Day 15: Waffles, Pool & Las Isletas de Granada

On Sunday, the whole group met up at the "Choco Museo" for Brunch on our last day in Granada. For a little bit more than a hundred Cordoba ( 5-8 dollars), we could get anything from a delicious exotic buffet with pineapple and cacao waffles, crepes and pancakes as well as omelets, coconut bread with guava and pineapple jam, the traditional gallo pinto, fried plantains, sauteed potatoes, a selection of freshly squeezed juices, cacao tea, hot chocolate and Nicaraguan coffee. Best breakfast ever!

Emily, Sarah, Sophia and me during brunch

Pineapple and cacao beans waffle

After brunch, we all headed to the Museo's pool and relaxed in the water the entire morning. Lots of bonding time with the group as well as tanning time (or rather getting burned by the Nicaraguan sun).

Choco museo's pool

Pool side

Duke Engage girls: Sarah, me, Emily, Sophia...

... Pauline & Maddie ( and Janvi & Amanda)

In the afternoon, we got on a little motor boat and explored "Las Isletas de Granada", a multitude of little islands on Lake Nicaragua, the largest fresh water lake in central America.

Our boat

Our crew

 Our tour guide Ramon showed us the different islands and told us about the flora and fauna inhabiting the lake. Lake Nicaragua is home to blue sharks as well as a large variety of birds. Each island is it's own little oasis in the middle of the dark green waters and while some of them belong to the native villagers, others belong to rich investors and ex-patriots and others are for sale or for rent. However, each one of them is unique and is home to a variety of species.

Islands...

We first stopped at the "Natives cemetery island", an island that houses the graves of hundreds of people who, for the most part,  have lived  on "Las Isletas de Granada" their entire lives.
We then came across the "Tree of life", an ancient specimen of Nicaragua's national tree. Both very impressive things to see.

Natives cemetery island

"Tree of Life"

 Next, we got to see strange nests built by a species of birds native to the lake as well as shipwrecks left behind in the waters of "Las Isletas", one of which was a gift from the queen of England.  There we woke up a family of bats that then started flying away before coming back to their ship.

Bird nests

Bats and shipwrecks

 As we moved further into "Las Isletas", we had a breath-taking view of volcano Mombacho, the volcano we had climbed a week earlier. 

View of volcano Mombacho

We then accosted on the natives villagers island where we were welcomed with open arms. One of the villagers even climbed up a coconut tree to get us coconuts that he then prepared for us to drink from. The operation looked quite dangerous and was very impressive and the coconut water was very refreshing!

Villager picking up coconuts for us

Climbing down the tree...

Preparing the coconuts...

Coconut water...Delicious!

We also got to tour around the island, meeting villagers and observing the variety of fruits that grow on the island.

Little girl carrying fruits

Mango tree

Papaya

After getting back on the boat, we headed to the monkey island, a privately owned island home to four monkeys. Soon after that we were surprised by rain and stopped at a little island that housed a cafe. Once the rain was over, we headed back to the main land but not before stopping by an island on which an old fortress was built, one that used to protect Granada from pirate attacks.

Back to the boat

Monkeys!

Tropical rain

 

Island and volcano Mombacho

Emily, Janvi and I on top of the fortress in the middle of Lake Nicaragua

The visit of "Las Isletas de Granada" was a wonderful trip! With all the fantastic images in our heads we packed our bags that evening to get ready for our journey on the next day: Leon, Nicaragua's cultural center for team "Iniciativa" and Matagalpa, the coffee city in the Northern Highlands for my team, team "Impacto". New locations, new adventures... I'm very excited to see what awaits us in the next couple of days!