Granada

Coming from Ometepe we took a taxi in the port of San Jorge, Rivas to Granada for 10$ per person. Price was negotiated from 20$ per person if I am not mistaken. 
There is a bus to Granada from Rivas but the time from San Jorge to Rivas and then the bus trip was not worth in our case. I guess the bus should be very cheap not sure. For the schedules you can check this website. 

In certain days of the week you can take a boat directly from Ometepe to Granada. You can get the info on the official website; just scroll down.    

In Granada we stayed at Hotel Casa Antigua. The place is nice and clean, the walls are very thin though and you can hear anything through them.  

Trips in Granada

In the first day after lunch we visited the Cathedral and wanted to book the tour of the Mayasa Volcano. This turned out to be quite difficult. 

The tours need to be booked the day before or the latest same day early AM, as there are limited amount of people that can enter. As we did not have the time the next day to do it we insisted to get at least the view over the volcano if the caves were not possible to visit anymore. Luckily in the end we found a guide that pulled some strings and we managed to get in the National Park. We paid 50$ for 3 people. the normal price with the caves is 35$ per person.  This included the ride with the taxi to Masaya and back and the entrance fee. 

We were super lucky again and we actually also managed to see the lava in the volcano. The pictures are not very good, but you will get the point. It is impressive and totally worth it. 

The next day we went in the morning to visit the Granada Islets. It's a relaxing trip nothing that amazing but if you have the time it's a nice tour. They take you from Granada to the Lake and from there there is a tour with the boat. You will pass by an island that has 4 monkeys. They belonged before to some local people that left Nicaragua and they left 2 monkeys on the island, in the meantime they are 4 now. The tour is of 3h and we paid 40$ for 3 person including some "cocktails" prepared with Flor de Cana and 1h spent on one of the islands that has a restaurant and a swimming pool. Bring swimming suit along.

Back from the tour we went a bit around the colorful Granada which we enjoyed a lot. 

EAT

We had absolutely great food in Granada. 
As we read on the internet, Nicaragua is renowned besides the excellent Ron also for amazing beef meat. So we decided to try it out for dinner. Based on Trip Adviser recommendations we went for El Zaguán. Pricey but extremely good.  It's needless to say that it was the best beef I ever had (did not visit yet Argentina, Uruguay or Brazil).

As for lunch we went for The Garden Café the place is very nice, in the back you have a small garden where you can eat, inside there is a handmade mainly souvenir shop and the food was excellent. 

After lunch, we took our backpacks from the hotel and off to Leon. 
We loved the city, very good food, nice people and extreme colorful. Don't miss it if you are in Nicaragua (might get too touristy soon)

​#ILoveToTravel