Leon & Granada

6/6/23

Today was the day I was meeting Gi! I had a glorious breakfast before I went out to see the sights of Managua. Gi was coming around 1pm, so I had a few hours to play with. I walked to the old part of town, which was apparently safe to walk to. It took over an hour to walk there in the hot sun and I stopped by a shop to buy lip salve with SPF on route. I walked under a tower for two armed guards to appear from the wings. Then I walked through a huge old square with a beautiful looking building, perhaps a town hall, and a once beautiful but now forgotten church. After these, I headed to the water’s edge to walk along the lake. I wanted a lakeside cafe to enjoy the view from with a cold drink, but after enquiring in a deserted museum as to where I could find a cafe, and following their directions, I was disappointed. All the cafes were closed and the restaurants did not do iced fresh drinks, only pop. I gave up and walked back, eventually settling for an iced milky drink of some sort, a traditional one. I forget the name of it, but it was tasty! Afterwards, I got a taxi back to the hostel.

And there she was. Gi! We caught up for a bit in the hostel, and I chilled and sorted my laundry in the AC while Gi showered, and then we headed out for lunch via an ATM. We went to a local place and ordered some kind of quesilla spin off, which ended up being a taco with two kinds of cheese on top with a fresh tomato salsa. It was pretty tasty and surprisingly filling! Afterwards, we got supermarket snacks and continued to catch up in the hostel’s garden alongside some Uno. We slept early as Gi had had a long day and a half of travelling.

7/6/23

Time to get out of Managua – after a day and a half there, I’d already spent much more time in the capital than any other backpacker! We had a traditional breakfast and walked to the bus station where the bus to Leon was about to leave. We set off and stopped after an hour or so for batidos, banos y quesillas. The man tried to tell us something about our rucksacks on the roof and water, and eventually, it clicked that he was warning us that it was going to rain. Like a trooper, Gi got on the roof and wrapped our bags in their waterproof covers, the first outing of mine ever! Shortly after our stop, it poured down!

When we got to Leon, it was still raining hard and the roads had become rivers in places. We got a cycle rickshaw to our hostel to ditch the bags before heading out for lunch in a bougie backpacker cafe. Afterwards, we wandered through the local market and then stopped for drinks at a rooftop bar overlooking a basketball court and the church, which was being repainted white by a man with one foot on scaffolding, one foot on a narrow ledge of the church, one hand holding onto the roof and the other painting! It was quite a sight!

We spent the rest of the afternoon planning the following day and then got cocktails and ordered pesto pasta to the hostel. It was nice.

8/6/23

Today was volcano boarding day! After much discussion, Gi and I had decided we would do different morning activities and then meet back up to go to the beach together after lunch. Gi did a sunrise hike, and I went volcano boarding. My group was pretty small, but it was a nice mix of people: one Frenchie, another Brit, two guys from Panama, and three gals from Honduras. As we got closer to the volcano, everyone began to get nervous!!

First, we were given our kit, and then we had to hike up the volcano. It was hot work, but the views were glorious from the top! We peered into a crater where you could see the gases emanating from it. Then it was time to dress up and go for it. In the group in front 9f us, was both a man in his seventies and a girl in her teens. There was no chickening out now!!

Somehow, I ended up being the last person to go, and after two nervy people as well! I starred flying down and nearly lost control! I pulled it back and managed to overtake one of the other girls. The views going down were quite something!! Afterwards, we all had rum and bananas (that classic combination!), and two of the girls danced bachata. We drove back to Leon for lunch together as a group. After lunch, I headed back to my hostel to prepare for the beach.

The bus to the beach had tunes and rum, so everyone was fairly merry when we arrived at the beach. Las Penitas was a pretty place, and we chilled in a shady cafe on the beach, chatting to other backpackers and breaking off to swim in the sea. We had glorious tacos and then went for a final sunset swim where we bumped into James, a guy Gi and I had met in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, a mere seven years ago!! Wildddd! We caught up for a bit before going to meet his wife, who was lovely and was hanging out with a girl I’d met in Cali. The world is a small one!

Once back at the hostel, we chilled for a bit, and then Gi had an early night after getting up at 02.30 to hike! I headed out around 10pm to a local salsa bar and met all of my volcano boarding group, bar the other Brit. It was a cute bar, though the dance floor was very small and the group of decent dancers smaller. I plucked up the courage to ask two guys to dance salsa, and danced a bachata song with Isabel, one of the girls from Honduras, who also knew how to lead. It finished around midnight, and then it was home to shower and bed.

9/6/23

Today was a moving day. We had to get a bus back to Managua and then change buses to get to Granada. We were heading to a jungle rave in a treehouse. While I wouldn’t say I like electronic music, I wanted to see what the hype was about, and the setting seemed cool, so that was that.

On arriving to Granada, we walked to our guest house and checked in before heading out for a late lunch. Lining the stomachs was key! We had a traditional lunch of grilled chicken, with rice and beans, plantains, and salad, sat on the square, with a big yellow church behind us. After lunch, we went to buy tinnies from the supermarket, where many other gringos were buying goods too!

We got ready with Snobs songs and tinnies and then headed over to get the shuttle to the party. While we were waiting, we were glittered up by a guy in pink kiwi shorts. Now we were party ready! We all piled into an old school bus, and once the aisle was jammed, off we went. The bus was packed full of glitter, sequins, leathers braces, sheers tops and bare, sweaty backs. It was pride week and people looked the part!

Once we got close, we had to change from one bus into the back of a cattle truck. Everyone just about fit in. You had to engage your core so as not to fall over or onto anyone and be sure to dodge flying branches as we went! Once we got off, there was a climb up steep, muddy, rocky ‘steps’ to the treehouse. Sunset had begun, but we made it into the treehouse to look out over the jungle for the end of sunset, and boy, was it beautiful!

It was a fun night. We bumped into James and Pheobe again as well as Tyler from Sunday Funday and chatted to various other people, too. We danced right in front of the DJ, bounced over a very long, high wire bridge to the second stage, and chatted. The electronic music was good in the setting, and because of Pride, there were two drag queens who did dances too. The crowd went wild for these, obviously.

By 1am, we were ready for off though, having danced since 6pm! We navigated the steps down again with Tyler’s assistance and then headed home in a tuktuk, the three of us, plus another girl we met in the car park. What a night.