Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Grandeur of Granada - Nicaragua




















Founded in the 1520s, Granada is a real Colonial gem in Nicaragua. If you take the plunge and visit, you will have this beautiful place pretty much all to yourself with all its plazas, porticos, and colonnades...




















People are welcoming and friendly, and the whole place has a very intimate small town feel, somewhat dwarfed and daunted by the grandeur and scale of such elegant architecture...





















There are numerous beautiful churches, chapels, and a stunning cathedral. Brightly coloured colonial streets and alleys head off in every direction, and who can resist all these gorgeous doors and windows...




















Granada is a very accessible 45 minute cab ride from Managua Airport, and provides a great base for a week or so, as there are some great day trips that can be taken from here, such as the volcanoes at Masaya and Mombacho, as well as the pueblos blancos, and the markets at Masaya. There are enough bars, cafes, and restaurants to sustain a week's stay, and a great hotel for accomodation is the Casa San Francisco. At 65USD for a double room it is great value, and Octavio the chef cooks up wonderful food every night. Check it out at www.casasanfrancisco.com and for more My World Tuesday postings click here...

11 comments:

Owen said...

This is simply beautiful Catherine... I'm green, blue, red, and yellow with envy and desire to go, like tomorrow morning early. Must be fabulous ! And the textures... sure wish I had even the rudiments of Spanish. What a failure some aspects of my education were. I could have had Spanish in high school... but no, was too bent on other idiot ideas of youth. But at least picked up one language other than English...

And your new header photo, wow, where is it ??? How tantalizing and tempting and torture... one just wants to step in and start hiking. (with a good supply of water of course...)

Fly Girl said...

Gorgeous architecture! Of course, I love the splashes of color the best.

Sylvia K said...

What a terrific post, Catherine! I would love to go there! Your photos are marvelous as always! I do love your new header, too! Very interesting!

Have a great week!

Sylvia

Rinkly Rimes said...

Your architecture looks grand and colourful.

Indrani said...

Such a lovely collage of doors! Beautiful place visited and thanks a ton for the precious glimpses.

Japa said...

Wow. Lots of great and interesting shots here.

Unknown said...

A great way to capture an old place. There is so much detail in colonial architecture that you can spend all day trying to photograph it.

eileeninmd said...

Cool post and I love all the photos of Granada.

The Summer Kitchen Girls said...

So in love with the doors! Anytime we go on vacation I take pictures of doors....drives my husband nuts :)

Catherine said...

Hey Owen - get yourself over to Mexico and Central America - you will love it - header photo is in the wilds of The Sierra San Francisco in the deserts of Baja California - loved the path into the blue which seems to suggest the freedom of travel...
Hey fly,sylvia,Rinkly, Indrani, Japa, cate, eileen and Summer - thanks so much for stopping by with all your lovely comments - much appreciated..

Johnny Nutcase said...

the doors are great! nice composite! so many colors, lvoe it.