Lake Nicaragua

This video of Nicaragua shows the Lake, Lago di Nicaragua (El Cocibolca - Las Isletas) nice place to visit when you are near Granada.

Lunch at the Casa San Francisco Hotel

Dining in Nicaragua. Actually we were in Granada and found this great place to eat. We had lunch one day at the Casa San Francisco Hotel, this nice boutique hotel in Granada. The hotel is really nice, it's small and kind of charming. Lunch consisted of pork and rice and some vegetables and my friend had fish and rice. A small salad accompanied the meal.

Both dishes were delicious, the fish especially fresh and tasty. They served good bread with the meal and a nice dessert. The restaurant opens up to the fresh air, in view of the pool, lots of palm trees and tropical plants and is home to a couple of parrots who seemed to object to our being there. There is a bar called Los Chocoyos right in the hotel offering all types of beers and liquors and wines.

The Casa San Francisco hotel offers rooms at $45 to $75 dollars a night, but if you stay longer, they offer a 10% discount. There's a really nice swimming pool, small but very attractive for a quick dip.

Lunch was good and the hotel seems quite attractive and offers all the amenities you could want, such as air conditioning, the pool as I mentioned, private bathrooms, WIFI access, and a great rooftop terrace with some good panorami views of Granada. Everything is charming.

Nice hotel and nice lunch.

Masaya Volcano

Visiting the Masaya Volcano in the National Park was truly exhilarating for me. I would never admit to being a “nature lover” and I would never describe myself as a person interested in seeking out a tour of, say, a rain forest or that features “wildlife.” However, while we were in Nicaragua, we went on a tour to the Masaya Volcano national park.

The Masaya Volcano is still smoking – sulphur gases which rise up out of its depths. Inhaling the sulphur is not supposed to be bad for you as long as you are not asthmatic or have some other lung problems. The tour takes you right up to the edge of the volcano. I was fascinated by this “smokin’ volcano, I could look down into its depths and see how deep into the earth it goes. Also, the land around the volcano is formed out of previous lava eruptions. At the highest point around the volcano, there’s a cross, to ward off the devil.

While looking down into the volcano, I felt like I was staring into hell. Not a nature lover am I, but this trip to the Masaya Volcano was truly amazing. I’d go again.

Granada Nicaragua

Granada, Nicaragua is a very nice small city in Nicaragua that is wonderful to stay in and visit for a while. All the houses are painted pretty bright colors. There is a center town square which is busy in the afternoons and evenings, with people selling stuff, music, people talking, sitting in cafes. It's a popular gathering center.

Surrounding the square, you will find beautiful buildings and hotels also painted in bright colors.

Granada has some nice restaurants and good hotels and the prices are cheap. Thought you might like this pic of Granada featuring the pier on Lake Nicaragua. Nicest one of the hotels in Granada that we visited was the Hotel Alhambra. We'll definitely go back here.  There's lots of ex-pats here, maybe some who took a tour of Nicaragua and fell in love with it, retired and now taking it easy.  On the other hand, there are young entrepreneurs here, taking a chance in Nicaragua.

Granada is a very nice place to walk around, have a drink or a meal at one of the hotels or one of the many restaurants or bars you'll find in this city. It was once the capital of Nicaragua.