Granada

Just a quick note to report that all is well.I arrived in Granada with no issues other than being over charged by the cabbie in Managua.I found a nice hotel in Granada..hospedaje Cocibolca.$15 a night.The city is absolutely beautiful being alongside Lagos Nicaragua.The central part of the city (pop around 70,000) is full of old buildings going back 3 to 4 and sometimes 500 years.It is the oldest city in Nicaragua and via boat one can sail to the south of the lake and take a river that will lead to the Caribbean coast.This splendor has been its undoing in the past as pirates have frequently entered the river ...sailed up it to the lake and sacked Granada..City was founded in 1530s.It is like being in old Quebec City only on a larger grander scale.The facades of the colonial structures are painted bright colours with grand balconies looking down onto to the streets.Unlike Guatemala, the streets and sidewalks are wide and there isn't as much bustle other than the market and central park.I have been in so many beautiful churches I am worried I may convert.They are still celebrating Santa Maria and the other day I entered two churches just to list to the music and rest.In the church facing the central park I sat in one of the side  knaves and listened to women, children, monks and a few men singing over and over again the chorus to some song that went on and on and just when I thought it had finished people would raise their arms ,finger their beads and launch into yet another vigorous round.It was like listening to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah over and over again.Like I said...I could have joined the monastery right away if they had had a recruitment officer nearby.
Yesterday I rented a bike and went along the lake and into the woods all the way to Puerto Asese.On the way back I took a diversion off the paved rod onto a extremely rough...sandy rocky road all the way to this small pueblo called El Dimante.On the way to El Daimante I passed a heard of goats and several cattle being driven by a cowboy on horseback.A number of horse drawn wagons trotted by as well as the occasional guy on bicycle and a few Nicaraguan chicken buses.I bought a fresh coconut off a woman vendor alongside the road( I had to wake her up as she was sleeping on a mat with a baby) struck a straw in it and drank the juice up eagerly.