Granada

Up early again. Did some research on hostels in Granada on Trip Advisor, decided on Hostal Oasis.

A somewhat small and cramped minivan with 5 others already on board picked us up shortly after 10:00. About 30 minutes outside of Leon, Alexandra realized she left her passport between the mattress and box spring at the hostel. Another guy on the shuttle who was fluent in both Spanish and English called up Colibri and arranged for a private car to race her passport to the airport in Managua so she wouldn't miss her flight. That cost her $65US.

We dropped Alexandra and another girl off at the airport, then on to Granada. The bus dropped us off at the Oasis Hostel. Private rooms with private bath for $28/night. If we want A/C, it's an extra $15/night, but we'll see how the first night goes without A/C.

Went walking around downtown Granada, a very nice downtown. The government is obviously making Granada the home of tourism, all the old colonial buildings are restored and it's all very touristy, with the touts and beggars that go along with it.

Had lunch at a cafe, then to Tierra Tours office to see the tours they offer. Booked a city tour for tomorrow morning, then walked along the promenade that has tons of cafe's and bars and tourist shops, then a whole kilometre of under construction promenade all the way to the lakefront. Including kids begging for money.

Back to the hostel. It's very busy with backpackers, tons of them here. We have a room on the second floor overlooking the pool, hopefully it's not noisy at night.

We actually didn't do much of anything at all. I read all evening plus some journal stuff, jumped in the pool in the afternoon for a bit.

Headed to bed shortly before 11pm, and just as I walked through the room door (dad was already in bed), the power went out. Dad tried to blame me, I think he was in a half sleep state, kept asking me what I'd done to the power. Anyway, without power (and fans), the room got stifling hot pretty quick. I think I fell asleep maybe after two hours of laying awake sweating. At some point in the night the power did come back on. I woke up, I dunno, maybe between 4 and 5 am and the fans were going again. But then the power went of again a short time later and I laid there begging the fans to start swirling again. They finally came back on, maybe 6:30 or 7. I'd be pretty upset if I had paid $15 extra for A/C and the power was out for half the night.