Primo! Source: Google Images

I have been blitzing through Nicaragua, three destinations in one week. It really feels like I have not given it the attention it deserves. Almost everyone I have met along this trip who is traveling south-to-north has fallen in love with Nicaragua. I have yet to feel the love. It is cheap, and that’s great, but show me something special. The rainy season and time pressures calling me elsewhere have not helped focus my attention.

Well, one super awesome thing is that Flor de Caña rum–the typical alcohol in this part of Central America–is served in the seven-year variety standard at all bars, instead of four-year like in Guatemala.

Leon went by fast, and was relatively quiet time for me detoxing from Utila. I had a good time, but not great and did not connect with the city. Ometepe, an island of two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua, also did not enchant me. I spent two nights there, met some cool people, ate in a really special cafe called Cafe Campestre that I would swoon over not only here but also back in SF, but did a poor job of exploring. I took remarkably few pictures. I was just plain ready to move on.

The approach to Ometepe, isle of the two volcanoes.

Hummus lunch at Cafe Campestre, delish.

My travel buddy Nick and I left Ometepe one night early in favor of Granada. We took the ferry across the lake then ended up hiring a taxi to drive us all the way to the city. En route, we stopped at a gas station and I found the most delicious cups of fish soup being sold out of the back of a car on the street for forty cents. Who’d have thought! Continuing on, we intended on staying at a treehouse hostel just outside the city, but logistics and our changing desires made us pick our bags back up and move to Granada proper, where I will spend my last four nights in Nicaragua. Already my initial impression of Granada is fantastic. I cannot wait to spend some real time here and delve into this city. I know for a fact it will be my favorite place in Nicaragua by far.

Sneak peak of Granada from the hostel roof top…

I am being called elsewhere. I cannot wait to be back in Belize and Mexico. So much adventure, glorious diving, and fantastic people are waiting for me there. Just a few more days now… I’m sorry Nicaragua, you got the short end of the stick this trip. But I still plan to pump a good deal of money into your economy over the next four days on clothing, street food, and rum. It’s going to be a good time.