San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
Under a few drops of rain, a local brass band welcomed us to our second day in Nicaragua. Our friendly and knowledgeable Nicaraguan guides waited for us at the dock of San Juan del Sur. A fishing village most of the year and located on a cove of stunning cliffs, this town was a key stop on the Cornelius Vanderbildt’s trans-isthmian stagecoach route during the Californian gold rush at the end of the 19th Century.
From there, we headed on to the town of Rivas where we gathered around a group of “pepanos” (three-wheeled bicycles, propelled by one person power); after almost a week of a never-ending-feeding-frenzy, most of us felt sorry for the pepano driver... We rode around town, through the street market, in front of small stores and peoples’ homes, finally stopping at the San Pedro church. An old colonial church on the plaza, among whose curious artworks is a fresco in the cupola showing a battle at sea between Communism, Protestantism, Secularism, and Catholicism.
The following stop is Granada. In Granada, like in León, the streets are lined with Spanish-style houses with stuccoed adobe walls and large wooden doors opening onto cool interior patios. Once a very important and rich trade center, the city offered us a beautiful central plaza, a former monastery transformed into a museum, and a breathtaking art gallery with local, Latin American, and world-renowned artists, such as Picasso and Matisse.
On to a delicious typical Nicaraguan lunch at Restaurant called “El Filet.” Right after our meal we headed on to our new site, an active volcano named Volcán Masaya. During the pre-Columbian age, this volcano was an object of veneration by the indigenous people of the area who thought that the eruptions were signs of anger from the gods. In order to appease them, they offered sacrifices—even humans were sent to calm the immortal’s anger. The volcano has been inactive since 1772, but it represents a magnificent example of how man will never really dominate Mother Nature.
Finally, our time arrived to do some shopping! We went to the artisan’s market in Masaya and were let loose! Purses, T-shirts, shoes, and candy, coffee and cacao powder, belts, wooden carvings, post cards, and many other goods were offered; most of us took the hint. Even those who were not into shopping had a great opportunity of looking around and watching their shipmates go crazy, the children offering help, and the vendors making sale’s deals. We went back to the ship with a smile on our faces, under the pouring rain, which lasted only until we were meant to get off the buses. Someone on this boat has a good-weather-spell…
