IMG_4488Today was amazing! We started off with a pancake (!) breakfast at the hostel followed by our culture and safety orientation, a little energizer and our mental warm up on Nicaraguan history. Then we took a tour of the city in horse drawn carriages, ending at the Museum San Francisco where we saw some art and listened to Jorge Garcia, the museum librarian, talk about Nicaraguan politics and his family’s involvement in the Sandinista revolution. We returned to the hostel for some down time and watched and listened to a deluge of tropical rain flood the streets and courtyards outside.  When the sky cleared up, we set out to walk the streets of Granada for the first time, taking in the vastness of Lake Nicaragua, listening to some calypso-style street musicians, and refreshing ourselves with some cold helado (ice cream).  Next, we had our first dinner (chicken tacos with guacamole) at La Favorita, the restaurant of Don Carlos, our gracious food provider.  We ended the day back at the hostel with our nightly meeting and our first self-reflection. The group is bonding surprisingly fast – lots of laughs today! We are all feeling tired but happy to be here and looking forward to culture day tomorrow!

IMG_4496