This past weekend, my friends from Leon and I went to Granada for the annual "Feria" or street festival. We figured all the tourists that would sign up for hikes would be there and not here so we should be there too! This place is by far the coolest town I have been to yet! It was recently named a World Heritage Sight by UNESCO and the funding from that organization has helped with painting old buildings and refurbishing cathedrals and historical districts. The town was full of tourists and Nicaraguans alike and as a result, so were most of the budget hostels. I ended up staying at The Oasis, a backpacker paradise and rare treat for me. The only beds left were in the air conditioned dorm. I'm not sure what my roommates thought but I had the AC cranked to refrigerator like conditions and it was fantastic! Other perks included a pool, free internet access, and a free 15 minute call to the US or Canada. Unfortunately, this came at a ridiculous price of $9 per night but I figured "why not".

The festival had this weird parade of hundreds of people on horseback. When the parade ended, there wasn´t really anyplace special for people to go with their horses so they just rode around town and drank beer. This made moving about the crowded streets somewhat precarious as drunken riders mixed with people on foot. Several times, I found myself dodging out of the way of a horse coming through the crowd.

In the evening we hung out at a great bar, La Fabrica, owned by a girl from Denmark. Finally, I heard some normal American rock and not the miserable Mexican circus music they play here in Central America. That was a welcome break. I have also discovered my spanish skills increase proportionately to the number of beers I have to drink. My buddy Alberto from Spain, who is also fluent in english, would say "what the hell did you just try to tell me? Here, have some more and get back to me on that ... you´re getting better every beer." "OK, you´re the expert ... fill´er up".

Also, I am nearly finished painting the logo for Quetzaltrekkers and I´ll post a pic of that. I need to find brown paint to finish the project and my attempts to mix my own version have failed. That´s why the volcanoes are yellow. If you want, check out quetzaltrekkers.com.