From Brian
Friday, Jan. 11

Today was unfortunately our last day at Granada. In the morning, the Hotel con Corazon provided us with a delicious breakfast that included eggs, fruits, and juice. After breakfast, I was disappointed because our friend Alber had to leave due to an emergency. We eventually walked into a bicycle shop to select bikes for the bike tour across Granada. I also met with Baker who is from Virginia that started the bicycle business. What shocked me was that the bike tour was extremely exhausting due to the bumpy road! The tour guide wanted to show us an overview of Granada so he started off with the more developed area and eventually progressed into the rural. The entire bike trip took approximately two hours because the road we biked on was really bumpy and long.

            After our bike tour, we were finally free to explore Granada on our own! I decided to eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Granada called Ano Nuevo Chino because I wanted to compare it to the Chinese restaurants back home. The food that they served was delicious at a relatively cheap price. Therefore, the Chinese food in Granada surprised me because I personally thought that it was better compared to the ones in the United States. The restaurant manager Liu was also kind enough to set aside time to tell me about his life in Granada. Liu basically summarized the culture of Nicaragua and told me how friendly the locals are because they helped him support the initial startup of his business by introducing customers to his restaurant. Most importantly, he explained to me how business is conducted in Nicaragua such as taxes placed on businesses which is valuable information. Furthermore, he also mentioned that he has lived in Nicaragua for over ten years and explained to me the obstacles he faced and how he overcame them through hard work and building networks. My conversation with Liu lasted for about an hour because it was interesting and in a way inspirational. In addition, I also had the opportunity to meet Liu’s three year old son who is half Nicaraguan and half Chinese.

            When I returned back to the hotel, the bicycle shop owner Baker was already there and he explained more about himself and his business. To end the day, we had dinner at a Nicaraguan style restaurant. The food that I ordered was great, and hopefully one day I can return to Granada and visit all these places again.