We arrived in León (Nicaragua) after 16 hours in a shuttle traversing four countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and finally, Nicaragua), and were hanging to get to our accommodation for a shower, especially considering the humidity and temperature levels felt considerably higher in Nica.
We had purposely booked pretty low cost, budget accommodation as we were over budget from the last couple of weeks, and despite the place we booked not having air-conditioning, we were assured by the reviews of the hotel, that the fans that were provided in the rooms were plenty good enough. Oh, how I wish that had have been true!
Casa Ivana
We booked four nights at Casa Ivana, and our private room with ensuite cost us about $30US a night, and there was a shared kitchen we were welcome to use, as well as a couple of communal areas for hanging out.
So we were under no illusion as to what to expect – but our main issue was to have some privacy and as long as the fans kept us cool during the how evenings, we would be fine. It looks nice, right? Lots of garden and lots of colour.
And this is the photo which may give you some idea as to whether the fans worked….
Hahaha poor Dave doesn’t look too refreshed and cool here, does he?! Despite us having TWO fans in our room, we just could not cool down. Our room was the one at the very back of the house and there was a breeze at times but it just didn’t reach down to where our room was.
It was literally hotter inside our room than outside of it – AT ALL TIMES! So the fact that our shower only had cold water was actually fine with us – but even about 5 cold showers a day wasn’t enough to cool us down – and Dave usually got up in the middle of the night to shower as well… León was a hot, humid and sweaty few days!
León was similar to Antigua in terms of layout and architecture but to us, much more grungy, gritty and waaaay less touristy. There were a lot of locals around, and as we are moving into low season in Nicaragua (it’s too hot for tourists and locals to travel… that should have been our first hint!), there were barely any other tourists around. We did like one aspect of the low season though, no lines anywhere and plenty of dining options that we didn’t need to make reservations for.
As with most of the Central America towns we had visited, churches were front and foremost on the architectural viewpoint, and we made a point of roaming around town in a half planned way that took us past the five main churches. Here are some snaps of them.
León’s Churches
And I have saved the best church for last – the Cathedral of León is León’s most famous site, and it is famous not just for its beautiful frontage or prime location overlooking the main zocolo, but for its stunning rooftop design.
Cathedral of León
When the Cathedral was being built a cope of centuries ago, rich Leonaise would pre-purchase tombs below the floor of the Cathedral. This helped pay for the construction and ongoing maintenance of the building and obviously carried with it a fair bit of kudos for the wealthiest of León.
The most spectacular and renowned grave is the one of Rubén Darío, the esteemed Nicaraguan poet, whose tomb is covered by a stone lion in the center of the church.
Rubén Darío’s Lion Tomb
Inside the Cathedral
We paid a dollar or so and were then granted access up the super narrow and steep staircase to the rooftop terrace, which we had heard was spectacular.
I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect up there but WOW, seeing it in person, was truly breathtaking.
I have not yet been to Greece (it is on the list!) but being up on top of this Church, I FELT like I was in Santorini. The blindingly white paint of the rounded domes and spires contrasted with the blue (and kind of ominously grey) skies were very dramatic, and the white paint was actually that bright you could not take your sunnies off without your eyes beginning to water!
Apparently they repaint the Cathedral rooftop often to ensure it stays so pristine, but they obviously haven’t done much else to the outside walls as they’re in pretty average condition!
Outside not as great condition as the roof!
As mentioned before, León is pretty grungy and this was exemplified by the amount of street art and graffiti art we saw. Most of it was focused on León’s proud past as a key player of the Nicaraguan revolution where they won back independence, with Che Guevara as a figurehead of the revolutions occurring throughout Central America around the same time.
Museo de la Revolucion
In order to understand the Nicaraguan Revolution better, we spent a couple of hours with one of the old, actual revolutionaries at the Museum of the Revolution. The museum is staffed entirely by retired servicemen who fought for Nicaragua’s freedom, and who are obviously passionate about their cause, and proud of the outcome.
Unfortunately for us, my Spanish was not fabulous enough to translate 100% (or, let’s be real, 50%!) of what our lovely guide was saying (and he spoke no english), but we got the main idea… and the photos and memorabilia helped as well.
We also got to go right up on the rooftop which had a great view over the city of Leon – I DID not feel that safe up here thought as we were literally walking on what felt like the flimsiest tin, but our guide didn’t seem to be bothered so we rolled with it!
One of my favourite parts of Central America, and it is definitely a central theme in my photography is the locals going about their business. Watching them manning their stalls, visiting the markets and just hanging out, is great fun. They’re such a chilled bunch of people, they never hassle or haggle, and their focus isn’t on tourists, which is really nice, and such a change after some countries I have visited.
Volcano boarding Cerro Negro
On our final full day in León (and probably the main reason for us choosing to go to León at all!), we had booked to do the volcano boarding. If this sounds weird, it is, and it is the only place in the world you can actually do this!
And guess what, it was started by an Aussie backpacker who now runs the Bigfoot chain of hostels in Guatemala and Nicaragua – figures, right?! The volcano is called Cerro Negro because it is (unusually) totally black and the boarding entails you basically hiking up the black, gravelly volcano (oh no, not another volcano hike!!) for an hour, then boarding down on a toboggan-like contraption at speeds of up to 90kmph….
We decided to go with Bigfoot Hostel, the company of the Aussie guy who started the fantastic idea of volcano boarding, and our group was pretty large – I think we had about 40 people or so. We met at Bigfoot Hostel around 8:30am for a briefing, and by 10am we were paying our entry to the volcano and waiting patiently to begin our hike up.
Waiting to pay and receive our gear
Cerro Negro
Dave and I met some more cool people on this trip, a lovely fellow Aussie called Sam who (brave girl) was traveling on her own through Nicaragua for a month, and two lovely America chicks Robin and Texi who were hosties on a quick weekend getaway to Leon.
After Acatenango I was pretty nervous about the hike, but thankfully it was actually pretty sweet compared to that. The one hour hike actually took more like 50 minutes and that was split into three sections with ample rest time and even some corny photo opportunities.
Beginning (and during) the ascent
Bigfoot actually took some photos and I have included these as well. Also a shout out to Robin who kindly emailed me through the group shots!
We were given pretty old and crappy goggles to wear as well as a hideously cool orange jumpsuit to protect our clothes and bodies should we wipe out. We were also pre-warned to bring along a bandana to cover our noses and mouths as we would be kicking up a fair bit of dirt and dust on our board trip down.
Once we reached the top it was time to don all our gear and listen to the safety briefing and instructions. Now, I’ll be honest, the instructions were pretty minimal… aim straight, stamp your right foot if you start heading left and vice versa… and …..GO!
Getting our gear on!
Ready to rock and roll!!
Orange IS the new Black
The crater in all its black, smoky glory! (Yes it is still an active volcano….)
Waiting for our turn
Last look over the edge….
And, we were off….! Unfortunately the goggles were pretty shitty (they really need to upgrade them!) and it was kind of like looking through scratched sunnies, but there was certainly no missing the speed and adrenalin as we raced down the side of the volcano at what felt like a million miles per hour!
Go go GOOOOO (Dave first, then me)!
Time for a close up!
What a rush!! Our guide hung out about half way down and took a few snaps of us as we went – you can see my eyes are half shut in one of them – this was because teeny little rocks had crept up into my goggles and I was trying to see!
This was amazing fun, and I actually wish we could have done it another time. Both Dave and I seemed to have gotten pretty crappy goggles which kind of ruined it, and made you less confident as you couldn’t see – but it was wicked crazy fun, and I would love to do it all over again!
And here we are, celebrating with a cold beer afterwards, you can get an idea of how dirty we were! I was actually finding gravel ingrained into my scalp for the next few days, despite washing my hair that night haha.
GREAT fun, and would highly recommend, It’s a bargain for only about $35US which includes the park fees, the transport there and back, a couple of beers, the guide and the gear.
All in all, we did not actually rate Leon as a destination all that much, and I would not recommend it except as a good (the only?) place to join in a volcano boarding tour, which is a MUST DO if you’re in Nicaragua at all. Maybe we were spoilt after loving Antigua so much, or maybe you just can’t love everywhere, but if we had our time again, we would probably only spend a couple of nights to see the Cathedral and do the boarding and that would be it….Oh well, you can’t love everywhere!
Next stop, Las Penitas, a tiny little fishing village on the west coast of Nicaragua famous for its surf…