Granada struck us to be much like Antigua, Guatemala, on first impression. Colonial streets and buildings, all sporting different bright colours made it very picturesque. We were only staying in this small town one night before making our way down to Costa Rica as we had spent more days than desired in Leon. We checked into the best hotel room since Cancun at El Hotel Club and went for our customary stroll around. We passed an impressive cathedral and found the local market which was buzzing with activity. After passing numerous stalls selling all sorts of goods we made it to the town square. This is hemmed in by some more brilliantly bright, aesthetically pleasing buildings on all sides with its centre piece, the church at the eastern edge. We crossed the tree clad square and peered inside for a brief moment, noticing again, the very graphic statues and images of Jesus which have been somewhat a theme throughout Central America.

We stumbled across our favourite street in the town just after this. Again full of colourful builds we passed restaurants, tiendas (shops) and some travel agencies while on the hunt for some lunch and more importantly a ticket to Costa Rica. Unfortunately, as we were soon to find out, the shuttles we had used for all our other boarder crossing were no more and we would have to make our own arrangements. We carried on as far as the road took us before eventually reaching the shore of Managua Lake, in the centre is Ompete island which we wish we had time to visit but on this occasion didn’t. The lakes shore itself was nothing to boast about so we made a b line back to the town centre. Grabbing a wonderful falafel and hummus pita from a local vendor we took some more pictures of the town before returning to the hotel to figure out our onward travel.

  
We did lots of research and found that the best and really only way from Granada to Costa Rica was to use Tica Bus. Lots of people will probably ask us why we didn’t visit Nicaragua’s premier backpacker/beach spot. The truth is, having family from Costa Rica had made this our prime Central American stop off location, we had even looked at flying straight there from Mexico while planning the trip and dismissing the countries in between. Thankfully this idea was soon tucked away with some of the other ridiculous ideas we floated about, partially because of cost but mostly because we felt, as travellers it was unfair to dismiss these wonderful countries without even giving them a chance, and once we had done barely any research, realised we would be making a huge mistake. We opted to take in a Costa Rican beach on the pacific side instead, Playa del Coco, which you can read about next.  

To gain tickets we headed to the office on the outskirts of town and purchased them for the horrible time of 6am tomorrow.

With that in mind we needed an early night. Back to our favourite street we went and to the most local looking spot. We ordered grilled chicken and pork both with different local BBQ glazes and began to eat. Although Granada is a lovely town that we would of liked to spend a few days more in and somewhere we felt completely safe, it is the first place where we felt like we had to be extra wary of our belongings. This is due to the large amount of kids roaming the streets, pushing flowers or patterned items into your face for you to take ‘free’. Obviously we didn’t take anything but witnessed one couple do so who were then followed for at least five minutes and pestered by numerous kids until they gave the item back, as they did not want to pay. A child also approached our table as we ate and gestured towards our food, sticking his hand out towards our plate as if to grab what was left. We shooed him away and he hissed at us in a rather disgusting way. This should no way put you off visiting but just made us aware that they potentially are distracting you in order to take something of yours. We returned to our amazing room and fell into instant sleep. This was rudely interrupted by our early morning alarms, unfortunately in the one room we would of put last on our list for an early get up and it was time for our journey to the land of Pure Life – Pura Vida, Costa Rica.

Our time in Nicaragua was short and we both agreed we would like to see more of the country as we only sampled a small portion but that can be said for all the countries we visit and one of the downsides of travelling to many places is that sacrifices do have to be made and Nicaragua suffered for this reason. We would not be disheartened though as we ventured into Costa Rica on our expensive, early morning coach ride.

Keep following our adventures and stay safe kids 

Jonny & Hayley 🙂