Granada & Laguna de Apoyo | From Behind The Lens..

Rob Molyneux
Oct 22, 2018
4 min read

¡Bienvenido a Granada & Laguna de Apoyo!

Granada is a beautiful colonial city, that is a pleasure to wander around and explore! A city with a leafy central plaza that is filled with people of all ages, from all different walks of life, night and day! A city that has an abundance of churches, from the vibrant to the deteriorating. A city that will draw you in with its beauty and will keep you here, not wanting to leave!

Explore the cities beauty with camera in hand, from the colourful architecture, to the gritty downtown back streets, Granada really is a street photographers dream. The cities main appeal is the many churches that dot around the city, the striking Cathedral of Granada is the most prominent, standing tall and vibrant in the central plaza (you cannot miss it!). Although, this will more than likely be the first one that you see, make sure that you explore further and visit others such as, the Guadalupe Church, Church Xalteva, San Francisco Convent and more impressively Iglesia La Merced! The latter being my favourite, not only for its incredibly history, dating back to 1534, but for its incredible views from the bell tower! During certain hours on specific days, the bell tower is open for visits, climb the spiralled staircase for panoramic views over the city and have the best view of the Cathedral of Granada!

Granada is also home to the Islets of Granada, which were formed following a huge volcanic eruption thousands of years ago, which scattered huge chunks of volcanic rubble in the mammoth Lake Nicaragua, forming the now 365 islets that differ massively in size. Most of these islands are overrun by nature, with palm trees and bushes taking control. Although lots of them are actually inhabited, with around 1200 people living on the islets, from the rich and famous to local fishermen. As you can imagine, the differing in personnel living here means that there is a differing standard of housing. You will be astonished to see that some of these private islands are home to huge mansions, with their own swimming pools and helipads and much more! These are stunning to see as you meander past slowly on your boat (or kayak), but the most gripping part of all for tourists here are the islets that are overrun by wildlife, in particular the spider and howler monkeys! These mischievous creatures love to show off, swinging from branch to branch and looking for an extra bit of grub, so watch out if you have a bag of food with you! Also, make sure to keep your eyes open for the mango's.. No, not for eating, but the ones that you may find flying past your head! These monkeys love to throw the rotten ones away!

There are lots of things to do here in Granada to keep your occupied, with some great cafes and bars to exploit, as well as some incredible street food! A major tip for all travellers when it comes to street food, is to go where the queues are.. This may sound stupid to some, as why would you want to wait for ages in a queue when there is another food cart free to get the food straight away! Well, there has to be a reason why there is a queue at one and not the other! It is that simple, so trust me, follow the crowd of locals when it comes to street food! This couldn't have been more relevant for our time in Granada, as we waited in a queue for around 30 minutes at an old ladies food stall that was way out of the centre (and it did feel like a bit of a dodgy part of town), but we had heard good things, so we waited and waited.. It was the best street food we had tasted in Nicaragua! So we returned almost every night we were here!

There are lots of day trips that are available here to, with the most popular being the Masaya volcano tour, a tour that we actually decided against.. After seeing a fair few of volcanoes we thought that we would give this a miss! However, there is another day trip that we had to do, and that was to visit Laguna de Apoyo. An enormous thermal crater lake, that is just screaming to be swam in, grab a beer from the local bar along with a rubber ring and spend your day floating around the magnificent lagoon! We loved it so much that we decided to turn this day trip into a 3 day stay! I would fully recommend doing this, because as soon as the day-trippers headed back to Granada, you are left with this beautiful place all to yourself (well, almost, but you get what I mean!), witness the most perfect sunset and if you're lucky enough (and daft enough to wake up), the most peaceful sunrise! Make sure that you stay at Hostel Paradiso, we met some great people here and it is definitely the best place to stay while you are here.

Granada is a must stop on your Nicaraguan adventure but before you visit for yourself, here is a look from behind the lens..