Granada/ Laguna de Apoyo

Another early morning and another local bus, we start heading back South to Granada. Kris has left us to fend for ourselves but Lindsay has decided to come with us- Yay! Never a dull moment on the buses- no air con and all the windows are closed this time so we almost suffocate. We also pass some utes on the road with passengers riding in the tray- one in particular has a few deck chairs strapped to the tray with some relaxed local sleeping in them- ingenious!

Granada is a romantic little city with a nice central plaza complete with horse drawn carts waiting for customers. Much more touristy than Leon though. We arrive at our hostel (Hostel Momento- its great, hammocks everywhere) get shown around and soon discover there is no water- "Oh, there's no water in the city at the moment, didn't anyone tell u?" Um... No...

Nonetheless we drop our bags and set off again for Laguna de Apoya, the biggest and most pristine lake in the Granada region, a bus and short taxi ride away. Bus experts now we get to the turnoff fine. A row of taxi drivers are waiting. "Hola, how much to the lake?" The taxi driver smirks at us and says "200 cordobes". What?! Ok, that is only about $8 but we know the ride is only meant to cost 0.8c per person. He refuses to negotiate so we walk off in a huff. Hm.. its a long 6km walk down, how are we going to get there? Luckily at this point a nice American lady Larissa passes in her ute and gives us a lift down- Hurray! Take that thieving taxi drivers!!

The lake is stunning!! We get off at Laguna Beah Hotel and pay our $7 entry- there are hotels dotted all around the lake you can go to for a day visit. As soon as we walk in- Wow. A beautiful garden and deck leading down to the lake to the most amazing view, there's a restaurant and bar, deck chairs, 2 floating pontoons as well as kayaks and SUPs for the guests to use. Magical. We easily wile away the rest of the day here.

Highlights of the day include watching our clumsy friend Lindsay drop all her things in the water repeatedly and playing with Coco, the beautiful brown Labrador obsessed with catching and eating rocks.

Back to Granada for some local food with some newfound friends and its another great day complete :-)Read more