Granada-Day Three, I Guess!!

 Wednesday December 29^th.

     Awoke ‘relatively’ early, with plans to head for Masaya before it got too hot. Ended up leaving a little later than planned (10:30am) The bus dropped us off at the edge of town and we made our first stop at a couple of guitar shops with the plan to buy a really good but really cheap Spanish guitar. While reviews on the net glowed with references to quality and sound, I was, sadly, less than impressed with what I saw, and even less impressed with the prices- $300-500 for anything decent. Scratching that purchase off my list we grabbed a taxi to the Malecon (walkway) at the west side of town. Overlooking Lake Masaya, it provided a perfect spot to see Volcan Masaya in the distance. Disappointingly, the volcano was not belching out smoke and volcanic ash, or at least not in a direction that could be seen from town.

  Heading back towards the city centre, several hammock makers were displaying their art in front of their homes. Since I already own two from previous trips (Mexico) I declined their multiple offers of  “ for you- the best price”

 After a stop in the Parque Central  [No, that is not a wood flooring store!] to visit the church (closed on my last visit) and a quick lunch of chicken fajitas we spent a couple of hours roaming the craft market. By some miracle we managed to leave without endangering the contents of my wallet.

 Dinner tonight was in, of all places, a German run establishment with the traditional German name of Charly’s Bar y Restaurante. Located down a dark side street on the far west side of town, we weren’t sure, at first if the taxi driver was taking us to dinner or to a mugging. Serving up everything from sauerkraut and schnitzel to venison we settled on a mixed skewer of various meats and vegetables. Our beverages were a contrast in sizes- a wheat beer came in a glass that you could almost bathe in, while a similarly priced piña colada came in something resembling a small champagne glass. Beverage size aside it was quite an enjoyable meal with enough leftovers to give a couple of stray dogs something to fight over once we got back to the main part of town.