Saturday, November 28, 2009

Day 10 – Leon

oke up and had a good breakfast in the courtyard of the hotel – rancho style eggs with orange juice and coffee. We then walked to the ruins of San Sebastian church which was bombed into oblivion by Somoza’s army in 1979.

At the ruins of San Sebastian church

Across the street was the El Museo de Tradiciones y Leyendas (Museum of Traditions and Legends) – it’s housed in a former jail and torture center used by Somoza’s National guard. Outside there is a statue of a FSLN fighter along with some nice mosaics depicting Nicaraguan folklore along with the FSLN struggle against Somoza.
FSLN fighter
Nicaragua 11_28_2009 Leon - 110

The gate to the museum was locked but after a while someone appeared and let us in. We wanted to take us on a tour but I explained that we only understood a little Spanish and went off on our own. We paid our $1 entry fee and he turned on what sounded like a haunted house soundtrack long with music from the movie Halloween – kind of weird. On the walls of the inside and outside of the building were drawings of torture methods and of daily life in the prison. Inside the various rooms were the large paper mache figures form Nicaraguan history (La Gigantona, etc).

Nicaragua 11_28_2009 Leon - 117

Nicaragua 11_28_2009 Leon - 120

Next we walked up to the central market on the north east corner of the city and looked around and then made our way to Via Via for a few beers and shared a big chicken burrito. We saw a sign that they were having cockfighting the next night along with all you could drink for $12.

Roosterfights

Next we went to the Galeria de Heroes y Martires which is run by mothers of people who died in the FSLN revolution. There were pictures of hundreds of fallen fighters who gave their lives to free their country form Somoza’s dictatorship. Just down the street was the Casa de la Cultura which was small but had some nice art along with an interesting paining of Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

We went back to Via Via for a late lunch having chicken quesadillas and washed down with cold Victorias. We played cards for a while before heading back to the hotel to shower and, since we were walking around the city in flip flops, wash our disgusting feet. Later we went out look for a place to eat dinner, we saw a lot of restaurants but most of them were pretty empty. We ended up back at Via Via and got a table and ordered a bottle of rum and coke with some ice and limes (only $4.75). For dinner I had the Guatemalan tacos (they were more like taquitos) and Kat had chicken with rice.

Some kids came in the bar and did a La Gigantona performance which was pretty cool to watch close up.
La Gigantona

Sice we had to drive back to Managua the next morning we headed out and back to the hotel at about 10pm, watched soem TV and then went to sleep

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