Leon, Nicaragua (with Austin!)

I have left the cuenca and moved on to less cuenca-things, like the country of Nicaragua! After spending a night in Tegucicalpa with Sara and her family, I took an early bus to Leon to meet up with Austin. 

Leon is Nicaragua's former capital and still an important area of artistic, religious, and revolutionary history. 

I arrived in Leon without a hitch and found Austin at work at Global Glimpse. It was crazy seeing Austin in a button down shirt, khaki pants, and real shoes. 

After dropping off my heavy backpack (got all my stuff in there, by the way!) and grabbing a beer, he gave me a quick night tour of the city. Leon's cathedral is the largest in Central America (construction began in 1747) and holds the tomb of Ruben Dario (internationally renowned Nicaraguan poet) and other important literary and political figures. 

The grand Cathedral of Leon

Austin's favorite - Cathedral de Concepcion

After heading back and getting a much-needed sleep, we woke up early and prepared for our day of touring and museums of history and politics (Austin's favorite).

I was surprised to wake up and see the nursery where Austin's host family lives. In a very urban city, Austin managed to find a place to live that resembled the cuenca! How fortunate.

As those of you who are friend's with Austin know, he has an ongoing battle with his flip flops. And for those of you who care, Austin's multi-platinum repaired flip flops failed him yet again. So, as usual, the two of us went shoe shopping and he spend more than $4 on a pair of shoes.

Shoed up and ready to tour, we headed towards the big cathedral and walked through a funeral service and straight to the confessional.

Leon's political history is very important to its people and therefore, is illustrated by beautiful murals all over the city's walls. The mural that Austin is standing in front of spans the entire history of Nicaragua (indigenous times to the present).

Austin practiced his tour and did wonderfully! I learned a lot.

Next up was the Museum of the Revolution, which is housed in the old statehouse. I was really lucky that Austin is a history-political buff and gave me a run down of Nicaragua history before we entered because all our tour guide (a revolutionary) wanted to talk about was anti-American sentiment, terrorism, and baseball.

V for Victory.

The museum was really interesting. The painted walls were covered with news clippings, photos, and paraphernalia from 35 years ago.

Despite our less-than-informational tour, there were two very cool aspects of our visit. The first was a climb up to the roof of the museum to get a beautiful 360 view of the city.

The Cathedral

The best part of the tour was pretending I was a revolutionary...

Yes, that's a bazooka.

Yes, I shot a bazooka.

Yes, it was really fun(ny).

Yes, I blew away the smoke.

Yes, it drew a crowd and everyone watched me.

 The last stop on our city tour was Carcel XXI, which was a notorious political-torture prison.

The jail, close the centre of the city, has been turned into a truly hokey museum of folklore. But, really creepy at the same time. Really creepy...

STORY TIME

Last night, I was sitting in my hotel room in San Juan del Sur (blog post pending) and was watching Ghost Hunters International. Yes, my hotel is Nicaragua has cable TV and yes, I watch Ghost Hunters International. Religiously. Anyway, I turned it on in the middle of the episode and the building they were investigating looked strangely familiar. As I continued to watch, I see the creepy mannequins that Austin and I took pictures with and realized...

I was there!

For the record, the GHI team experienced quite a bit of paranormal activity and declared the old prison haunted. 

My visit to Leon was awesome! I ate so much fried street food in the most... interesting way. For instance, take the taco. Fried, crispy tortilla rolled around cheese is stuck in a bag of cabbage, crema, and salsa picante. You tie up the top of the plastic bag and then bite a hole in the bottom corner. From there, you take a bite of the taco through the bag and then pull it through the hole with your teeth. It sounds weird, it is weird, but it was AWESOME. I also ate fried cheese potatoes, fried cheese empanada, fried rice and cabbage, fried soft cheese quesillo, and a fried sweet crepe with cheese. I don't even want to talk about how my stomach felt.

A big shout-out to Austin (who religiously reads my blog... yay!) for being a fantastic host and sharing with me all of the history, culture, home, and delicious street food!

THANK YOU AUSTIN!

Don't forget to send in your questions for AATuesday tomorrow!