Our first day in Nicaragua we were overwhelmed by the heat and noise. The city was a drastic change from our relaxed island adventure. The only downfall to our Granada timing was that every hotel was booked. A slightly crazy looking man picked up on our lost-overwhelmed-american tourist scents and insisted on helping us find a hotel. He walked us from place to place, speaking in broken english and waving at random people...we were highly skeptical. Why was he so insistant on helping us, how did he know all these people and more importantly did we have to tip him?? Finally we settled on a semi-private room in a hostel that seemed nice. We had half a wall seperating our room from the other. We noticed that the hotel gave our insisting guide 30 cordobas. We figured it was good that he helped us navigate because at one point we found ourselves surrounded by the glue sniffing street kids that are typical of Granada..our guide skillfully swatted them away. We spent the majority of our morning drinking giant glasses of iced cacao in the central park while watching the street vendors do their thing. We took the obligatory siesta and then went to the central park at night to watch nationally famous singer Carlos Mejía Godoy perform infront of the cathedral.
The next morning we heard a rumor that a parade would be starting just down the block from our hostal. The rumor was proven to be true when suddenly fireworks starting exploding and a band began playing. Out of absolutely nowhere hundreds of people in amazing costumes appeared infront of the delapidated church and began dancing in a manner that I have never witnessed before in my entire life..
All the men were dressed like voluptuous women complete with nylons, heels, makeup, undergarments..you name it. They all wore fantastic painted wooden masks. It was literally insane. Sensory overload.
Soon we noticed more and more people in costumes lining up in the street to prepare for the parade. Groups of boys dragging chains between them ran full speed down the street, falling, scraping their knees on the road, setting off fireworks and chasing each other while wearing this hats will tall blue thingys ( for lack of a better word) jutting up a few feet into the air. Folklorico groups danced along behind them. More men in dresses shimmied their way down the street to reggeaton. It was magnificent.
Towards the end of the parade a group of men dressed like random political figures (that I don´t know well enough to identify..except Ortega of course) came walking down the street. The man dressed as Ortega was manipulating a giant piñata while random characters attempted to swat at it. A man in a purple dress called Justin into the parade and made him try to hit the piñata. Justin being the insightful, respectful person he is gently swatted the piñata just incase the action was disrespectful to a certain political party. The man, most likely unimpressed by Justin´s batting arm called me in next. Because I am apparently much more oblivious to my political actions I wailed on that piñata like there was no tomorrow while the crazy men in dresses danced and chanted around me. Definetly the weirdest moment in my life so far. The group was protesting the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan dispute of the Rio San Juan. I am not sure of American involvement in this issue, but I would not be surprised if a photo of me destroying that piñata suddenly appears in some ¨Get America out of our Teritorial Disputes!¨ article...oops.
Other than the crazy parade, The poverty in Granada seemed overwhelming. I´m not sure if the beggers were out in full force because of the influx of tourists or what, but it was really heartbreaking. Children begging for food followed us everywhere. We were so bothered by it that we left earlier than we had intended to. We plan on returning to Granada for a few more days before we fly home. It will be interesting to see the city a bit less inflated with people.
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