Masaya

Arriving in Masaya, the three of us jumped off the bus before it hit the slightly far away bus station and began our search for a hotel. After checking out a few and grabbing a frappe at a cafe we settled on the cheap family run Hotel Central. 10 bucks a night for two nights. Excellent deal minus the big barking dog. We spent the rest of the day exploring the town and taking in the mercado neuvo, or the artesanias mercado, a large building dedicated to local crafts, specializing in hammocks. That night while eating we were targeted by a guy selling hammocks and ended up being suckered into buying an extremely low quality hammock for $8, half the price he started with. We really didn't WANT the hammock but bought it to make him go away. It also broke two days later...

The next day we went to swim in the super clear waters of the volcanic crater lake, Lago de Apoyo. We walked to the bus station and thought we would eat breakfast in the mercado before the bus, but the mercado turned out to be a bustling swarm of people, vegetables, buses, taxis, with smells of meat and fish and sweat and no comedors in sight. Once we winded our way through we asked for directions (multiple times, the place is a maze) and finally found a comedor (that still had food) to eat at. With fuller bellies we tackled the mercado again, zig-zagging through to the bus station which is more like a field. Lago de Apoyo was stunning with its clear calm waters. We went swimming and then for lunch on the beach before heading back just barely catching the last bus.