Fritangas

A popular food way to serve food here is through mobile set-ups called "fritangas." This term seems to be used broadly but it basically refers to (per my understanding) the vendors who set up on the street to sell a variety of foods, many of them fried. There are lots of these around town and in the Central Plaza. We are lucky enough to have one that sets up on our street every Friday-Sunday evening. They serve grilled pork, chicken, or beef, accompanied by a coleslaw type salad and your choice of fried plantains (maduros) or deep fried plantains which are basically like potato chips but made of plantains. You can also get "queso frito" (fried cheese), "gallo pinto" (red beans and rice that are fried), fried empanadas, and white rice. All of this is served inside large cleaned banana leaves that you use as your plate and for a good sized serving of the meat of your choice, plus the salad and two types of plantains it costs 70-80 Cordobas (about 3 dollars). My favorite is the pork and chicken--yummy! I'll try to get some photos of the fritanga women cooking the food to add below, but in the meantime you can see the food at least.

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Isabel's School

So Isabel started school on April 2nd and so far she is enjoying it.  Mom and Dad are still waiting to render our verdict as it is very different curriculum-wise from her previous school and it is taking some adjustment on our side.  Its also in Nicaragua and type of materials and surroundings are just different (which could be both good and bad).  Classes are from 8:30-1:00, and she has a little minivan that picks her up and drops her off.  At the K3 level, where Isabel is, they don't really do much instruction, but rather have playtime, both indoors and out to allow the children to explore.  The teachers seem very warm and caring. The wonderful thing is that Isabel's Spanish is through the roof and she's talking up a storm, including verb conjugations!  She also likes to collect mangoes and eat them from the tree in their school yard. She eats them skin and all. The whole school also took a field trip last Friday to a finca/farm where she got to do a hayride, horseback ride, and run and explore the farm--great exposure and experience for her.  She was filthy and exhausted when she got home and very happy with the day.

First day.  She has to wear navy bottoms and a school shirt (which we didn't have yet).

Inside of school communal play areas.

Front wall of school.

The school has two buildings on different sides of the road.  This is where the older children go.

Laguna de Apoyo

Last weekend Raul, Isabel and I traveled a whopping 30 minutes from Granada to spend Friday through Sunday at a hotel at the Laguna de Apoyo. The hotel sent a taxi to pick us up at our house and drop us at the hotel for $10. Day trips are possible to the Laguna (which we will do in the future), but we wanted to spend a couple of nights in nature, away from the noise of the city. Laguna de Apoyo is a gorgeous volcanic crater lake that was formed over 20,000 years ago, that is currently within a protected nature preserve. The waters are crystal clear/blue and are always comfortably warm due to thermal vents at the bottom of the lake. The hotel/lodge we stayed in (San Simian:
San Simian Eco Lodge situaded between Granada and Masaya in the Crater Laguna de Apoyo)
is a series of five different stand-alone bungalows on the hill leading to the lake, most with outdoors showers and baths. They have a restaurant on site and provide kayaks and tubes for hanging out in the lake. Everything was really professional and nice--we'd highly recommend the hotel.
The tourism industry has started to invade the Laguna and we saw construction for houses/hotels, though I understand it is somewhat restricted at the moment since it is a nature reserve. Its still relatively sparsely populated. I would LOVE to have a house here and tried to convince Raul that we should move there for a few months. Its within 20-30 mins from both Granada and Managua so we'd have cities close by. He wasn't convinced unfortunately. The houses are already priced out of our budget anyway.
It is currently the hottest and driest month of the year so there isn't much greenery in the photos. Once the rains come next month though, everything should come back to life. Even in the heat and dryness, we saw probably 5 or 6 different brightly colored tropical birds, 2 owls, a couple different lizards, a bright green snake, bats, frog/toad and a number of insects. There are monkeys but unfortunately we didn't see them. While we were there on Friday, there were only a few other people which was lovely. On Saturday, because you can do a day pass there were more, but still not crowded or overwhelming (though I would definitely prefer the people-free weekdays).

Looking down at the lake from the hotel hillside.

More of the hotel grounds.

Isabel enjoying the few flowers that remained.

Shore of the lake in front of hotel. We had to wear our Keens because of the rocks.

Hotel pier. Apparently when the rains come, the water will rise to the top of the ladder.

Dad and Isabel going out for a swim.

A tired little monkey after a morning of swimming.

Raul contemplating the nature and beauty around us.

Isabel and Raul kayaking.

Heading out on the Kayak.

Relaxing and riding the waves in an inner-tube.

After we left the hotel on Sunday, we went up to the little town of Catarina on the rim of the crater where they have a "mirador" (lookout) where we could look out over the whole laguna. After having spent a couple of days inside the crater it was really cool to look at it from the top. The mirador has a lot of restaurants and stores set up, and also have horse rides of varying length. Isabel loves horses so we spent the dollar for the short ride. Unfortunately she chose the biggest horse they had and subsequently I had to ride with her. That did not go over well at all, so we had to do a second ride where she was allowed to go by herself on a smaller horse. It was a really nice place to have lunch and enjoy the views and the breeze. We didn't get a chance to walk around the town but will plan to do that next time. I didn't get any photos, but the town is known for its greenhouses and gardens--folks come from all around to buy their plants in Catarina. We saw probably 20 or more nurseries driving through.

Laguna de Apoyo from the crater rim in Catarina.

The line-up of horses to choose from. Its hard to tell, but they were actually nice looking.

Mom and Isabel on horse #1.

Isabel alone on horse #2.

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Los Mercados (The "Markets")

There are several different types of markets we've experienced so far in Granada and surrounding areas.  There is the supermarket, which is very similar to what we'd have in the US but much smaller; there is the "Mercado Municipal" (the Municipal Market), which is a combination outdoor/indoor market where you can buy everything from dogfood, to fruit, to meat, to chairs at a very good price; there are the Mercados Artesenias (handicraft market) for tourists where you can buy handicrafts made here in Nicaragua and surrounding countries; and there are also what I am calling "mobile markets" where vendors carry a wide range of food up and down the streets (on their heads, on carts, or on bicycles), calling out what they are selling, so that you can buy them from your front door. 

We visited the Masaya Mercado Nacional de Artesenias, which is the biggest handicraft market in the area when Raul's family was here.  It is very well organized wtih a lot of vendors selling a range of handmade things including hammocks, ceramics, paintings, clothes, carved wooden items, jewelry, etc...plus some unique items seen below.

Some lovely breast mugs saying things like "Try me if you'd like"

Copulating and drinking frogs/toads.  We are not sure if they are real--t

hey seem stuffed.

These photos got out of order, but wanted to show one of the puppet/folklore costumes below in action in Granada.

Not for sale, but wanted to share. They are costumes for dancing and telling folktales.

    

A "juice bar" inside the market. One of the best things here are the wide variety of delicious fresh fruit smoothies and juices.

The Mercado Municipal is THE place to go to get cheap fruit, cheese, rice, beans etc... in Granada  We typically walk there and depending on the weight of our load, carry our goods home or take a taxi.  It is hot and hectic in the market so we don't do it always (the convenience of someone bringing it right to your door is appealing, even if it costs a little more), but are always amazed at the deals you can get.  The most astonishing one to me is that right now you can get a dozen (yes 12) mangoes for about 80 cents.  And of course they are super fresh and sweet.

The main tourist strip/street in Granada, which is called La Calzada, now has a large number of handicraft stalls set up at the beginning of the street.  These were not here when we came last summer and is an indicator of how much the tourism is growing.  Its also a reminder of the poverty as many of the people who have the booths just put a tarp over their table at night and sleep under the table.  We have seen a number of people doing this, including children.