Weekend in Nicaragua, Part 2
Our hotel is actually very nice. I'm not sure what I expected, but just that they had air conditioning was very welcome in the humid Nica summer. Our breakfast was delicious, and the coffee was like nothing I had ever had. Hotel Terrasol is about an hour from the capital city of Managua, but Grenada is a very touristy city.
This morning we headed first to the market, but not without rain jackets, because it was pouring. This was no cat-hair rain. This was intense rain like we experienced at Punta Mona. Fortunately, by the time we got our money exchanged to córdobas and everyone to the market, the rain had stopped. Unfortunately that meant that the humidity and heat would intensify. We walked through the market for about an hour, and since it was a glasses day, I was in need of a hat. As touristy as I looked, I love my baseball cap with 'NICARAGUA' stitched across the top.
Our next stop was at Café de Sonrisas, or Smile Café. This is one of my favorite stops of the whole semester. One Spanish man, who was visiting Nicaragua when he was young, saw the poverty-stricken area, and he moved there to start a business and employ people that would otherwise be unemployable. Café de Sonrisas employs workers that are deaf, and adjoined to the café is Tío Antonio (Uncle Tony), which employs youth to make hammocks.
I wish that I could repeat all of Tío Antonio's words, but he told it so eloquently that I wouldn't stand a chance of saying it right. To make a long story short, he started this so that he could help young people get by in an impoverished country. He employs women so that they don't have to work 10-12 hour days in sweatshops, making very little. His message of empowering women to leave abusive relationships and creating a better Nicaragua left me with tears in my eyes.
After lunch at the café, we got on the bus once again to the lake that is the potential site of another canal to the Pacific Ocean. We got a boat tour of the area and stopped at la Isla de San Pablo (Saint Peter's Island) and walkeda around the fort that was once used to protect Nicaragua from pirates. After getting back to Grenada, we were free to find dinner on our own and turn in for the night.