León, Nicaragua

Today we made a trip to León. We have wanted to visit for a while now but every time someone talks about León , they talk about how hot it is there. People in Granada, San Juan del Sur and Managua all talk about how hot León is. This scared me a bit because I think Granada, San Juan del Sur and Managua are plenty hot! But, hotness aside, we still wanted to see it. León is a colonial city much like Granada in architecture but with a different demographic. León is a university city with lots of students. There are several museums, a movie theater and a respectable nightlife. Granada is very much a tourist and expat city filled with restaurants and cafes that locals never go into. Granada and León are rival cities and for years they fought for capital status with the capital city changing back and forth from Granada to León. Liberal regimes elected León as capital and conservative regimes elected Granada as capital until in 1858 when a compromise was agreed upon and Managua was made the permanent capital.

We rode to León with our neighbors who have a daughter who is attending medical school there and their son, whose girlfriend lives (and it was her birthday). The drive was about 2 1/2 hours from Matagalpa. When we arrived we stopped in to visit with our neighbor's daughter at her house. Then we headed for Cafe La Rosita where were told the best brownies in Nicaragua were made. They had cheesecake too and I almost got it but our neighbors said it was OK so I went for the brownie! I was not disappointed. Bridget got Selva Negra cake (Black Forest) and Joey got a 3 layer chocolate cake which tasted like real chocolate cake (most Nicaraguan chocolate isn't anything to write home about). Gus opted to get a brownie and 2 chocolate chip cookies with his 40 cordoba treat allowance. We had a lovely time in a beautiful little cafe figuring out what to do next. We went to the cathedral and the central park. We had planned to go on a tour of the cathedral which was supposed to be 20 cordobas per person (~$1), but when we returned for our tour we were told it was 100 cordobas (~$5) for extraneros. So we decided we didn't need to spend $25 on the tour (when we were expecting $5). We tried to get them to give the kids the local price, but they wouldn't budge (it has worked once or twice so it doesn't hurt to ask, there are no kids prices/meals in Nicaragua, so we get charged for 5 adults most of the time). So we headed out to an art museum where we weren't allowed to take pictures but we could take pictures of the garden. I did get one shot of the garden, where you can see one of the paintings behind it. The art museum was really cool, very diverse. There were lots of religious paintings as well as modern Central American paintings, mixed media, and sculptures. We all really enjoyed all the museum had to offer.

We had lunch at a French bakery that was highly recommended in our guide book. It's called Pan y Paz (bread and peace) and the guide book said they had real sourdough bread. Joey ordered a sourdough baguette and a mango smoothie. He ate the whole thing, although they did cut it in thirds. Gus had a roll and a croissant and ended up with a dusty powdery face. I had broccoli quiche and it was amazing with buttery flaky crust and mango juice which was only lightly sweetened (highly unusual in Nicaragua where all the refrescos are very sweet). It was truly wonderful.

After lunch we went to the museo de la Revolución. The tour guide talked to us (in Spanish) about the history of the revolution and we were able to follow some of it. Fortunately I read The Country Under My Skin by Gioconda Belli which talks about the history of the revolution when she was involved in during the late 70's and 80's but I was pretty lost on the early history about Sandino in the early 1900's. Our tour guide spoke no English but his Spanish was very clear and he answered all our questions. After he told us about the history he took us up to the roof of the museum where we actually walked on the aluminum roof to see the view of the city. Gus' favorite part of the tour was when the guide took us to a balcony window and said, in Spanish, "this is where Sandino would speak to the people, blah, blah, blah" Gus thought it was hilarious. On our way back down from the roof we spotted a birds nest on top of one of the columns in the house.

We wandered around a bit and then met up with our neighbors to go to the Museum of Legends and Traditions. It was "interesting". The museum is located in an old Somoza fort that was used to torture and imprison revolutionaries. The walls are covered with graffiti like paintings of daily life in the fort. The outside walls depict the different types of torture the Somozas used and there is a water torture "station" that is set up in front of the museum. We were all allowed to walk on the narrow wall around the top of the fortress where the railings were broken and rusted away. They did insist that we hold Gus' hand while we were up there. The kids had fun pretending to guard the fort from the turret. There were 2 large mango trees on the grounds and the kids sat around and ate mangoes till they were full. It was nothing like any museum experience I have ever had in the United States.

After the museum we wandered back to the Central Park to decide what to do next. We found out that most of the movies shown in Nicaragua are in English (and only $3) so we decided to check out the local theater and see Rio. We were paying for our tickets when we thought to confirm that it was in English when we were told that it was in Spanish. Apparently movies for kids are all in Spanish as it would be difficult for a 4 year old to read the subtitles. There were a couple of other movies that were in English but they were both rated R. I tried to convince the kids that a Disney movie in Spanish would probably still be funny, but they were adamant that they would rather wait till we get home and see it in English. So now we had time to kill and since we'd been grazing a bit we weren't particularly hungry. We hung out at the Central Park and watched a local artist for a while before we tried to find a restaurant for dinner with our neighbors. We ended up at a place callled Via Via which was recommended to us as a place that's "good for gringos" (that's what the guy on the street told our neighbors). The food was good and cheap. Joe and Joey shared a "filet mingon" (which wasn't a filet mignon but rather a pretty decent steak) and Gus had chicken wings, Bridget had a plate of tajadas (fried plantain chips) and I had refried beans and chips. We weren't particularly hungry. Since it was hot in León we stopped for ice cream and cold Cokes throughout the day. But our light dinner was very satisfying and Joe and I had Mojitos that were the best Mojitos we have ever had. After dinner we headed back to the car and headed back home to Matagalpa. It was a good day and great to see the city. While it was hot, and I wouldn't want to live there, it wasn't as uncomfortable as I had anticipated. I do enjoy the climate in Matagalpa.