Week 7 ( I went to Nicaragua!)

Miles Walked to Date: 273.5


This week Shenique and I took a 5 day excursion to Nicaragua to renew our Costa Rican visas, so we visited Granada and Laguna de Apoyo which were incredibly beautiful. 

 Sunrise at Laguna de Apoyo

A typical breakfast in Central America, my favourite!!

In Granada, we got to visit another pre-colombian museum, which had a large collection of pottery with intricate patterns. The one below depicts the feathered serpent, quetzalcoatl from around 800AD-1350AD.

A female figurine above is from Pacific Nicaragua/ Costa Rican Guanacaste around 800AD -1350AD. This figurine has a typical indigenous woman's hair style, body decorations and clothing from that time and is in a position of authority. 

 

The museum also had lots of burial pots - which looked like shoes to me. Some of them had detailed impressions on them with body parts, fish, animals and some other shapes I couldn't quite make out. 

  In front of the Granada cathedral - it was Sunday and the singing eminating from within was beautiful.

Hanging out in Granada's central square. 

Guadalupe Church

Founded in 1624-1626 by Benito de Baltodano monk. Since it was burned it was rebuilded in a different architecture losing part of its historic value. The church is situated in the Calzada street (Calle la Calzada) near Nicargua Lake. The Guadalupe church during the Colonial time was very important because of its strategic position, infact it was situated at the entrance of the town from the lake. For this reason It was sacked and destroyed by pirates and filibusters. In November 1856 the troops of Willliam Walker were shut in Guadalupe church for 18 days by troops of Nicaragua Governement. During this time the troop gravely damaged the church. In 1890 the walls still kept the marks of the battle. It was rebuilt in 1945 as well as we can admire now with its plain and fine front.

Taken from: http://www.nicatour.net/en/granada/granada_chiese.cfm

Ometepe volcano peeking through clouds, seen from the bus on our way back to Costa Rica. 

Overall I found Nicaragua to be a faster paced, more untamed version of Costa Rica.It is not as tourist friendly and since we are two non-spanish speaking tourists, we had more than our fair share of miscommunication and moments of utter and complete cross cultural failure. Nonetheless, we had lots of fun and I hope I can go back one day to experience more of what Nicaragua has to offer.