Granada. Home of the wealthy mercantile class. Historical bastion of conservatism. Here is the headquarters of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC), hit up with political graffiti.
"Ortega and Alemán and Somoza are the same thing."
1. Somoza was the head of a family dynasty that dictatorially ran Nicaragua from 1937 until the Sandinista Revolution ousted the son of the original Somoza 42 years later. Their regime robbed Nicaragua of at least tens of millions of dollars, did almost nothing for the poor, and became highly repressive, torturous, and homicidal in response to the building Sandinista (FSLN) opposition during the 60s and 70s.
2. Ortega was a general during the Sandinista revolt that finally ended Somocismo in 1979, after years of armed struggle, and became a member of the ruling junta during the 80s. He just won the presidency again after running half a dozen times since the Sandinista party lost in the 1990 elections and handed in their weapons that same year.
3. Arnoldo Alemán ran for president (after serving as mayor of Managua for a few years) as the candidate for the Liberal Alliance, on a strong anti-Sandinista platform. He defeated Ortega in '96, 48 - 40%, under allegedly fraudulent elections. Although helping with infrastructural development, he was charged with corruption toward the end of his presidency. Transparency International ranked Alemán as the world's ninth most corrupt leader in history for embezzling a total of approximately $100 million from his own people.
Ascending the outer lookouts surrounding the ruins of the 16th century fortress to ward off British attacks. (Granada is linked to the Carribean via Lago de Nicaragua and Rio de San Juan, thus, much European piratry).
Our Granadian guardian angel Roger. We happened to bump into him in the rain about five minutes after Mel made some comment like, "It´s raining...we´ll probably end up seeing Roger soon." (Last time we visited Granada we walked out in the pouring rain and met this kind-hearted character, who told us all about the city and brought us to a fun club full of silly gringos). He was sad in the photos because we were just about to leave.
Boat trip to Las Isletas, over 300 islands formed 60,000 years ago when the neighboring volcano last blew its wad.
Lago de Masaya
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