The centre of Granada is modernising at a fast pace with fancy hotels, internet cafes and bars opening almost weekly. However one only has to walk a few blocks to see the old Nicaragua happily existing as ever. Where you are as likely to see a shiny new 4x4 as you are a laden cart being pulled by oxen The market doesn’t compromise in any way and its energy is unforgiving, with vendors going about their daily business as normal. 
A few more blocks and you cross the arrollos, storm channels, and life changes dramatically. Here colonial charm ends and reality hits, confirming the statistic that Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas after Haiti.
Streets are of dirt (or since the rains have come, gloopy mud). Dwellings are made of any such material available, planks of wood, sheets of metal, flattened card, opened rice sacks and most have beaten earth floors.
Shortly many of these residents will become the owners of new more solid structures that they have built themselves under the guidance of NGO Las Casas de la Esperanza (www. casas-de-la-esperanza.org). Seeing the reality of what happens when the rains come I can only begin to imagine how much life will improve with a solid roof, walls and a concrete floor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P9yU_2VX3c
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