The second major city we visit in Nicaragua is Granada. This Granada in Nicaragua is the second city named Granada we visit on our trip, after Granada in Spain. The charm of Nicaragua continues in Granada and so we are once again enveloped by the colonialist ambience coupled with the Nicaraguan way of life and feel very much at home. This time we have chosen a paid parking lot for our overnight stay, as we are supporting the White Cross, an aid organization that provides medical care, as well as having a stress-free and relaxed overnight stay in this city.

City center of Granada

In the center of Granada there are countless colonialist buildings, often single-story. As is so often the case in Central America, space does not play such an important role as there is plenty of it and the houses tend to be extended in level rather than in height. There are a few two-story buildings with rich decorations and beautiful balconies, otherwise we are again impressed by single-story buildings with inviting courtyards.
Many restaurants, hotels and simply houses in the city center have impressively landscaped courtyards. Some of them are only accessible to guests, or to curious tourists like us who like to wait for the demand to stop before we restrain our curiosity. We see a few city gardens and have breakfast or lunch in some of them.

Granda, like the whole western part of Nicaragua so far, is very much to our liking. Perhaps this has something to do with the recent changes, that American tourism has almost completely disappeared after the recent riots and uprisings and the country can breathe a sigh of relief from the apparently very large tourist crowds. This reduction in the flow of tourists is just what we need to experience a relaxed Nicaragua.

Masaya volcano

In addition to the many volcanoes we have visited so far in Central America, we are still going to visit another one. On the Masaya volcano, we should be able to catch a clear view of the magma in the volcanic crater. We don’t want to miss out on this and so we take a guided tour of this volcano. First things first: the tour would not have been absolutely necessary as we could have driven to the parking lot on the crater rim in our own vehicle. But it doesn’t matter, the way there and especially back in the dark is very relaxed as our driver is driving and not us.

The crater of Masaya is actually constantly bubbling. We can see the gray cloud of smoke rising from afar as we approach, not extremely thick or high, but continuously. Throughout our visit, the volcanic crater is sometimes more and sometimes less shrouded in smoke. This allowed us to take some nice photos of the crater against the light of the sunset. However, nothing of the magma in the mouth can be seen at this time as the daylight is too bright to make out the red glow.
After sunset, the time slowly arrives when we should be able to recognize the magma. Should – because we are far from being the only ones. Gradually we realize that there are only a few places around the crater rim at the viewpoints where we can see so far into the crater that a small area of the glowing surface can be seen. Most of the glow we can see is the reddish glow of rising smoke. We take a few photos, but a slight sense of disillusionment sets in. We thought the magma would be a little easier to see, a little easier to experience. We were only able to get a very vague impression. Nevertheless, the view into an active crater with a little magma through our own eyes was a new experience for us. Short and sweet, but a new experience. With so many people and few opportunities to get away from the crowds and still have a good view of the magma, we can’t really recommend this experience.

See you soon in our next travel report on this blog!