Walking Tour of Granada

Day Two- Thursday, February 25, 2010

Today is our first full day in Nicaragua! We started off with a walking tour of the city, which included visiting La Merced, a bell tower and a convent in the very heart of the city. We also visited a local radio station. Matt and Nico went on the air and spoke for a bit. It was pretty funny! To get to the top of the bell tower, we climbed the many steep and narrow stairs within the convent. However once up there, the view we got of the city and the volcanoes in the distance was breath-taking and worth the climb of stairs. On our way to the convent we passed Fortelezza Polvora, one of the oldest forts in Granada. During the early afternoon, we left the city with our guide Bosco and driver Alberto, and drove to Mayasa to see a volcano. We drove all the way up the volcano and climbed some stairs to a lookout spot where we looked down into the volcano and got a strong smell of the sulfur. For lunch, we went to Catarina where we ate some deliciously filleted meat, chicken, and fish. After lunch we drove to San Juan de Oriente, a “witch town.” There we got a demonstration on how pottery is made the old-fashioned way. Some people even were able to see how hard it actually is to make pottery and tried it themselves. During our time at the pottery place, a bunch of people went outside and we saw two little boys. One boy was using a stick and trying to play baseball. Ms. Heneveld decided to help out. She would pitch a rock and the boy would hit it with his stick. He hit nearly everyone! After Ms. Del Favero treated the boys to icecream and they were very happy!

-Geige