Days 223 & 224: A hot weekend and a day in Granada

We took a ride to Granada, a city of rich colonial heritage that is an hour from Managua, on Saturday. The city is located by Lake Cocibolca so, we decided to start our day of exploration from the lakeside area. The entrance area was nice; however, the rest was unremarkable. We stopped for lunch at a one of the restaurants in the area where I got my first taste of what people say about online dating. What I got on my plate did NOT look like the picture in the menu at all, but I ate it despite it not tasting as good either.

 

 

After the lakeside, we went to the center where the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral) is. The first temple of this church was built around 1525 and by 1578, the place had already been burned down twice. The second temple was built around 1751 and, after numerous additions and revisions, the completed version we see today is from 1972 and spans an area of 3,614.87 m².

 

 

 

We got to climb the bell tower for 1 USD and got a nice view of the whole city from there. However, no channeling your inner Quasimodo when you are in the tower because ringing the bell would result in a hefty fine. Obey the posted signs and you get to keep your money without the alternative of being someone’s sweet lil’ thing in a Nicaraguan prison. I may or may not have exaggerated that last part.

 

 

 

From the church, we went to the main pedestrian street where we found numerous stores and restaurants that were likely better than the ones in the lakeside area. We did have some ice cream to cool down from the hot day before heading back to Managua.

 

On Sunday, we decided to stay indoors and out of the heat to do what all responsible adults do – work and binge-watch cartoons on Netflix.