And I was attacked by

Ruby but more about her later on.

When I woke up yesterday I quickly realized that I'd not had enough sleep, my neighbours were rather noisy and around 2:30am or so I thought that a woman was being strangled or ??  ... well, this went on for about 45 minutes.  And I then had problems returning to sleep.

It was to be another lazy day as I'd planned for a full body massage at 'seeing hands, blind massage.  So, after a long read it was time to shower and head off to the Euro Cafe to find this masseuse.  Somehow or another I was turned around and I could find every little landmark that I knew of but not the Euro Cafe.

With a little extra time I chatted with  some ladies at Ole and then went on my way again.  As I was leavnng I saw a young man with a Montreal 1976 olympic symbols on his t-shirt, asked him if he spoke english and he did.  He was going by the Euro Cafe and so we tagged along together.

As usual I was full of questions, wanted to know if he worked and lived here and he does ... he told me that they have rented a lovely little casa for $650/month which sounds reasonable enough for me. His work allows him to do it online and Wi-Fi is all over Granada.

My massage was heavenly and I look forward to booking another one before I leave here.

It's now lunch hour and I've yet to eat anything.  I remembered seeing a small eating place behind Ole in the Art School so I meandered over there.  I browsed around Ole and then went into the art school in the back.  Imagine my surprise when I heard a parott, I searched and searched, it screeched and chattered and then I saw it on a table almost beside me.  It looked up at me so lovingly and silly me I put my hand in front of it to see if it would hop nto my finger.  Not only did it hop onto my finger, she ran up my arm, onto my shoulder and quickly bit my cheek.  If this was Ruby's love I wanted none of it.  There was no one around and here I was with a nasty parott who is now around the back of my neck pecking away at my head and whatever else she could get her beak onto.  And so, I started to walk towards the door to Ole and all the while shielding the side of my face, eyes, with my backpack. 

Two ladies came to my rescue, one  saying ... 'On my look at Ruby has finally done'.  They'd been trying to get her to climb onto our fingers, etc. BUT not to peck the living daylights out of us.

Ruby the parott apparently arrived at this lady's home unannounced and since she wasn't able to locate the owner has kept Ruby as her own.  In doing so, Ruby is very attached to this lady and obviously no one else !!  If she were mine in this public space I would leash her to one of the palm trees or pedestal. 

And after all of this I walked over to the Garden Cafe for a quiet, cool lunch ... this is a lovely cafe owned by a young man from California and his Nicaraguan wife, they met while in University.

http://nicaraguatourist.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/the-garden-cafe-in-granada-nicaragua/

We can eat most meals for $10 or less and this includes tax and a tip; most times the tip has already been calculated for us and is added to the bill.

Before leaving the cafe I filled up my water bottle as they have a container of purified water in the cafe for everyone to access.

Other than taking a siesta yesterday afternoon for an hour or so I read, kept up to date with family and friends and looked forward to an evening of ?

Last week Willa and I left the hotel before 8am and the heat of the day as we wanted to visit the better supermarket a little ways from our hotel.  In retrospect it's probably close to the same distance as the other one but it's much nicer.

I took some photos while we were in the store but when I attempted to capture some photos of the shelves which were stocked with wine, liquor, etc. a security man asked me to discontinue doing so.  Although I don't speak Spanish I quickly knew what he was telling me.  What I don't know is if he didn't want me to take ANY  photos while inside the store or only in the liquor section?  But, I did manage to buy a bottle of Barefoot Merlot and Lise & Willa and I opened it and enjoyed a glass on Lise's back balcony.

We ate again at Nectar's and I thought to order a lime crepe that Willa and I spotted on the menu a few days ago .. it also came with 3 forks so we could each taste it .. it was heavenly and I'll try to see if I can find a similar recipe online one day soon.

While at the restaurant we watched some of the street entertainment but after you've been here awhile you tire of them coming over to ask for donations, etc. 

And this was another lovely day in Paradise.