Granada, Nicaragua

So finally I was in Granada and ready for a travel break. I'd organised one week of Spanish classes and a homestay with a local family. Like a lot of towns I've visited this is an old Spanish colonial town. The buildings (and many churches) are gorgeous.

I didn't do a lot while I was in Granada. Just school, hanging with my family there and eating and drinking. After Colombia I was happy to see vegetables on my plate once more and significantly lower prices. Plus food with flavour! This is beef with some kind of sauce and vegetables over it, beans (of course), cabbage salad (a staple here), rice and deep fried banana chips. 

On Sunday we ate the traditional weekend breakfast of nacatamal which is a tamale with corn meal, rice, potato, pork and mint. Way better than any other tamale I've had, but I think the texture isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I was also happy to see coconuts back in the streets. In Ecuador they were on every second corner selling a cup of coconut water for 50 cents. This was about 75 for a whole one.

I also got to see the making of patacons which is basically a banana (plantain) fritter thing. This was available everywhere in Colombia and is a way of consuming both carbs and fat, sin flavour! Still don't get it and they don't even put salt on it. But yes, all you need is a plantain (giant green banana) and a metal thing to squash it. Then you just deep fry it. And if you're me, you add salt. 

In Granada it's ridiculously hot and humid. Most mornings I was working up quite a sweat just consuming breakfast. My family thought it was because I was from a cold country. I had to break it to yet another person that Australia is not actually cold. 

Anyway, most evenings at about 4pm people migrated out onto the street to sit in their chairs by their front doors and chat. This is apparently quite the thing to do in Granada and it was a nice time to walk around and see everyone out chatting. I of course was drinking beer, but that didn't seem to be part of the tradition, that's just my twist on it. Here's my street during the day of course. 

The family I lived with had a pet macaw (this isn't illegal here) so the view from my door was this... 

Pets are a weird concept in some parts of Latin America. I've lost track of how many times I've requested the name of an animal and been advised it doesn't have a name. Well the same goes for this bird. They've had her nearly 20 years and she's nameless! 

The other view from my door often looked like this. My 6 year old Nicaraguan brother Ignacio. I was happy because in Bolivia I also had a baby brother about the same age who I adored but couldn't really talk to since I couldn't speak Spanish. This time round it was nice to be able to talk to him. He told me he'd miss me and remember me FOREVER. What a sweetheart. 

It was his sixth birthday whilst I was there and like every boy in Latin America he loves minions! So of course there was a minion cake and 36 cupcakes to take to school. I bought him a pirated copy of the new minions movie plus some little game which was broken within 24 hours. 

They also LOVE piñatas here. I saw a minion piñata about the same size as me. I'll have to try and get a photo of them. They're just amazing. Stay tuned...