Granada-day one

11:30pm December 27^th

 Midnight is fast approaching and we are finally relaxing in our room. Roman Polanski’s movie The Pianist is on TV. The spoken language is German and the subtitles Spanish. Luckily I have seen it before so the language issue is not that big a deal! The flights down here were not too bad, although a very heavy landing in Miami has re-awakened an old neck injury.

 Clearing immigration and customs was a breeze and our driver was waiting for us outside of the terminal. A somewhat hair-raising ride to Granada took approximately 45 minutes, the driver barrelling down dark and winding roads with little thought for other vehicles.

 Lucy, the hotel owner/manager was waiting when we arrived. One of the staff whipped up a fruit plate and juice for us while Lucy filled us in on recent happenings in the city- mostly restaurants closing and new hotels opening. All the while we were talking her menagerie of cats (now numbering 9 in total) came around to visit us [Note to self: bring along lint brush next time]

  Our promised free meal at Jimmy Three Fingers has gone up in smoke as the restaurant has closed. Even the Nica Buffet- a typical Comida is out of business.

  Tomorrow, my plans are simply to have no plans- everyone deserves a Lazy Day once in a while.

 Tuesday 28^th.

   My first taste of fresh Nicaraguan coffee after more than a year was almost worth the wait. A continental breakfast of bread and preserves, fresh fruit and sweets followed while I waited for Susanna to awaken.

  A slow lazy walk around town took most of the morning as we reacquainted ourselves with the various streets and attractions. Tierra Tours, our primary tour agency on the last trip was our first stop. A brief review of available options should keep us reasonably busy on days when we are not bussing it around the area.

  The market area was still a crowded mass of humanity and Pali, a mini Wal-Mart subsidiary, was still as busy and under serviced as I remembered.

 Walking back towards our hotel, I was disappointed to see that a couple of the restaurants we had enjoyed last year had closed, including the Mediterraneo which had been in business for several years.

  For lunch we settled on Nectar, a small place on the main pedestrian street

  Calle La Calzada. Gazpacho soup and quesadillas with pica de gallo , a banana, guava and orange yoghurt shake for Susanna and a Toña ( local beer) for me.

 An afternoon siesta was followed by another walk around town followed by a rather mediocre dinner. Susanna had garlic chicken, which by weight was probably equal parts chicken and garlic. I thought I was getting rotisserie chicken, which turned out to be fried to the colour of chocolate- oh well, live and learn.

  It was breezy to the point of almost needing a jacket when we headed back to the hotel, passing several (damn it, should have eaten there!) restaurants on the way. Tomorrow we have a day to Masaya planned which I hope will include a trip to Pilates Guitars, a custom guitar maker.