Leon is a colonial city about 100 miles north of Mangua. It is a bustling metropolis of 400,000. It is hot and filled with spanish colonial architexture. I think it is on of my favorite cities.
The majority of the buildings are one story, so the cathedrals are very noticable. It is a perfect grid (maybe just the area surrounding the main plaza.) The roads are narrow, the sidwalks are raised and very thin and chok full of holes and hazards. All of the homes touch the sidewalks. Private meets public in a very immediate way. And walking around all of the doors to the homes are open with just a metal gate. Inside the homes are beautiful and huge. It is very obvious who is poor and who is well off. Beds, dingy clothes lines and TVs and nice chairs. And walking around I get a glimpse of all of these lives. Its amazing.
Christmas was good. The party outside of the cathedral on the night of Christmas Eve was insane. Not in a boozetown express way but in a family celebration way. Tons of kids, fireworks, candy, toys, food and noise. And amongst all of this was the calmness of a mass. The way the two met was insane- all of these people attending mass in the largest church in Latin America and then all of these people celebrating right outside, thousands of poeple... and the people from the plaza party would wander into the church. And no one seemed to be drinking it was a total family celebration. Beautiful and bizaare.
And yesterday, I spent the day tanning by the pool at my hostel and reading old New Yorkers. I had a nice dinner with some Europeans and drank rum. Pretty nice.
And today off to Esteli. For a national park and the best steak in Nicaragua.
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