Granada, Nicaragua

The hot weather is killing us!

It feels like an oven, and we are sweating all the time. There are mosquitos everywhere. The rosters sing throughout the night until morning. The day goes so slow and night goes so fast. I was used to the North American life. The life where time goes by faster than you wish, where you go hopping from place to place with AC, where everything is open 24/7. It has been only a few days, and everyone is still holding tight to whatever makes them feel close to home. Everyone is going where there is Wi-Fi and have began to broadcast their experience and complains.

We all complain about the weather, but it is something that we do everywhere, we are Americans after all.

It has been a while since I heard so many birds sing at once. They flight from side to side announcing when the rain will come. We have learned to appreciate the rain, specially in the evening, when the heat is at its peak. The rain lowers the heat of the streets and brings a pleasant breeze.

Nonetheless, it is totally worth it! Behind the folkloric city of Granada lays a city rich in history. A city once again conquered by foreigners, every corner that you walk by you will see foreign people.

Since all my friends are learning Spanish, I have been enjoying my free time learning more about the Nicaraguan and Latin America history. Some facts that have learn so far are: Granada is one of the first cities to be built by the Spanish people. Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba was sent from Colombia to find the best way move from the Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Córdoba found the River San Juan which connects the Caribbean Sea to the Lake Nicaragua, and he called it the “sweet sea” because he thought that it was the Pacific Ocean. The Lake Nicaragua is the biggest in Central America and used to have a great variety of fish that only were found in the sea but had adapted to sweat water, such as sharks and the swordfish. However, due to the indiscriminate fishing and pollution of the lake, many of those fishes have disappear already. The sharks have not been seen in a while, so many have suggested that they may be extinct.

The Spanish conquerors were not the only ones that found the River San Juan, pirates from Jamaica also found it after the city had become rich. They came in, stole three times, and set it on fire. One of the last times that pirates from the Great Britain were coming, Lorena Herrera came up with the great idea of setting on fire the river, so pirates could not come in.

I have been learning about some more recent history as well, such as William Walker, who also order to set on fire all the four main churches when he was chase out of the city. Walker was an American who was summon in 1855, by the liberal people of Leon. There has always been a constant fight for power between the people of Leon and Granada, the conservatives. The lost of land by Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Honduras. The constant fight between Costa Rica and Nicaragua for the River San Juan. The Canal that was going to build here in Nicaragua even before the Panama Canal. All the influence the US has had in Nicaragua and Central America in General. The atrocities the Samoza family committed against its people. Lastly, the government and actual president, Daniel Ortega, whom has been changing the constitution on his favor. 

As you all can see, I have been very busy learning about Nicaragua and touring the city.