Granada Warnings Or Dangers

The local market is well worth visiting. The food is cheeper and better quality than the Supermarket.
As well as providing a genuine experience of local life. I found all but one of the vendors gave us the correct price on the food and were business like but not unfriendly. No one was rude to us even when negociating for space in the narrow walkways.
You will be supporting the local economy where as food from the supermarket is often imported.
Of course be carefull, don't take too much money and keep it close. There is always the chance of being pic-pocketed in any crowded place.
It is dirty so avoid water in the walkways and wash your feet when you get in.
Of course always wash the veg off.
Go in the morning when it is quieter and cooler.
I felt it was compleatly safe. If your not sure about how much things should cost the check the Supermarket 1st.
If you don't want to rub shoulders with the locals. Stay in your hotel. This market is not different to any other in Central or South America if not safer.
I would pop along to have a look - it's not far from the main square.
Kirsty

As is the overwhelming majority of this beautiful country, Granada is a safe place. Any given night you will see couples and women walking at night. But just like most places in the world one needs to keep their eyes open. Granada does a great job policing this city to keep it one of Nicaragua's favorite destinations for foreigners.

Be wary of accepting any "help" such as to find a certain product or even advice about products. If you are obviously a tourist they expect to be paid for their assistance. We had to stand firm to reject such demands. However, if you have the cash and want to help the locals, by all means hire them for their advice or other help - just don't hire them to carry your packages or they may walk off.

In another part of the city, we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, not aimed at tourists. The food was great, the owners very hospitable, even letting us use their family toilet. We found many of the locals very gracious. I would return. The heat can be oppressive so keep a water bottle handy.

At time of my visit, in September 2007, water and electricity outages routinely occurred in Granada, with water and electricity generally discontinued from late morning to late evening. In my understanding, electricity outages were temporarily, due to maintenance of the City/country power equipment, while water outages were the standard. Granada is hot and humid all throughout the year, and that ends up resulting in a big hassle that a choice of a good hotel can only in part mitigate.

At time of my stay, though many hotel had electricity backup through portable equipment, many of them had capacity to power only common areas while guestrooms were left with no electricity. Other hotels had instead enough capacity to power in guestrooms lighting and fan but not airconditioning. I did not check top-end hotels and cannot say whether they have full-capacity backup. Other guesthouses had no backup at all.

As far as water is concerned, some hotels/guesthouses had backup, some had not, but provided upon request containers of filtered waters, just like the ones usually found in business offices for drinking water. Finally, other hotels/guesthouses provided no backup water whatsoever.

I recommend in choosing your accommodation to investigate your prospecting places' capacity in term of backup electricity and water. Insure they have at least a fan and backup capacity enough to power it. A room with windows to insure air circulation would also be adviceable. And backup water of course. In my first accommodation in Granada I was lodged in a room with no fan, no windows and in a place with limited backup electricity and no backup water (only water containers). It was 2 pm in the afternoon, it was hot like hell and the best thing I could do was leaving my room and going resting on a bench in the Central Square.

As well as in many other places in Central America, you will find in Granada, and in villages nearby, plenty of stray dogs wandering the streets. None of the ones I came across was aggressive or bothered me indeed, but many of them looked quite unhealthy. Be careful.

The "Mercado Municipal", the local open-air market, is located few blocks South West of the Central Square. Wandering the city center you will realize you are close to the market as you notice the streets getting more and more crowded and the tone of the neighbor changing. The market is attended mainly by not-wealthy local people doing their grocery and other routine shopping. It is indeed unlikely the average tourist will find anything worth to shop and eventually "El Mercado Municipal" will just provide a chance for local people and local life watching.

Some tourists will consider the market a dangerous area; it is indeed dirt, stinky and you certainly are going to see things that you may not like or you may just not be used to: people living in not wealthy conditions going through their daily life. I will not recommend to avoid the place though. I visited it in the morning hours, when bustling and packed with people, and, male traveler, I did not feel unsafe. It just depends on you: if you use common sense, the worst I would expect it will happen to you is, if you think you live in better conditions than they do, to standby for few minutes and reflect on how lucky you are.

Por Favor, cierra la tapa del Modoro despues de usarlo asi la energia positiva no se escapa!

For those who don't read spanish, translation:
Please, close the lid after using so that the positive energy doesn't escape!

El Tercer Ojo:

The Third Eye Cafe, Granada, Nicaragua

The local market is dirty, dangerous, stinky and not worth it!!!! Well unless you want to become a vegetarian as you will see the most disgusting meat you have every seen in your life. We were literally trying not to vomit.