Granada

So, we are staying at our landlady's house in Granada, until she gets the house in San Juan del Sur in a move-in condition. Her house in Granada is just outside the main Granada city. The address is a typical Nicaraguan one: 55 kilometers on Highway X to Y, pink house on the right. Needless to say, there aren't any mailmen around, not that I've seen any anyway... That's quite a mouthful to say to a taxi driver (mind you, in Spanish) every time you want a ride home.

The apartment is off the highway, up a little dirt drive. It's a gated complex, altho a very simple one. The tall fence is topped by a barbed wire all around. Behind the house, there is a cemetery, and between the cemetery and our house there is a dump site, a field really, where we take Kaleb out for a dump too. Sometimes you can here cows mooing right next to the gate. That drives Kaleb nuts and he's ready to go get whatever is making that noise. Fortunately we're smarter and keep him away from those hooves.

Our landlady moved here from Costa Rica, where she still has a house, but she will probably come here to stay, as a lot of other expats. They just prefer Nicaragua to Costa Rica these days. The apartment is converted from a storage area to a comfortable enough studio. There is a gas stove and a fridge, and she even has a washing machine. I don't have to do the laundry the old fashioned way a lot of the locals still do it.

The washing machine doesn't even have a setting for cold/hot, because the water from the tank up on a pole will only comes in a range of temperatures from freezing cold to mildly tepid. The showers are a treat. It's not likely that you will want to linger under the ice-cold tickle very long, but at least it's not the infamous suicide-shower with open wiring susceptible to water.

Of course, you will have to throw the TP into a waste basket, or like we have at the moment; a plastic bag. It isn't as bad as it sounds: you'll get used to it, and they come pick up the trash 3 times a week. Besides, you'd rather do that than have water flowing inside the house from the toilet every now and then, because the old pipes just can't take the blockage.

The first couple of days were pretty intimidating, not knowing the language and it seemed we couldn't do anything. But little by little things improved and we got to know the city by the volcano better, and actually like it here now. Because we live outside the main city, taxes are important to us. And it's not like using taxes will bankrupt you. Taxi for 2 costs 80 cents for 2 people inside the city. Of course, you will have to share the taxi with anyone. The taxis stop for every person anywhere, until they are full. Sometimes you see a taxi crowded with at least 6 people, and it looks hilarious. You just tell them where you want to go, and you'll eventually get there, provided they know where it is.