Being a significant tourist center there are many agencies offering day trips from Granada, and unlike in El Salvador or in Leon these run on a quite regular schedule. One of those trips is to the Mombacho Volcano, the prominent mountain a short distance southwest of Granada. At 1,350 meters or about 4,500 feet, Mombacho's altitude is low by comparison with the volcanos I climbed in Guatemala, but with most of the surrounding area not much above sea level the peak is very prominent. It would be my bad luck that I scheduled my trip for the one morning I was in Granada that was mostly overcast, so the first part of the guided walk around the crater rim was a true cloud forest experience with swirling clouds and mist, some light rain, and lots of water dripping from the trees covered with epiphytic plants that collect the moisture from the clouds. You should expect clouds in the cloud forest, shouldn’t you?

The road up the mountain was mostly paved but so steep we passengers all had to transfer from the van which brought us from town to two Jeeps for the ride up . Overall it was much more of a nature walk with concentration on the local flora, fauna, and geology than a real hike or trek. I personally got quite a chuckle out of the guide named Gustavo who had a strong command of English vocabulary but spoke quite fast and with a very heavy accent that made him hard to understand. At one point he was talking about trying to find some "sluts" in the forest. He was looking high up into the canopy, so I it became clear he meant sloths rather than ladies of the night.

Fortunately, the clouds finally broke on the latter part of the hike, so there were some decent views of the crater and the surrounding landscape, including Lake Nicaragua, Granada, and Laguna Apoyo. It may have been the relatively low elevation, but I felt really fit walking up the steep parts. Or maybe I am just fitter and trimmer after my volcano climbing and trekking. I can try to thin optimistically.

The morning tour got me back into Granada in time to take and afternoon boat excursion to Las Isletas, a group of supposedly 365 small islands around a peninsula that juts into Lake Nicaragua a short distance south of Granada. Over the years I’ve heard things about foreigners being able to purchase their own personal islands somewhere in Nicaragua for a very reasonable price. It turns out that it’s here and some of those small islands in the archipelago that are big enough to build a nice little retirement or vacation spread can still be had for around $250,000 on upwards. Some even have resident monkeys! It all seems quite idyllic, but I’m not quite ready to retire to an island in a big lake in Nicaragua just yet. Many of the islands house small resorts, while other the vacation homes of members of Nicaragua’s richest families or foreigners. It does make me wonder why the price of those available islands hasn’t been bid up further than what the guide said they are still going for.