Leon

Leon is the liberal city and Granada is the conservative one.

 Historically they have always disgreed, consequently

 the capital was estabished in Managua halfway between them..

Leon was founded in the 1500's by the Spanish, it has

fallen consideraby in status and compared with what is

 happening in Granada it is definitely second best!

We had to change buses in Managua and were struck by the fact that this entrance to the city could have been anywhere in the world.

Our hotel was again in a converted colonial house,

still family owned and kept very much as if they still live as a family -

now the family are tourists.

The front room was a museum peice.

The dining room was under the eaves of the porch.

The Cathedral is huge. There is a rumour that the plans for Leon and Lima Cathedrals got muddled and this Cathedral shoudl have been built in Lima! On the outside it is covered in black mould, but inside newly painted.

The famouse black Christ is 15th century, brought from Spain.

The bell still hangs, but isn't used any more.

On the oposite of the square is the ruined Bishop's plalace.

Beside the Cathedral is a hideous memorial to the fallen of the Civil War.

I finally found a lady who would let me photograph her and her apron.

There is little to do in Leon except visit the churches most of which were only open from 6am to 9am and 4.00pm to 6pm! So we didn't get to see too many!

The church of Santa Cruz was interesting.

It used to be a convent. The convent is now what looks to be a beautiful hotel. But ...

we had dinner there, it turned out to be the worst meal we have eaten so far!

Inside the church was a very haunting face of Christ, clearly depicting his agony.

The nave was long and high.

to one side was a gold plated rood screen.

the Virgin Mary and her houses,

and the dog having a sleep in sanctuary!

The second day we decided to take a local trip down

to the Pacific Ocean, about 20 kms away, to a fishing village.

It meant another chicken bus, we are begining to get quite fond of them!

Peritos is the tiny fishing village at the end of the 40 minute journey.

Isolated and charming, we asked for a cold lemon juice.

It was very welcome, although it was only 10.00am it was already about 30 degrees.

We wandered aloong the shore to the far end of the village.

Passed children playing in the sand, oblivous to anything but the task in hand.

Where the boat ramp is some children were playing.

He thought he could pull the canoe up,

But decided it was too tough and some help was needed!

A line of pelicans flew past.

And the Pacific stretched to the horizon.

As we arrived back at the little port a fishing boat came in and disgorged this.

It was quickly cut up and dispatched. We wondered if this was legal fishing.

Round the corner nets were being mended.

We left the beach, returning to the hotel leaving the fishing village to carry on as it had done for centuries. Hoping that the "developers" didn´t ruin it.

The next morning, bright and early Managua. Again passing sundrenched landscapes

The perfect shaped volcano was very difficut to "photo"

This city really has litte charm! The old part of the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1972

There is no money to rebuild, and very little wish to do so I think.

The ruined Cathedral stands sentry to the past.

The Imperial Palace is a very good Museum about Nicaragua, which we enjoyed.

The nativity made from corn casings was charming.

The ony other thing to do was to visit the market!

Oh no, not more pictures of beans and things!

No, rocking chairs of sizes!

National dress.

Deck chairs!

 food you don't want to know about!

cloves to last a thousand years,

vegetables,

and finally those piggy banks are back, but painted this time!

The next morning we were taking the expensive "KingQuality Bus" out of Nicaragua and into Honduras.

The waiting room was very smart and we checked in 45 minutes before departure at the check in desk! All very impressive.

Well, this was the beginning of a nightmare! We sat & sat, no one told us anything. Eventualy half an hour after we were supposed to leave the bus hadn't arrived from Costa Rica we began to feel a certain unease. An hour after supposed departure time we asked what was happening. "Ah the bus will be here in half an hour." Wait, wait, they had WiFi, so I blogged. No bus, Eventually we heard from someone that the bus had broken down.

Two and a half hours later the bus arrived. It was very old, pretty uncomfortable. This was our super duper bus I talked about in my last posting!!! Going through the border was OK." Ah six USA dollars each to get out of Nicaragua. Nothing to pay to get into Honduras though. 

The road was awful, we bumped and twisted in the dark and I began to fee "queesy", we eventually arrived at the town where we were to connect with our bus to Tegucigalpa. It is so difficult to pronounce that the locals call it Tegus - but don't pronounce the "s"! We had to wait a bit.......... Then the bus arrived! Joy oh joy a double decker - very new. Great, but what we didn't know was that we were to go over mountain

passes, round and round the bends ........ My stomach rebelled so I went downstairs, and barged into the "superior" class! There I sat and stared out of the window until we arrived.

My tummy is still upset, but "Mat"e is helping, I have not been out today, but and I am completely up to date with my blog!!  Tony went down town and said there was not much worth seeing!

Tomorow we hire a car and take off to the north of Honduras.