Granada, Nicaragua

This colonial city, founded in the 1500s, was partially destroyed by the North American madman William Walker, who tried to set himself up as emperor of Central America in the 1850s. He failed in that task, but did make a mess of things. Today, Granada has a beautiful central square where kids do acrobatics and dance. Many neighborhooda have stucco row houses, brightly painted - green, orange, one pink on top and brown on the bottom. Many people ride about in two wheeled horse carts, also bikes, and motorbikes. We walked through a market where people sold fruit, sandles, pants, electric fans, and much more on the street. Parque Sandino -Sandino Park, dedicated to the national hero of Nicaragua, has sculptures where artists have inscribed poems. I couldn´t translate them, but one line stuck with me... ¨yo soy triste con un policia´- "i am sad like a policeman¨. we met a street poet today who is a local legend, and he created a poem for us on the spot. Lake Managua is beautiful: We could see the volcanoes of Ometepe Island, which we will visit in a few days. With all its beauty, this city is very stratified economically, and very divided politically. Daniel Ortega is president of Nicaragua; we have heard from a trustworthy source that he and the Sandanista Party are considered corrupt. Still there is a lot of pro-Sandanista graffiti, and what could be anti Sandinista graffiti too (hard to tell with our weak Spanish.) We will do some research when there is time. We will post pix when we have a computer that will upload them reasonably quickly. It is HOT here... hope you are all well.