The hotel we stayed at in Granada was a delight, friendly staff, centrally located and fabulous fresh tropical fruit for breakfast.
It's the morning of official day 3, but given the first day is only traveling, it is sort of day 2, and given the very low mileage yesterday it is more day 1 of the serious cycling.
Getting ready to start the day's cycling. I wouldn't get in the way of the this bunch!
At the start of the ride is the pretty Laguna Apoyo. Next we cycle through some of the Pueblos Blancos, (white towns) and hear some of the history of Nicaragua. I'm not going to attempt to recount any of this history, because I would undoubtedly get it wrong and it would highlight some very bad spelling. Although, both of the guys in the photo below are associated with things that involve revolutions.
At the end of the morning we stop in San Marcos to place our orders for lunch, and everyone looks pretty pleased with their morning's ride.
Whilst the restaurant is getting our lunchs ready, we cycle a short distance out of town to a coffee plantation to hear a bit about how coffee was discovered. It involved a goat and some monks and I really must pay more attention to these talks.
When we return to town, the guides get busy loading the bikes on the bus and the team get ready to eat lunch. We are being very spoiled by these guides. When I dropped a chain on a steep hill this morning, not only was it fixed for me, but instead of having a difficult hill start, I was pushed up the hill by Luis, one of the guides until my momentum was enough to easily keep cycling. I hope Stuart realizes what my cycling expectations are going to be when we get home!
In the afternoon we drive to a ferry stop where we are hoping to sail across to an island with a couple of volcanos. Unfortunately, the ferry service has been cancelled for the day (I think due to high winds, but again listening issues mean I'm not necessarily up to speed on things!). It is wildly windy today, and although I am disappointed not to stay on the island with the volcanos, I'm not sorry to miss a very choppy ferry crossing.
A new plan is made, and this afternoon we are to cycle part of the day 4 itinerary along the "Chocolata" and stay in a different hotel to the one originally planned. The Chocolata is a 20km dirt track that turns the colour of chocolate when it rains.
Fortunately, it is not raining today because the riding is challenging enough on the dirt track. However, I am riding pretty well (for me) and keeping up with what I think is the break away (but actually is more the pour suivants) and I realise that I am quite far ahead of a few of the group. I am amazed, how did this happen, how can I get so far ahead of other cyclists? As I am riding along I realise that this scenario is just far too unlikely and then I remember that sightings of howler monkeys are likely and this is what will have delayed the rest of the group. When we regroup for a break, this is of course what has happened. Luckily on the final leg of the Chocolata I get to see some howler monkeys too.
At the end of the day, as we ride into town, we just catch a beautiful sunset. No-one has any idea where we actually are, but it doesn't seem to matter too much! I'm assuming the guides know where we are, but the group is in relaxed, carefree holiday mode and are happy just to see the sunset, which does give us a clue that we are looking out across the Pacific Ocean.
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