I’m now in Leon. That sounds very bad in my head since I worked with a guy called Leon at eBay, the place with the highest concentration of gay men of all the places I worked. Now, as far as I know, that particular Leon isn’t gay, but maybe he’s still hiding in the closet, afraid to ruin his rocker image. But I guess it could be worse, the place could be called Adam…
Anyway, my personal gibberish aside, I’m now in the TOWN Leon. It’s the old
The Cathedral in Leon
capital of Nicaragua and is now a lovely little colonial town in the north of the country. I just came back to the hostel after a little walk around the town. There isn’t so much to see to be honest. Same, same but different as most old colonial towns in Central America. Old houses, markets, plazas and more churches than can be healthy for anyone. The biggest feature in Leon, in all senses of the word, is the Cathedral, the biggest cathedral in Central America. It’s really huge, but I do think the cathedral in Mexico City is bigger (I know that is North America…) and there isn’t so many decorations as in may other cathedrals and churches in this part of the world.
Churches, markets and old houses aside, the reason I really like Leon is the hostel where I’m staying. There is a swimming pool, really comfortable beds, free Internet and a relaxed atmosphere. I might stay here for a while, just relaxing by the pool.
The plan before I came here was to go to a paradise island off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, called Corn Islands, but after a quick check at the weather forecast for the next week did I decide to skip that and spend the time and money on other places and other paradise beaches further south.
On the way from San Salvador, where I spent the last day sightseeing (churches, markets and plazas plus some really nice, shining shopping mall ) and making up for the Irish fiasco by some Swedish nostalgia by seeing Mamma Mia in the cinema, did I make a stop in Managua, the present capital of Nicaragua. Managua isn’t the most beautiful city in the world and after a earthquake in 1972 isn’t there anything left of the old city centre either. Since they don’t have any money, after many years of civil war, to rebuild anything of the old, is the city now more like a bunch of suburbs spread out around shopping malls (to compare the shopping malls in Managua with the ones in San Salvador is like comparing 7-eleven with Harrods). I did go for a little walk around though, in what once was the city centre and looked at the ruins there, before I ran back home and took shelter in my room, watching violent demonstrations on the streets of Managua on my TV. The violence had something to do with an election but I couldn’t make out more then that. Pretty nasty pictures of masked demonstrators throwing stones, shooting some kind of smoke granates and trashing cars. Probably not enough violence to make it to the news in Europe, but not very nice when you’re in the city (even if I never saw anything more then peaceful demonstrators with my own eyes).
Peaceful demonstrations in Managua
