower and a TV. Jason, Amy and I were in one room and Ak and Lee in another. The hotel was right by the park and people were selling all kinds of things in it. Amy and I kind of wanted to relax so everyone else went on the boat ride and we stayed behind and looked around the city and the park a bit. We got some beautiful jewelry in the park for very cheap compared to home. And it’s all hand made! We also got some gelato from the café next to our hotel (all in Spanish mind you) and went back to read and relax. We’ve been reading so much this trip I forgot how much I loved being pulled into a good book. I’m almost done with my second one. Anyway…when they all came back we went down to the bar to have appetizers before going to dinner. We had a little pizza and some drinks (not so good pina coladas). Lee picked a restaurant from her book (her constant companion) called “The Bearded Monkey” but we couldn’t find it and ended up finding this incredible street lined with lampposts on either side down the center and all restaurants on the sides. We ended up eating a place called “Pasta! Pasta!” which, obviously was Italian. I had a watermelon fruit drink which was literally watermelon and water put in a blender and it was the most refreshing thing I have ever had. Amy and I both had penne with pesto and it was so much stronger than most people make it at home. Lee thought it was because it was fresh, I think its just that they put more basil and less of everything else including oil. Then we walked back to the hotel, past the huge church where there was a wedding going on that we could see into. We had a swim in one of the pools (there are two in the hotel) and then went to bed in our nice, air conditioned rooms. The beds were perfect. Firm just how I like. Amy and I shared one and Jason had his own. We read for a while and Jason watched TV in Spanish (very weird to see movies you know in Spanish) but eventually we all fell asleep.