So I know I'm beyond late with this blog entry. The next place we visited after Leon is the reason why which hopefully Keith's entry will explain. As a result I'll keep this relatively short as it feels like a lifetime ago we were arriving into Nicaragua and our first stop in the country, Leon. This is probably a good thing as it was our worst journey so far. A few hours in we turned around to go and rescue another bus that had broken down. We managed to squeeze everyone and their bags onto ours and another bus which resulted in an incredibly cramped, long rest of journey. The 6 hours we were told it was going to be (I always knew it wouldn't be) ended up being 11 hours and arriving into Leon at 1am. We were feeling grotty but were instantly lifted when we were let into our lovely hotel by an incredibly friendly man who offered us a beer before heading straight to bed (a very comfy one!).

The next day we knew we were closer to the equator waking to a very hot day (in fact the same temperature as our wedding day at 37 degrees). We took the day to wander around the gorgeous colonial city, with a massive highlight being visiting the beautiful cathedral which is the largest in Central America and walking up to the roof which was completely white and beyond stunning. I'll let the photos do the talking as no description will do it justice. We headed back to our hotel late afternoon incredibly hot and sweaty to dive into the pool and read our books. Dinner that night involved going to a tiny Cuban restaurant where there wasn't a menu and no one spoke English. Good job we aren't fussy eaters as our orders were complete guesses (with a little bit of help from google translate - Keith can now say I'll take the chef's recommendation!)

The following day we'd booked a city tour with a local guide to find out a little more about the beautiful town that we knew had a big history. We learnt about the revolutionary war of the 1970s that overthrew the dictatorship of Somoza, and the civil war that followed in the 1980s when the US-backed Contra rebels sought to unbalance the new government. It is estimated that more than 50,000 people were killed in the revolution.

On the tour we visited one museum that we had absolutely no idea what it was about! It just had loads of freaky dolls and our guide really made no sense of it. HOWEVER it did have a massive mango tree outside it (apparently it was a pretty small one!) and we spent about 15 minutes eating the most amazing fresh mangoes that had fallen to the ground. We ate like the locals and made a small split in the top before squeezing the mango to the top, meaning you didn't get your hands dirty. Genius!

Anyway over to Keith to fill you in on our next stop in Nicaragua.
SM