We stopped in León, Nicaragua, for two nights. Our journey there was by local buses to cross the country from Granada. Buses in Nicaragua don’t run to a strict timetable, but instead they leave when they are full, but we timed it well with both buses and were not waiting long at all. It was a hot and sweaty journey though, with open windows only letting in a blast of hot air. The second bus was a pretty cramped ride with one of our big bags balanced across our laps, and our small backpacks jammed between our legs. The ride was fairly smooth and fast though, as we managed to get two very new minibuses. After around three hours we were safely in León. We’d decided in advance that we could easily walk the 15 minutes to our hostel, even with bags. This turned out to be a sweaty trek across a busy market under the hot sun. Chris does much better in the heat then me so he did all our navigating as I blindly followed him.
We arrived at our hostel and checked in, we’d decided to go for this particular hostel as it was family run, plus it had a room with air conditioning, ensuite, a balcony, and even bedside tables with lamps. Luxury! Our hosts were a nice family who greeted us warmly and, I suspect on seeing how I was faring with the heat and humidity, went and turned on the air conditioning in our room whilst we checked in and were shown around.
We ventured out for the evening around 5pm when the temperature had dropped to only low 30s! I’d found a small brewery called Cerro Negro which did some vegetarian dishes. The beer was good, with lots of variety of styles. They did an impressive-looking tasting flight of 12 small glasses, equivalent to about 3.5 pints, which we shared.
We only had one full day in Leon, but before exploring I called my parents to catch up. The internet wasn’t quite as reliable as in Granada, but I was able to chat to them and wish mum a Happy Mother’s Day. Then we headed out to see the cathedral and have a walk around the city. As it was a Sunday not everything was open, but we managed to see a lot in a day. The cathedral (which has a rather lengthy full name of Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) is the largest in Central America, although it’s less imposing and impressive than that sounds as it is wide rather than tall and very simply decorated inside. We walked around the main square where there were a few market stalls, and bizarrely several empty trampolines! Getting hot again, we went into a Pops ice cream shop and had ice cream under the air conditioning.
Having cooled down again we pressed on to the Ortíz Gurdián Foundation Art Centre. This place hosted a really impressive collection of art, mostly modern, from all over the world. It is spread over two beautiful old colonial-style buildings with internal courtyards. It was good to spend a few hours exploring, there were pieces by Nicaraguan artists, alongside more internationally well known artists like Warhol, Mondrian, and Damien Hurst. I was still battling the heat, but we took it slowly and enjoyed the large courtyards inside the museum buildings, as well as the occasional powerful fan.
After getting our fill of art, we headed for a late lunch at Coco Calala vegan restaurant. It was a nice setting around a courtyard with a restaurant and a few hotel rooms, as well as a small swimming pool (I restrained myself from jumping in!). The food was great, really fresh and filling. I had an Asian-inspired noodle salad and Chris had fake fish tacos.
By 4pm it had cooled down enough to join a walking tour around the city centre, it’s not just me feeling the heat here, as the tours are only offered at 9am and 4pm when it’s a bit cooler. It was really interesting, and we learnt a lot about the history of the city as a place for artists and intellectuals, as well as its recent past and political unrest. Our guide talked us through the meaning behind some of the impressive murals on the streets. After the tour, we sat in a bar on the main square, which had come to life in the evening, with families sitting around and kids playing on the trampolines, and even some bouncy castles inflated as well.
León was a good place to spend a day or so, and was where we got to see a lot of the cultural side of Nicaragua. It was a little too hot for me to want longer in the city centre, but we did enjoy getting to explore and see some art. Between León and Granada I feel we’ve seen a good part of urban life in Nicaragua, and with that we’ve learnt quite a bit about the country. Our next stop was further up Nicaragua, off the tourist trail on the Pacific coast.
