Before I get to the monkey island adventure, I should tell you about dinner last night at a place called El Zaguán. It was a meat on the BBQ type place. For an entree I had 2 chorizo sausages and salad washed down with a nice premium beer. Mains was ribs with huge chunks of meat on then with rice, potato and plantain. Of course washed down with another beer. A little pricey at C$280, but thats only about $15. Way too much food though, mains was enough for me, despite the waiter telling me the entrees were small.
Ok food out of the way, lets get onto the tour of the isletas in the lake near Granada. There are approximately 300+ isletas in the lake just near Granada. Most of them have the homes of the rich and famous of Nicaragua including the richest family in Nicaragua who happen to own the rum factory which is handy. Well that family only owns 3 isletas. One of which was to be a casino/resort but didn’t get approval for even though they still built it.
Isletas
So we cruised around looking at the islands and houses. There is a nice little island for $25k US if anyone is in the market. Another fully developed island for only $500k which I actually thought was cheap given it wouldn’t buy you much in Canberra these days.
Of course then there is Monkey island. A local vet with his own island put the monkeys he’d cared for on this island, now its a tourist hotspot. You can give them food but not touch them. Most of them are spider monkeys, but there is one white capped capuchin that we didn’t see. I wish I was a monkey, it looks so cool hanging swinging around the trees.
Spider monkey
Then we stopped for a drink. I had some local passionfruit concotion that was ok, but not as refreshing as it sounded at first.The little restaurant had a few tame parrots i played with instead, feeding biscuits too. They wouldn’t let me tough them though, nasty little beaks they have.
So I’m back in Granada for my last afternoon. I head off to Ometepe island tomorrow for the weekend. All the yanks around here are gearing up for thanksgiving, so I’m escaping before they try to plumpen me up even more.
Another unusual thing I’ve noticed is the little casinos around town, or as I would call them pokie lounges. It seems all the old poker machines retire themselves to Nicaragua. And the Nicaraguans just sit inside and play them all day it seems.
Sleepy Parrot
Ok so next time i should be on an island formed by 2 volcanoes…. Are you guys sick of volcanoes yet? I’m close to it now. plus churches heaps of nice churches too. Hopefully Costa Rica will be wildlife, all about jaguars, frogs, butterflies, turtles and monkeys.