Restaurants in Granada

Granada in Nicaragua is a truly wonderful place to visit because of its old world charm set amidst stunning natural beauty, the volcanoes, the beaches, the Colonial historical cities. Another reason for the popularity of this place as a tourist destination is that it is still relatively inexpensive to travel to, including activities, hotels and restaurants. Food is a very important component of a good vacation and tourists planning to visit Granada need to know about all the dining options this city offers.

There are plenty of street vendors who serve local delicacies at very low prices. However, I urge caution eating the food from a food vendor. Best to eat in restaurants. In fact, the local specialty, Vigoron, is something that should be tried at least once because its combination of cabbage, tomatoes, onions and pork served on mashed yuka is very tasty. The problem with eating street food in Granada is that it might not always be clean, so caution here.

There are some lovely restaurants in Granada where one can sample local and international food in a beautiful atmosphere. Visitors will find themselves at home at El Tercer Ojo (The Third Eye), a centrally located restaurant that offers fusion cuisine. The food served here is really tasty, whether it is Tapas or Pasta or even Asian foods. What makes this place really special is its relaxed atmosphere. People who want a taste of wonderful grilled food should visit El Zaguan for the best grilled meats. The portions here are generous and the food is cooked perfectly on an authentic wood grill. The specialty of the house is Parradilla which is a mixed grill consisting of steak, chicken, sausage and ribs. Absolutely fantastic! The restaurant also serves fish, but has limited options for vegetarians as this is a restaurant where meat is king! Our dinners were fantastic here, plus a troupe of singers will come by and serenade you - for a price (low) that is.

Seafood including lobster, shrimp and fresh fish is unbelievably fresh and inexpensive, so you will really enjoy the seafood for a good price. Eat to your heart's desire.

There are plenty of fresh tropical fruits, depending on the season. Our favorites are mangoes, papayas, pineapples and bananas. Fruit smoothies are also popular and will help you cool down on a hot day.

One of the staples of Nicaraguan food is rice and beans and comes with almost every meal, including breakfast. I didn’t often find good bread but you would have to search for that if you like good bread.

It is really wonderful how one can eat like a king for a relatively small amount in Granada. There are plenty of restaurants that tourists like to frequent, so it is very common for tourists to keep bumping into each other at one or the other of these restaurants.

Most of the restaurants, in fact the most popular ones including local and international foods you will find on Calle Calzada and around the central part of Granada. Beer and wine is also pretty cheap in Granada, unless you go for the imported brands.

Churches in Granada

Among the things to see in Granada are the many historical churches in the city. If you do a tour of Granada, you will be able to see most of them and some even allow you to climb up the bell towers and get a great view of the skyline of Granada.

Because Granada is such an old city, one of the oldest in the Americas, you can see many historical buildings, many renovated over time.

The main religion in Nicaragua is Catholic and the people take their religion very seriously and there are many festivals and holidays for all the Catholic saints. You can take some great pictures of the historical buildings and churches in the city.

Food in Nicaragua

Food in Nicaragua is very good, not as limited as in say, Cuba, and offers up such typical dishes as rice and beans (Gallo Pinto - a mixture of fried rice with onion and sweet pepper, red beans boiled with garlic, mixed and fried together.), chicken, beef, pork dishes fresh fish, tropical fruits, shell fish such as lobster and shrimp, fried cheese and plantain. There is also salads you can eat. Eggs with rice are served for breakfast.

My favorites, believe it or not were the rice and beans and the fish and lobster. Yum, yum, good! They call the daily diet of the Nicaraguans "comida typico." You can eat comida typico or what they call "international foods - which is anything you can get anywhere else in the world. They also eat a lot of corn and corn based foods such as Nacatamal and tortillas. Nacatamal is made of pork or chicken, with rice, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, sweet pepper, packed in plantain leaves and boiled for a long time. I tried it, but I didn’t like it that much. I wanted to try it because it is one of the most famous and well known dishes of Nicaragua.

In season, you can eat a wide variety of tropical fruits which grow in abundance in Nicaragua. While I was there, I had a variety of melons, watermelons, mangos, and lots of pineapples. There were also many tropical fruits I’d never heard off before.

The food is generally healthy, organically grown and very tasty. I didn’t gain weight in Nicaragua maybe because the food is pure and I did lots of walking.

Nicaragua also grows coffee and I had plenty of their organic fresh coffee. You can also drink many kinds of fresh fruit drinks, fruit smoothies, (sometimes with rum in them), wine and Nicaraguan beer.

Other people enjoying Granada

It isn't only me that has enjoyed the time I spent in Granada. This happy family also went to Granada. They flew into Managua and then took a taxi to Granada. We actually went by tourist bus from Costa Rica. Enjoy the video. I found this Granada video on YouTube. Nicaragua is now becoming more popular as a tourist destination and there are several reasons - it offers a lot to tourists and the way of inexpensive restaurants and hotels in Granada, Nicaragua and the cost of traveling there is cheaper than other places in Central America and the Caribbean. It's also the safest country in Central America for tourists, so it's worth considering as your escape destination this winter.

Shopping at the Market in Masaya

Our tour bus and guide let us of at the market at Masaya in Nicaragua, which is housed in a very old Colonial building. It's a large market with lots and lots of market stalls for tourist shopping.



You can find just about anything here at this market and some of the prices are really great.



There are so many different things you can buy such as clothes – t shirts, blouses and dresses. I bought a lovely light yellow cotton blouse with some white embroidery on it for a a friend– sort of like a Chinese blouse. I also bought few t-shirts with Nicaraguan designs on it for the friends because I know back home nobody has a t shirt from Nicaragua.



I also bought some Nicaraguan cigars. They actually make cigars in Nicaragua. I bought plenty back – some for the boss at work and some of my colleagues.



I even bought a little piece of pottery made by Nicaraguans, covered with native designs.



I met up with a guy who took our group around the market at Masaya. He gave us a great speech which I recorded on video. He helped us bargain for lower prices, something my wife wasn't very willing to do because she is acutely aware of how poor people are. We gave him a tip at the end of his tour around the market.



When we had to leave the Masaya market and get back on the tour bus, there was a young guy about 13 or 14 years old. He was selling something that nobody needs, grasshoppers made of a dried grass. I bought one. I don't need one, but this guy needs money and is doing the best he can to survive in Nicaragua.



Our tour guide was in a hurry to get us back on the bus. It's just a job to him so he wanted to hurry us around back on the bus to move on to our next destination. But there was so much to see and everything in Nicaragua was so new for us!

The Colourful City of Granada, Nicaragua

Granada, sometimes the capital of Nicaragua is a beautiful old colonial town at the edge of Lake Nicaragua. Full of beautifully renovated old buildings, with muted Caribbean colors of blues, yellows, oranges and various shades of pink, it is a remarkable place to visit.

We went to the centre of the town, where we found find the town square, early in the evening, full of the local people, selling pottery, beads, jewelry, food, cigars, etc., and the music playing. Surrounding the town square were these old colonial buildings, restored and painted in bright colors. There is a church, the municipal government building and a very nice hotel called the Hotel Alambra. It's one of the best hotels in Granada. I took a walk inside and took some photos and the rate for the hotel is very reasonable, about $60 US per night. It’s got a lovely café in the front, gorgeous inside and a small pool. It would be very nice, just to sit at their café in the front, listen to the music and people watch in the early evenings.

This city is so alive.

We had taken a horse drawn carriage around the city and photographed and made some videos as we rode around. It’s a really beautiful little city. There are at least four old colonial churches there and it’s all set up for tourists, but we didn’t see many anywhere.

There is a street there where they don’t allow cars and it is borders by restaurants, cafes, little bistros and bars. What a wonderful place.

We stopped for a while by the Lake where there’s a pier out into the water. A statue of one of the early discovers. Lake Nicaragua is so big and it’s got white capped waves; you would think you were at the beach. The streets are clean. Again, all set up for tourists, but there is hardly anyone there.

Visiting Nicaragua on this little trip has only fueled desires to see more of the country where nobody goes. Time for a little tourism to Nicaragua.

Discover Granada,Nicaragua

Hola!

My day trip to Nicaragua started yesterday early morning by taking a van with other 8 people including the tour guide in the resort in CostaRica. The ride took approximately 3 hours drive to Nicaragua.



Our tour guide was a great asset, Spanish speaking and knew the ropes to get us through the border with no problems. He was also an experienced driver and knew how to manoevre the roads. The main highway to Nicaragua was a two lane highway and requires sufficient skill to drive.

At the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan borders on both sides, he knew how to sweeten the passage through by providing the police with cold cans of pop.

In my next postings, I will speak about my trip to Granada and share my photos and videos of the beautiful city.

Ciao for now.