León

Bus to El Sauce

Cathedral of León

Reagan, Kissinger, Weinberger

Isla Los Brasiles

Yesterday we made the trip from El Lagartillo to León (see link). The first part of this was a 2 hour road on a packed (I mean standing and pressing flesh) bus from El Lagartillo to Achuapa and then to El Sauce (pronounced sow-say). Part of the reason it was so crowded was that there was a festival of Cristo Negro (Black Jesus) in Sauce. We even met some guys from Denmark who joined in the pilgrimage to Sauce by walking 5 days to get there.

El Sauce to León was quite smooth and we found a hotel, only to discover that ¨budget¨ in Nicaragua might mean no working shower (you also get a clue when the maintenance guy hands you a 5 gallon bucket full of water and says it´s for cleaning.

We walked around León for a couple of hours, seeing some sites. León is one of two cities founded by the Spanish, and of course named after León in Spain (Granada is the other famous colonial city). Originally founded at the base of Volcano Momotombo, it was moved in 1610 when the volcano erupted to its present location. It has the largest church in all of Central America, the cathedral at the center of town, built in 1747.
 During periods of history, León has served as the capital. However, it has always been a hotbed of liberalism, in contrast to the more conservative Granada. Murals around the city attest to its political views. Somoza targeted the city with bombs in 1978. We stopped into the Centro de Cultura and saw a great picture of a former U.S. president.

We also visited the home of Rubén Darío, a poet, and the most renowned Nicaraguan ever (alright not counting Bianca Jagger). We managed to buy a short book of his poetry and Liam read one of them aloud. Other famous Nicaraguans: Augusto Sandino (Sandinista movement took its name from him), Dennis Martinez (MLB pitcher), current president Daniel Ortega.

Liam found his favorite restaurant ever, Pure Earth Cafe, a vegetarian place catering to americans serving pasta, toast & fruit, and pizza (which we had tonight). Next door to the Cafe is Bigfoot Hostel, that we arranged a surfing trip to the Surfing Turtle Lodge (see link). The final score in surfing was Liam & Chris 6 points (number of times we stood up more than a second), Ocean 8 (number of times we got slammed by the waves). The surf was remarkably strong for this time of year; the guidebooks said January was mellow. Needless to say, the beach itself was beautiful and very sparsely used.

We changed hotels to the ¨Hostal Tortuga Booluda¨, surrounded mostly by German speakers. Even better there are working showers. Tomorrow we are heading for Masaya.