Pirates in Granada!

Day Four:

Our day started by going to the market here in Managua, where we bought some fruits to eat later on. The market is a place full of merchants, and overall very crowded. Smells range from the pleasant scent of exotic fruits to the overwhelming smells of slaughtered animals for sell.

The town of Granada was our next stop and we spent most of the afternoon eating and walking around. But first, we went on a boat ride around the different islands in Lake Nicaragua, where people have nice houses on top of rocks and have their own boats to travel back to the main land. We encountered several monkeys on an island, "monkey island" if you will, and they certainly were friendly because they recognized us as potential sources of food . They climbed the branches near the water to greet us. I guess they're stuck on the small island and they've learned to recognize tourists on boats. One of the monkeys climbed on a boat nearby and some kid on the boat tried giving him some gum. Obviously monkeys are not that dumb, and he quickly rejected the sticky mess.

We finished the evening by eating some "vigoron" which is basically chicharron with yucca root, very yummy. We wanted to ride on the carriages but didn't get a chance to because it was getting late. Their is a lot of history that goes along with the town. It was in Grananda where U.S. forces took control the country in 1890's with Marines under the command of William Walker. And even way before that Granada was a hot spot for pirates in the Carribean. Crazy right? We will probably make it back there some time next week so that we can spend more time in the town.