The Spanish Cities

When Nicaragua was colonized in the sixteenth-century, Granada and Leon quickly sprang up as the two main cities in the country. These beautiful places also experienced large amounts of turmoil during the revolution but remain centers of history and culture. We were fortune to visit both cities within a week of each other and had a fabulous time in each. Our first stop was the International Poetry Festival in Granada. We hopped on the bus and arrived late morning. A lot of the day was spent wandering through art exhibits and poetry stands interspersed with poets, midday meals, and open-mic poetry sessions. Granada also has hundreds of  beautiful doors, so much of time was spent walking through the streets and talking lots of pictures. 

                        
We eventually ran into the Park of the Poets with some very cool permanent art and on our way back to middle of the festival, found ourselves at the Choco Cafe y Museo. This place had fantastic information on the history of cacao, aka cocoa, as well as chocolate rum, fresh cacao and a beautiful central patio with lots of neat facts, chairs and most importantly, SHADE. We all enjoyed the plethora of free samples they offered us and learned about all the nifty things cocoa is used for and found in. Our time there was again, a beautiful break from the heat, but my favorite part of the day was returning to the  main area of the festival to find a young, probably seven-year-old girl reading her poem in front of an international crowd of poetry lovers. 

 

We saw some beautiful churches and beautiful people before heading back to Managua that evening, excited to return and see more of what the city had hidden in its streets.





The next weekend, we planned an overnight trip to Leon for more sightseeing and our first extreme-sport experience in Nicaragua. Volcano-boarding was rated the #2 on CNN's thrill seeker's bucket list last year, just after #1- Flying your own Fighter Jet. Needless to say, our time in Nicaragua wouldn't be complete without sliding down a giant, semi-active volcano on a piece of ply-wood. We arrived in at Bigfoot Hostel and Volcano Boarding around 11am, so we had enough time to get settled in our room and wander around town before leaving for the volcano at 1pm.

This was the mural we fell asleep to in the hostel~ 

The ride to the volcano was an adventure in and of itself. We jumped in the back of a giant truck with over twenty other extranjeros from all over the world including Canada, England, France, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Argentina, Honduras and more. After introductions, including favorite ice cream flavors, we drove half an hour on corrugated roads through the Nicaraguan country side, headed toward the "black hill" aka Cerro Negro. 

                                                             

From the bottom

The day was hot. The company was international. The volcano was ready to be boarded. We arrived, passed out gear and headed up the trail. Did I mention that it was hot? It was hot. The volcano was very dry, very exposed and very, very black. But we had a great time anyway chatting our way (in English) up the hill with a nice scenic break in the middle and an incredibly rewarding view from the top. 

 Our guide pointed out the volcano flows from the last eruptions in '95 and '99 and somewhere of in the distance you could supposed see the ocean. After photo-ops and suiting up, he gave us instructions, helpful hints, and forgot to tell us to keep our mouths closed. We lined-up and one by one, jumped on our boards and raced down the lava flows as fast (or as slow) as we could. Technically, there was  a competition to see who could go fastest, but most of us were just happy to make it down in one piece. 
  



We had cold toñas and lots smiles waiting at the bottom as we cheered everyone else down the hill. The ride home was another adventure, full of foreign languages and a karaoke version of Bohemian Rhapsody. That night, we enjoyed chatting in the hostel, pizza and a true Nicaraguan baseball game, Leon versus Los Angeles (the team from Granada).

The next morning, we found our way to a delicious french bakery, Pan y Paz, that happened to be in the old family house of our ISEP adviser's husband. We all agreed that we'd be willing to travel the hour and a half to Leon just to taste the delicious pastries and sandwiches again.

Our next stop was the incredible Catedrál de Leon. The pictures again, hardly do it justice, but the view from the roof was easily the highlight of our trip. From up top, we could see churches rising up every few blocks throughout the city and the ring of volcanoes rising up across the country side.

The stations of the cross were
 magnificent and giant.

The tomb of Ruben Dario

 

Forgive me for the overuse of photos in this post...

We also stopped at a phenomenal art museum with original Picasso's and many works by classic central american painters. Our final afternoon was spent at the beach, once again. Las Peñitas was a charming coastal town with great waves to frolic in and plenty of shells to collect. I'm not sure we could have stuffed more into our 36-hour trip!