León

The second largest city in Nicaragua after Managua, León is a vibrant colonial city and an intellectual center, with its university founded in 1813. León is located along the Río Chiquito (Chiquito River), 90 km northwest of Managua and 18 km east of the Pacific Ocean coast. There are two main beaches near to León namely, Las Penyitas and Poneloya. León was moved to its present location after the ancient city of  León ( León Viejo) was partially buried by eruptions of the Momotombo Volcano, most of which occurred in 1610.

A smiling lion (and the namesake of León) outside the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

Another lion, in the fierce pose we are more used to seeing.

León is renowned as a leftist center, and is the cradle of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the leftist side during the Nicaraguan civil war. There are many monuments and artwork paying homage to the ‘heroes and martyrs’ who lost their lives fighting for equality and for the oppressed as well as political slogans and imagery.

A mural depicting ‘heroes and martyrs’ who lost their lives during a massacre by the Somoza ruling government.

Augusto Cesar Sandino, General of Free Men.

Carlos Fonseca Amador, leader of the Nicaraguan revolution.

Edgar Munguia, “The Cat”.

Another tribute to the heroes of the FSLN.

A huge mural in central Leon.

War imagery.

Modern political imagery.

Anti-American slogans scrawled on a wall near the Central Plaza.

Images of Augusto Cesar Sandino are common in Leon.

We decided that  León would be our first stop in Nicaragua due to its proximity to the border with Honduras, as well as the information that we had obtained from the border officials, namely that we could apply for and obtain our CA-4 visa extension there. We arrived at night, so we asked the taxi driver to take us to a budget hostel. He took us to a place called La Clinica, one mentioned in the guidebook, which is where we spent our first two nights in this vibrant colonial city. The people there were really friendly, but the place was run down and after looking around town, we decided to move to a more economical place called La Siesta Perdida, owned by a friendly Dutch lady. We later found out why our room was so cheap… it was situated in the same street as all the main discos in town!

Our first hostel in Leon, La Clinica.

León was sweltering-ly hot. It was so hot that Rick and i both had difficulty sleeping. Well, the noise from our neighbours on the street didn’t help either. We managed to find the immigration office and apply for our CA-4 extensions easily enough. The immigration personnel were very helpful and efficient, but our passports had to be sent to Managua for processing, which we were told would take a total of 8 days.

We took long walks around the city and enjoyed all it has to offer, from its huge Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption (one of the largest cathedrals in Central America) on the Central Park to the numerous university buildings and FSLN monuments. It is an interesting city, rich in nationalistic history and a good introduction to Nicaragua.

The Central Plaza and the huge Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

Leon’s Central Plaza is a popular place to hang out.

El Calvario church.

One of the beautiful old colonial buildings now used as part of the university.

Another old university building.

Intricate detailing on the facade of one of the old colonial buildings.

Well maintained colonial architecture.

A very old-looking house with traditional mud walls.

You can still see horses hard at work in Leon.

After a few days, we decided to head up north to Matagalpa to try to escape the heat for a while. The idea was to stay there (for a sort of getaway) and return in time to pick up our passports, then head onwards down south.