Follow In The Wake Of Pirates And Adventurers

Wander the wide cobblestone boulevards and linger in the churches of Nicaragua’s phoenix-like colonial city

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1. Granada

Wander the wide cobblestone boulevards and linger in the churches of Nicaragua’s phoenix-like colonial city

FOUND IN POCKETS, CASH tills and stuffed down sofas across Nicaragua is the 100 córdoba note (about US$3.15), showing the Cathedral of Granada, presiding over the nation’s most handsome city. Turn the note over and you’ll see the other famous symbol of Granada – a horse-drawn carriage and its grinning driver, clip-clopping along the city’s cobbled streets.

The horses, the carriage and the grin all belong to Mauricio Sanchez – himself part of the long tradition of Granada carriage drivers. One day Mauricio looked up from a handful of change to see his own, moustached face smiling back at him, the depiction copied from a photo taken by a tourist a few years ago.

‘Granada is the city Nicaraguans are most proud of,’ he explains, parked among the laurel trees in the central square, scouting for customers to take on an afternoon tour. ‘It is the oldest city in Central America, and it has a history that makes everyone feel romantic. Sometimes, when I have people in the back of my carriage, I wish it didn’t make them quite so romantic!’