A short re-locate day. Because of the busyness of Christmas, decided for an extra US $ 6 each to take a private van to avoid a taxi and then 2 chicken bus rides from Leon to Granada, one of the most characteristic and colourful colonial towns in Central America at the foot of the Mombacho Volcano on the shores of Lake Nicaragua.

At lunch carver Alan in just 7 seconds flat carved the word Nicaragua into one of the maracas. A skilled craftsman's using just 2 blades carved the patterns so quickly into the jicaro seed that he collects and paints.

My afternoon images of Granada. Yes, a lovely little place and I can see why tourists would prefer to spend more time here than Leon, but Leon has the activities.

Health and Safety would have a field day here in Central America. Today’s boat cruise there were only 4 life jackets for the 11 passengers and 2 crew.

While on the little Isla San Pablo the clouds lifted off the top of Mombacho Volcano and to cap it off the white egrets were flying in their masses providing an interesting foreground.

The sun had set and as we got off the van back in town, the sun rays below the horizon really lit up the clouds behind the cathedral. Magic.

Like South America, the locals treat Christmas Eve as the main celebration. Shops including restaurants close late afternoon. For families it was time to gather and meet and at midnight it is their main feast coupled with fireworks. 

For us, thanks to Bec, she arranged for nibbles collected on route since Copan. What was interesting is that we were the only guests in the hotel and literally had the run of the place all to ourselves. That meant Bec, Fran and Wayne could prepare the food in their kitchen, we could put our drinks brought from the supermarkets etc into the bar fridge to cool down, use their ice and glasses and the hotel staff helped us as well to celebrate Christmas Eve.

A Christmas toast, finger food, egg nog, Christmas cake and then time for us to have this rather drawn out encounter with the Santa Claus pinata. Poor Santa. Do come back next year.