January 22, This port is on the north pacific side south of Rivas. It was a nice smooth ride up from Costa Rica, we arrived at about 8am. Once we were cleared by immigration we had to be ready to tender ashore as a group since we ended up booking a tour. Our tour was to a Tobacco Plantation, Granada and Parque Central. This tour entailed a two hour bus ride each way. The drive through the countryside to Granada was very interesting, we passed many farms and small towns. It was a Sunday and everyone was out and about heading to church or just socializing. Of course all the cows, bulls and horses seemed to be out too. Apparently the grass tastes better by the side of the road. We drove through Rivas, a beach town settled in 1522 by the Spanish, featuring beautiful colonial architecture. Close to Granada we saw two huge volcano's, the Mombacho and Masaya. Quite impressive and beautiful. There are over 20 volcanoes in Nicaragua, 7 which are active.
Our first stop was at the Dona Elba Cigar tobacco plantation owned by Jennifer & Silvio Reyes. It is not a large plantation as he grows everything organic. Silvio showed us tobacco plants he was growing, some just 2 days old, some 8 weeks old and ready to be transplanted. After this he invited us inside where they cut and make cigars. He said we could smoke any cigar for free before we bought so I jumped on the offer. The worker pictured below rolled a cigar for me, even cut it and lite it.
Our next stop was Nicaragua Lake, the world’s 19th largest lake. It contains 365 tiny islands, one for each day of the year. Most are owned for rich Nicaraguans and Foreign property owners.
We were then off to Parque Central which was the town square which included a beautiful Catholic church, Mass was being given while we entered.
There were other colonial buildings around the square. Some beautiful statues, a band stand. A market was going on, but could not find anything we had to have. They had peddlers that tried to sell us I am sure items made in China but were friendly and took a no graciously.
We then had to board the bus for the return trip, back on the same roads.
Once back to the port, we decided to walk to the beach town so I could get my Nicaraguan beer. We were also hungry, we could not find the place recommended by the beach bums back in Costa Rica so we went to “Laco Azul bar y restaurante. Our waiter could not speak a word of English so we hoped our fish burgers we a nice filet and there were. Very delicious and the beer was very good too and cold. I had all the Nicaraguan beers available. I will be adding these to the list soon.
After returning to the ship it was nearly dinner time, but we decided to skip going to the dining room and attended the Comedy Showtime show of Al Katz. He was good and funny, we saw him previously on Holland. After the show we went to the buffet and had a salad and sat outside on the aft and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
We then went to our room and watched the Giants-49ers game. We didn’t care who won this, but glad to see Baltimore lose.
At 6:00 they heaved the anchor and headed back into the Pacific ocean. Below is picture of Statue at the harbor entrance.
We will spend the next 5 days sailing to San Diego. We do not have internet connection due to sun flares.
1-27 going to try and send this although the internet is very slow
