Granada

A few weeks ago, Desmond gave his first outgoing public talk in the Granada English Congregation.
In order to get to Granada, we hitched a ride with friends to the Managua bus station (1.5 hours away) and
then took a bus to Granada (45 minutes).
Granada is very similar to Leon with a lot of churches and parks, but it is a smaller city but a larger tourist attraction, so their territory consists of more foreigners.

This is the family we stayed with:

Lisa and Ed and their daughter, Brianna. They are from Chicago and have been serving in Granada for 2 years. They have 2 more sons, one in Patterson and the other in the States.
They were very hospitable and their home was beautiful. This is a view from our bedroom:

The artwork in Granada is so colorful and beautiful.

We also really enjoyed visiting the congregation.

 Here are pictures of the Kingdom Hall, very similar to Leon:

(no Desmond did not give his talk with sunglasses on his head, he was just arranging his notes.
This congregation has 20 publishers 2 elders and 2 servants, and 14 pioneers.

The other elder Jimmy and his wife took us for hospitality They are in their 70s and have been in Granada for about 2 years as well. He also takes donations for sound equipment and installs them free of charge throughout Nicaragua and soon to be spreading to Honduras as well.

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Granada is a very interesting city, we were able to take a tour of it in a horse drawn carriage here are some pictures:

This is Xalteva Church

This is the cathedral in Central Park and below is the Park (where we found our horse-drawn carriage)

As we are riding in the carriage we can see the Mombacho volcano in the distance:

Below is Fortaleza la Polvoro. The fort was originally built in 1748 to protect the city's gunpowder supply and ward off pirates

This is Guadalupe Church built in 1626.

Below: This is me and Dez in front of the Granada train station. The railway system has been obsolete in Nicaragua since the early 2000s.

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This is the Maria Auxiliadora Church

This is the Calvario Church

Below are pictures of Lake Cocibolca (also known as Lake Nicaragua), is the 10th largest fresh-water lake on earth and is inhabited by Bull Sharks, informally named the Nicaragua Shark.

This lake is featured in 2009 watchtower September 1 pages 25-27. "The Treasure's of Central America's Largest Lake"

We hope to visit again and explore the islets on the Lake as well as the Volcano!