City Tour
Today you will enjoy a Granada City Tour. This wonderful outdoor experience begins when you are picked up at your hotel in a traditional Horsedrawn Carriage. You will start with a visit to La Casa de los Tres Mundos art gallery a cultural academy, then the convent of San Francisco church, built in 1529 decorated with elegant paintings and pre- Columbian statues from Zapatera Island. Then you will visit Iglesia La Merced taking stars up the tower from where you will have great views of the city. After Iglesia La Merced you will go to the Old Train Station that has just been restored located in front of Sandino Park. The last place you will visit is La Polvora, a fort where the Spanish stored dynamite and weapons in the 17th and 18th century to repel the attacks of English and French pirates.
Later, you will leave Granada and will be transferred to the Masaya Areas. Transportation, bilingual guide (English-Spanish), lunch & entrances fees are included.
Your tour will take you to Catarina, a small and characteristic village of Nicaragua where people work seedling nurseries, make handcraft and raise horses. Placed on top of the extict volcano 520 meters above sea level this presents a very agreeable climate. The temperature veries from 22 and 27 C° (72 & 77 F°) from here you can have a magnificent view of Apoyo lagoon, Mombacho volcano, Granada and Lake Nicaragua. Lunch included in a beautiful typical restaurant amidst nature.
After Catarina you will visit the ancient highland villages of "La Meseta" to visits the Mesa artisans workshops of San Juan de Oriente. This precious town has colonial period houses, churches and a hardworking native population. Then visit the finest Handicraft Market in Masaya where you will enjoy the creativity and a variety of Nicaraguan art at bargain prices.
Our day tour ends with a visit in the late evening to the First National Park created in Nicaragua in 1979, one of Nicaragua's most interesting and beautiful natural phenomena. It comprises an area of 54 km2 with more than 20 km of scenic roads and trails, leading to and around the one impressive volcano and five formidable craters; one of them currently displays gaseous activity and incandescent lava lake in its interior. As you approach it, you see an eerie, orange glow and swirling steam. Standing at the wall, you are able to peer into the crater and see the lava lake churning and splashing - an incredible thing to experience first-hand! A NATGEO team recently finished exploring the volcano. Eventually transfer back to Granada.
Please note that due safety restrictions, visitors are only allowed to stay 15 minutes near the crater.
Breakfast included.
