Granada, Nicaragua

Flew back to Panama city with a 4 hour wait before our flight to Nicaragua. We’d considered making a quick trip to see the Panama Canal, but read that the city traffic can be awful and didn’t want to miss our connection. Since we’d seen the canal - and loads of ships waiting to pass - from the plane, we convinced ourselves that was close enough.
We arrived very late to our (very cute) hotel in Granada, but got up early to walk to the main square, cathedral and the old city. It’s incredibly hot and humid here so we’ve been taking it all in at a tropical pace…very slow.
Granada was founded in 1524 by the Spanish, making it one of the oldest colonial towns in Central America. Apparently, because of the strategic location, it was used as a key shipping point for the Spanish to send much of the plundered gold and silver back home. Because of this, Granada also gained the attention of pirates (AKA the English, Dutch and Portuguese). Even Captain Morgan is reported to have visited here.
This was a truly charming city that we highly recommend. Most of the buildings are attached, single story houses – usually with a single ornate door and window on the outside. However, each house paints their street-facing wall in a different, pastel color - creating a patchwork of color on each block. Most buildings also have beautiful courtyards behind their walls and often we saw the owners sitting in their rocking chairs in their front rooms watching the world go by.Read more