Granada

The cathedral of Granada

Central plaza of Granada

Ancient figures of gods in the San Francisco convent museum

Courtyard of convent museum

Visiting a weaving shop

Iglesia La Merced
(There were a lot of churches in this city.  And it still couldn't rival Leon.)

View from the top of the tower

Tasting chocolate liquor and tea at the chocolate museum

Traditional Granada dish of vigoron: yucca, salad, and fried pig skin 3/10

Doing a private cooking class (with free sangria!)
Our teacher was so sweet, she had us stop by for free churros the next day

Cooking Indio Viejo; the story goes that to keep the Spanish from stealing their feast,
the natives told them that it was made from the Old Indian who died the night before

Final product of Indio Viejo with homemade tortillas, salsa, and rice 9/10

Visiting a famous cigar shop, he rolled us a chocolate flavored one
only to have us (public health students) all preposterously reject his offer to smoke it

Kayaking among the 365 islets on Lake Managua

Churches of Granada can be seen in the distance

From the top of Fortaleza San Pablo, the sight of many pirate attacks on Granada

We hiked to the top of the Volcano Mombacho, the equivalent of 157 floors up (according to our iPhones).  The first half of the hike it was pouring and often so steep we could've crawled just as easily.  We were freezing at the summit, so the couple of little holes to the center of the Earth that emitted warm, steamy air with a slight smell of sulfur were very welcome.  We could see the entire city of Granada and the islets where we kayaked from the top, as well as two enormous craters.  We heard (eerie) and saw (cute) howler monkeys in the dense trees, and my first in-person SLOTH!  The word for sloth is literally "the lazy" in Spanish.

On our drive out of the city to return to Leon late at night, we could see the red spray of lava surrounding the top of another more active volcano.

Our quaint hostel