CIGARS, RUM, CHOCOLATE AND ROCKING CHAIRS

We left Las Penitas and started the long drive to Granada.  We began the day by launching the truck baja style on a tope and miraculously not damaging the truck.  Next, we had to drive through the capital city of Managua, not known for its signage.  Somehow we managed to drive through this maze of a city without getting lost.  We did all this without coffee.

 
Granada is another gorgeous colonial city.  Brightly coloured buildings, a massive center square, beautiful churches, great restaurants and a really friendly vibe.  It's an easy place to spend some time and soak in the history.  Out of all the places we have been to, this is a city we would recommend to visit.  It has it all - culture, nightlife, lots of cheap adventure activities and the ocean is a short drive away.

 

One of the things Nicaragua is known for is making cigars (something you might not know is a large percentage of cigars sold in Cuba are made here.)  We found ourselves outside of a cigar shop/factory and went in and asked for a tour.  They happily obliged and walked us through the process.

cigar leaves drying

they can produce up to 700 a day

At the end of the tour, our guide brought us to the walk in humidor to try and sell us some cigars.  He brought us to a sitting area where we could drink cognac and flip through gentlemen magazines.  Since neither of us are gentlemen or cigar smokers, we declined and were on our way.

 
Our next stop was the chocolate factory.  This place was great!  We took a workshop on how to make chocolate bars.  This was very exciting to both of us.  Chocolate bars don't really exist in any of these countries and we are constantly craving them so when we found this place it was like Christmas morning.

doesn't justin look cute in an apron

roasting the beans until they started to pop 

husking the super hot beans

We learnt about the history of cocoa beans and how they are grown in Nicaragua.  We were shown how to roast, husk and crush the beans into a paste.  This actually was a lot of hard work and tough on the hands. It took us about an hour to make each of our chocolate bars.  We also made an Aztec hot chocolate drink, a Mayan  hot chocolate drink and a Spanish hot chocolate drink - all of them very good.  But after all those hot drinks and the chocolate making work we were completely overheated and felt a little sick from too much super rich chocolate.

our organic, stone ground, hand made, coffee flavoured chocolate bars

as you can see, it was a lot of work by the state of Justins shirt

picking up our chocolate bars the next day

The next thing we did was take a boat ride out to Las Isletas on lake Nicaragua.  These are a series of islands created by a massive explosion which took out a side of a volcano.  There are well over three hundred tiny little tropical islands.  Some are inhabited with grand homes, some have hotels and others restaurants but the best one of all was the one that had four monkeys living on it.  As always, the best part of this trip was learning about the history of this country from a locals point of view and not from a book.

Las Isletas with volcan Mombacho, the one that created these islands

monkeys with a tomato

Something else we noticed while walking around town (and all over Nicaragua) is that every home is guaranteed to have at least two rocking chairs.  It seems to be the national pastime here, so we thought we would give it a try....

Last but not least is the rum.  Flor de Cana, 18 year old rum was on the list of things we could not leave the country without.  We searched all the grocery stores and the little tiendas to find the best price.  It was still over forty dollars for the eighteen year old but its the best so we splurged.

taking a break, watching the activities in the square

the fountain in the center square

horse drawn carriages

cathedral de Granada

the oldest church in central america - Iglesia de San Francisco 

parade, couldn't figure out what it was for