Day 35. Granada is situated beside a huge freshwater lake. Jodie, Val, Annie and Safe took a Kayak tour of the mangroves and islets off Granada guided by Carlos, kayaker extraordinaire.
We found the mangroves quite shallow for our two-man canoes as it wasn’t the rainy season, and our kayaks ran aground on a few fallen trees, but we managed to squeeze through with some gentle persuasion. We were shown the abundant flora and fauna including the amusing chicken flower.
Jodie and Val gracefully navigate the mangroves
Annie and Safe show them how it's done!
Carlos shows us a chicken flower
Eventually we headed out of the mangroves and back out into open water where we explored some of the 365 islets, several of which were for sale, including one approximately 30m in diameter on offer for a cool US$100,000 (in case anyone is interested in a pile of rocks in the middle of a lake in Nicaragua).
The final part of the tour was a visit to an old Spanish fortress to pet a cute puppy then go for a refreshing swim.
Cute puppy
Same cute puppy
Somehow we managed to invite ourselves for an evening meal with Carlos and his family at his home. We canoed past several fishermen and tried to buy enough large Wapote (Rainbow Bass) for all of us (including Carlos, his wife, his mother-in-law and his three children). Unfortunately the fishermen only had the smaller Mojara so we planned to go to the market later.
Fisherman
Good catch of Mojara but no Wapote
We didn’t find our Wapote at the market as it had already sold out so we settled for 13 Mojara instead. After buying a selection of vegetables, we sat down to a bit of lunch (which of course included Gallo Pinto).
Carlos appeared at our hotel to take us to his home. We realised how small Granada was when he greeted the receptionist who was his wife’s cousin. (The receptionist was bizarrely called Yasser Vladimir – he was neither Arab nor Russion but his parents liked the names). We walked into the suburbs of Granada where the locals live and where the colonial houses end and the cobbled streets turn into mud tracks.
Carlos’s home was basic and comprised three small rooms and an outside cooking area to house his six family members. We prepared the vegetables outside but cooking took a while (understatement) as he had one small electric pan device. The twin girls Elena and Amanda (aged 6) ran amock and played football and barbie, and Christian (aged 10) practised his English. The twins might have looked the same but couldn’t have been more different. Elena is sporty whereas Amanda likes her jewellery and cleaning up. Val kept the kids entertained and even volunteered to be a life-size barbie whilst we attempted to cook the fish. The first few attempts ended in disaster as frying fish fell to pieces until the mother-in-law took over and the fish came out perfect, complete with Nicaraguan style tomato salsa.
Jodie chops onions
Elena and Amanda with Val
First attempt at frying Mojara
The finished article
Grandma, Christian, Christina and Carlos