Granada, a beautiful town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua

We spent our first three days in Granada. We.  explored the town and its surroundings. Beautiful city with a rich colonial heritage as witness by its architecture. Granada was founded in 1524 by the Spanish explorer Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. We were told that it was burned three times, once by William Walker who invaded/captured Granada in 1855, declared himself president and burned the city soon after, before being driven out of the country after losing his international support.

View of the Pacific ocean, before arriving in Managua

The cathedral

Beautiful people of Nicaragua who have endured so much over the years. 

"Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only  be achieved by understanding"

Albert Einstein

Nicaragua: Volcan Masaya and Monkey island near Granada

After spending 2 great weeks in California, here we are in Nicaragua. We went from Managua directly to Granada, a attractive town near Lake Nicaragua. The town itself is relatively small and safe. I feel never fully prepared to the heat and humidity in Central America.  Quite hard at first. Lucky to have had a swimming pool in the first hotel we stayed at. You sweat doing absolutely nothing.....92 degrees fahrenheit several days in a row with 100% humidity!
Granada has plenty of things to do, one being a tour of the isletas de Granada, formed after eruption of volcan Mombacho in the sixteen century. There is another volcano not far from Granada called Volcan Masaya, still very active. The Spanish baptized it "La boca del infierno". It erupts frequently. The last eruptions were in 2008 and 2012. There is an amazing view of the crater in the National park of Masaya Volcano. You will see some pictures below. So impressive to see the boiling lava at the bottom of the crater. We went there at night which made the view only more impressive.

We also take a tour of the isletas de Granada by boat. Beautiful little volcanic islands (165 total). One of them is filled with monkeys.

Cute spider monkeys!