Granada: 12th - 15th October 2025
12th October – Sunday
I am now in Granada. It cost me a fortune to get here. I woke to rain and not in a good mood so I decided to book a shuttle. For some strange reason Bookaway wouldn’t accept my card so I decided to pay via paypal. By the time I had finished messing around I had missed the travel slot for today and before I realised it I had bought a non-refundable ticket for tomorrow – £25 down the drain. I have messaged Bookaway to see if they will issue me with a voucher, but I doubt they will.
Not wanting to give the hotel reception the pleasure of telling me again that they cannot book me a taxi I found and downloaded Manaqua’s version of Uber and got a taxi to the bus station, as always there was a bus waiting for me, and I am happy to say the seats were a little bit more comfortable than the last bus I took, but my coccyx is not happy at all and it hurts every time I sit down or get up. I fell asleep on the bus but woke just as we got into Granada and just in time to get of the bus two blocks from hostel. In that short walk I must have passed at least 4 bars/restaurants, so, I was pleased to see, there will plenty for me to do in the evenings.
The hostel I am at is called the White Rabbit and it has been decorated in a very psychedelic way with lots of characters from Alice in Wonderland painted on the walls, and rooms called, for example ‘The eat me and drink me room’ and the ‘The Padded room’. My room has Peter Pan painted on the outside walls and there is a very funky looking frog by the pool. However, the owner likes to play pop music, which just doesn’t go with the scenery. This afternoon I made friends with the cat, who likes to sit on my lap and claw me and I did my hair, which I feel so much better for doing. I then went to the bar next door and had dinner, which was much nicer than the hotel food, and had two very weak sangrias. Anyway while drinking the sangrias I did a lot of research and now have an extensive list of things to do for the three days I am here. I have
decided against another walking tour but did look up a couple and the places they visit. I am going to do my own walking tour so I can actually take my time and visit some of the sites rather than just walk past them.
It’s a shame there is only one other guest here, I saw him briefly, and watched him walk into one of the walls while he was staring at me. He didn’t say hello and I have not seen hm since. Never mind, tomorrow is another day.
14th October – Tuesday
Yesterday (the 13th) it rained all day. I got wet twice. After my all inclusive pancake and banana breakfast, there was no choice, I went looking for a laptop repair shop. The first shop only repaired phones and I couldn’t even locate the second one, then to top it off my mobile data plan expired. Exasperated, I returned to my hostel. On route I passed a couple of very beautiful churches and managed to have a little sit down under a sheltered walkway.
After drying off and a mental re-set, I took the hostel owners advice and went looking for a third shop which he said was not far. It turned out to be less than 5 minutes away! So I left my laptop with the guy but felt a bit dubious as he said it could be the motherboard, and from all of my ‘limited’ computer science knowledge I know it is not the mother board.
When I got back and had internet connection I just wanted to cry, I’ve been hacked! I didn’t cry as I realised this is karma for downloading and using dodgy software, which probably had a trojan horse hidden in it – I should have been wiser. I have been attacked from Russia, Poland and Hungry. My Hotmail is now blocked, this is a real piss off as last time I was locked out of it for a whole year. My Gmail, was also hacked but restoring that was easy and my telegram accounts have been totally deleted. I have emailed telegram to see what they can do to recover them, but I fear I has lost my Khmer account as I no longer have that SIM, I think the UK one will be easier to recover. This is upsetting as there are a few people in Cambodia that I would have liked to stay in touch with. But most upsetting of all is my website, they hacked into my wordpress account and changed my password, and because Hotmail is blocked I cannot reset it.
To cheer myself up and try to put all the stress to the back of my mind I went out to dinner. Only to Grandpa’s Grill, which is on the corner, about 30 seconds from here, so I didn’t get wet. I treated myself to garlic prawns with rice and crunchy vegetables, an ice-cream desert, which had warm bananas at the bottom and a glass of very delicious white wine. It was expensive at £14.50, but worth every penny and it certainly lifted my mood.
I have spent the whole of this evening online to Bluehost technicians trying to sort out my website issues. The first issue was the login on, it took a while but eventually the technicians sent me an email address to which I have sent a change of email request and two sets of ID. They also showed me how to access WordPress via Bluehost without login in. Cool. After that call I went to check out my sites, my SE Asian one is there but my new S America one is missing, it is also missing from Bluehost – no, I did not cry – but I have been swearing one hell of a lot and am in a really bad mood. The first technician was useless, kept putting me on hold so I ended my call with them. The second technician was far better and informed me that both sites are now in one database, not that means much to me, and there is probably malware preventing me from seeing/accessing the missing site. However, he really pissed me off when he said I would have to pay to get a backup copy of the missing website from their server – FFS. After telling him that I wasn’t going to pay, he set a malware scan, which can take hours, and informed me that if it is malware I can clear it from my end. I also did some research, I have Jetpack installed, so should be able to download a backed up copy of my site. If that fails then I will have no choice but to pay Bluehost for a backed up copy from their server. FFS. I am livid, but there is not much I can do now – tomorrow is another day.
Before all of this I did actually have a really lovely day today, and it has not rained even though I told Steve, the other guest here, that it would. I met Steve properly yesterday over breakfast. He wears glasses which he did not have on the first time I saw him and probably why he walked into the wall – lol. He is from Canada and I don’t think he is a very well man. He has a huge lump in the back of his neck and talks with a rasp. Conversation with him is not easy, he is not one for small talk and I am not one for politics, so we don’t really have much in common. He is also a hermit and stays in his room most of the day, I don’t think he has been out since I have been here.
After my omelette and bread breakfast I sorted out my gmail account and messaged Telegram. It seemed to take an eternity to get ready but I eventually left the hostel and went for a walk down to Largo Cocibolca, which the town is next to. There is a really lovely park along the lake with lots of seating areas and shade, so I had a little sit down and cooled off. Although it hasn’t been as hot today it has been really humid so I was very sweaty and the shade was welcome. In need of a pee I then popped into a bar, still opposite the lake, where I also had a really refreshing beer. After the stresses of being hacked it was all very relaxing, and I enjoyed shedding my tension and watching life go by. There was such a scrawny but cute kitten curled up on the pavement next to me, I could have easily slipped into my pocket and run away with, but it did look a bit flea ridden, and it gave me absolutely no attention what-so-ever. I also got whistled at by a couple of young lads, which put a smile on my face
Heading back into town, I found the pedestrianised party street lined with bars and restaurants with plenty of outside seating. I did make a plan in my head to go there tonight but my website issues got in the way, and it is late now. I also found Comeda Dona Celia, which is just off the main square and bought a delicious beef and rice dinner for £2.50. Finally, I treated myself to a new refillable vape. I still have plenty left in my disposable one and have another disposable one in my rucksack, so I have more vapes than I really need, but with my ability to loose things you never know when that second disposable one might come in handy.
I picked up my computer this afternoon. He said I need a new screen – uhm, maybe. However, he didn’t have one in stock, and I’ll be in Costa Rica by the time it arrives, so he gave me the details of the screen I would need, along with a quote for $100 and told me I could get it on Amazon. So I am still using my laptop with a nasty flickering green and red screen but at least I can keep my diary and expenses spreadsheet going. I may try the drivers again, but from a different site. Otherwise it will have to wait until I’m in a major town or city in Costa Rica, I just pray that it holds out until then.
15th October – Wednesday
What a fabulous morning, blue skies and I have my websites back, both of them! For some unknown reason I had the brilliant idea of opening Outlook on my laptop and much to my surprise my Hotmail account is not blocked on it. I was able to reset my Word Press password and low and behold both of my websites were there and intact. Uhm, and after all the issues last night with the Bluehost technicians and them trying to get me to pay to have my Latin America website restores. I was so right to, politely, tell them to bugger off 
I then used Microsoft Defender to run a deep virus scan, it took an hour and a half but it was worth it as it located the trojan horse that has been the cause of all of my problems and moved it into quarantine. After that I reset my Outlook, Gmail and website passwords. I am so bloody happy! I still need to sort out my actual Hotmail account, but as I can access it on my laptop via Outlook, I am not in rush. I should also be able sort out my UK Telegram account, but I will do that later. My mission now is to try to find a minute Philips screw driver so I can have a look inside my laptop to see if there are any loose wires, I also read some guy’s blog, and he said removing and replacing the battery worked for his screen issues. It would be the cherry on the cake if I could sort out my screen issues as well, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.
Later: Mission failed, I asked around, even tried an opticians, but I couldn’t find a small Philips screw driver for sale anywhere. However, I did find tiger balm and I also purchased a new toothbrush and a new bag, the strap on my old one broke yesterday. I also booked the Masaya Volcano Sunset Tour, which I have just come back from.
For £23 the tour would have been amazing, however although there were sunny and clear skied all day, it clouded over early evening, and the viewing of the bubbling larva was very disappointing. All we got was a red glow. However, the museum was interesting, especially the section showing how the Americas, Europe, India, Africa, Australia and Asia were all originally one huge land mass which split over time. The short walk to the viewpoint was also pleasant and the view quite beautiful. The tour guide was very informative, and I learnt that last time Masaya exploded the larva travelled for 7 kilometres and there is concern that if/when it explodes again the larva could travel as far as Managua airport and basically engulf it. Also, the volcano that we drove up to see the bubbling larva wasn’t in fact Masaya but the volcano directly next to, Volcano Caldera. Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya has 54 km square, contains 2 volcanos which between them have 5 craters, the highest point 630 meters above sea level, so it is quite small. The main park area is actually set in the original crater, which died and then sprouted the 2 new volcanos. And one final point that I remember is that there was a cross at the top of Caldera, not the original as that had been obliterated in an eruption. The Spanish put it there because, not knowing about volcano they thought Caldera was the mouth to hell and tried to exorcise it, which I thought quite amusing. And the indigenous people used to sacrifice virgins and children to the volcano in the hope of better weather and bountiful harvests.
It’s my last night in Granada, which is a shame as I actually really like it here, even more so than Leon. It has a very chilled, warm vibe to it. While at the hotel waiting to be picked up for the tour, a solo lady traveller, from London came and made engaging conversation with me. She suggested we meet tomorrow, which would have been awesome, but alas it is not possible. There was also a couple, about my age, on the tour, but they were not very friendly.
Uhm, I should go to the bar next door, Sands, the music is pumping and I can hear there is a large crowd in, but I really cannot be bothered, and it has just started raining rather heavily. I think I may have another go at reinstalling the graphics card for this laptop. It would make my day of I could stop this screen from be so psychedelic.
