That being said, Granada, like all cities in Central America is riddled with poverty and beggars. Last night, while I was at dinner with a few new friends from my hostel, within an hour and a half, we were approached by at least 10 people trying to sell us handcrafted items. Then by two children who asked for our food. And then by one deaf man who had a friend who was speaking for him, since he didn't know any English. It's not uncommon to see people here with missing limbs, eyes, or just starving. Luckily, there are many organizations within these cities that travelers volunteer at to try and help these people, but there is always a need for more.
On a lighter note, there are some really beautiful churches and buildings in Granada, most of them were free and open for me to take a few pictures. Unfortunately I didn't find much history on them until I went onto wikipedia and researched them.
One of the most interesting pieces of history that I read was about an American filibuster named William Walker. Walker studied medicine, then law, and eventually decided that he wanted to freeboot Central America and have control over these countries. His first attempt was in Baja California but that failed. He then took his Kentuckian sharpshooters to Nicaragua and captured the then capitol Granada. He then made slavery legal here and within a year nearby countries had formed armies and attacked Walkers men. Walker himself was not in Nicaragua, and when his troops were overrun they were imprisoned in some of the basements of the churches here. Three years after defeat Walker was captured by the British Royal Navy and rather than returned to the U.S. he was given to officials in Honduras who sentenced him to execution by firing squad.
My next blog is about chocolate and trains, so stay tuned if you like either of those things. Also, there are more pictures of the architecture below!