Nicaragua part 3: Phone shopping in Leon and Granada

Apologies once again for the long time between blogs, but Bryony and my time has been mostly spent in the jungles of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, away from internet. Alas, this experience is for a future blog. For now we must continue to report on our time in Nicaragua and the first parts of our Costa Rican adventures.

In the last blog we had just finished at the Carpe Diem project and headed back to civilisation, also known as Leon. The first port of call was a couple of days dealing with the fact my phone was not coming back to life. After a stop at a phone repair place in the town we found out that the screen had failed. The cost of repair was greater and not as guaranteed as buying a new phone, effectively making the decision for us.

Searching for a phone in Leon was an interesting experience. Nicaragua, like many of the Central American country is becoming a new market for the big phone companies. However, the price of most phones built for the US or UK markets are still prohibitive in these less affluent nations. Therefore, one finds a slew of phones specifically designed to cater for this market by brands Samsung and Huawei. Most phones are also dual-sim, I am not quite sure why. The phone I decided to go with was the Huawei Y7 prime, an almost top of the range phone for Nicaragua. The performance so far has been outstanding and for £150 I feel that we should all be buying phones from Central America.

View from Guadalupe Church

After sorting out my phone we decided upon our next destination: Granada. We took a chicken bus to Managua on which I left my wallet on the seat. Averting disaster, I ran after the bus and jumped aboard shouting in urgent Spanish and rescuing the hallowed item that had fallen from my pocket. This, unfortunately, was not the end of the drama. It turned out that we were in the wrong bus station. We therefore got on one of the many collectivos (mini buses), which then became very full. Most of the way, I was crouched holding both our large bags, Bryony was stuffed near the back and was standing. When we thought that the bus had finished collecting passengers they managed to fit another few market-going locals, or university students.  

Finally, we found ourselves on the bus to Granada, unfortunately for this journey, though not as crowded, would still require standing most of the way. As we entered the Granada city limits the bus broke down and moved to another bus which now had twice as many people as it should do, again. Granada itself was quite pleasant, if a little touristy. We found the place we would be staying, Hostel Memento. For only two dollars more, we were moved into a very nice double bedroom, which always beats dorm rooms. The hostel was very pleasant, and we were met with a glass of free juice which was very welcome after our arduous journey.

Ceiling of the cathedral.
The snake in the painting
(top painting on the right)
is a non-venomous garter snake

The evening drawing in and ourselves suitably rested we decided to go out and look for some food. Granada offers a variety of eateries mostly focused around one street. Hundreds of tourists flock the bars and restaurants, mariachi bands play on the streets for bemused Americans. The only locals in sight are restaurant staff heckling with menus in hand. The prices were extortionate, we decided to keep going till we found something more palatable for our wallets. We eventually found a small restaurant selling Comida Rapida “fast food”. It did not have a high class look but it was cheap. Bryony had a quesadilla and I a burger. The burger was actually very good and came with a drink and chips (“papas fritas”). Normally, when ordering a burger I do not expect much, but it was nice to be surprised by a good quality meat with plenty of salad and sauces.

The following morning, we had our rooms included desayuno (“breakfast”), Gallo pinto and toast for myself, fruit and toast for Bryony. All very basic, the best bit was the coffee. Our first stop for the day was one of Granada’s famous churches with a tower that you can ascend for a great view. Granada is a typical and well preserved colonial town with interesting wooden doors and brightly coloured houses. There are many horse drawn carriages, sponsored by internet companies, around the city providing tours at ridiculous prices. According to Bryony most of the horses were well cared for, but many had bad feet and poorly fitted shoes. Either way this was an activity we were happy to forgo.

View at the end of the peninsular

Guadalupe Church really did have a great view for $2, even whilst a service was ongoing. After a few nice pictures we explored the market and then made our way to the Cathedral which was getting its ceiling re-painted with a variety of huge pictures of various old testament stories. As it was a Sunday there were lots of priests and a few nuns in various wizard garbs. Outside was the city square where guides offered expensive tours and sunglasses salespeople approached with large display racks. The heat of the day eventually forced us back to our hostel.

The next day we hired bicycles early in the morning and cycled along the Asese peninsula, the ride was fun although Bryony could not work out how to use her gears until the very end. Afterwards, we headed to an art café for a Frappe and decided what to do next on our trip. Eventually, we decided to finally head to Costa Rica and resign ourselves to double our budget as most food and places rival European prices.

Thank you for reading our latest blog next week will have us mostly caught up. Like, share and subscribe for more.

Felize Viaje,

Greg & Bryony

P. S we will upload photos when we next have good Internet!