Nicaragua – Leon
Our next two weeks in Nicaragua were based in Leon, which sits on the other side of the capital city. Its climate is much drier, and we found it much hotter, reaching upwards of 95F/35C on one very hot day. It was in Nicaragua that we realized our mistake in only concentrating on rainy season schedules when planning where to go when. We had not considered which months were the hottest, or which part of each country was the hottest. Well, shame on us because Leon sits in the hottest part of Nicaragua, and that’s saying something.
We arrived in Leon on a Saturday, realized our fate, and left immediately for the coast and spent the next two days in Las Penitas, where we could slowly acclimatize to the searing heat. We found that it was a very large beach but the sand was kind of dirty grey and the swimming didn’t look great. The surfing looked okay though, if one were into that. And, thanks to the sea breeze and coastal location, it was slightly cooler, so worth the quick escape.
Whereas Granada was traditionally conservative, Leon was and is the heart of Nicaragua’s liberal political and intellectual movement. A walking street near the center plaza is lined with large photos of fallen men and women who fought in the revolution. This is where you may remember Reagan’s folly with the whole Iran Contra affair. We did a city walking tour, as we enjoyed the one in Grenada enough to repeat the experience. The recent troubled history with America’s messy involvement was a little embarrassing, but educational at the same time. Way before the Iran Contra Affair, there were the Banana Wars where US companies were trying to control the banana trade through whatever means necessary – another embarrassing era. There are several Youtube videos on the Banana Wars if you want to check one out.
We took a day off to add to our one full weekend here, and went to Matagalpa, which sits at a higher elevation and was mercifully cooler. The drive to Matagalpa was interesting. First we passed through bone-dry and brown gold-mining country, where 90% of the mining operations are owned by Canadian companies (the other 10% being Nicaraguan). Everyone who lived in this area worked for the mining companies, and we saw many front yard processing operations, but couldn’t get a good photo from the car. There is no water here, so it all has to be trucked in. Seemed like a hard life to us. Then, we passed into coffee country, and this was the height of the harvest so large operations were drying the beans on huge tarps in the sun.
Matagalpa itself is not very interesting, but it sits in the middle of hilly coffee-growing country. We enjoyed a couple of hikes, one at Selva Negra, an old German coffee plantation from back in the 1800s when Nicaragua was giving away free land in the area to immigrants. This particularly industrious family made a beautiful little working resort out of the place and offers use of its land for some hiking. Grueling hiking it turned out. And muddy. Denise hadn’t so much as decided to slide down as gravity kind of made the decision for her. I had kind of pushed her into not wearing her humongous Colombian rubber boots on the hike and so she slipped and slid twice while hiking in her running shoes. I could see, while scrambling to help where I could, her mostly silent swear words directed in my direction for all my offered help.
The next day was less eventful. In both instances though we were helped by the great generosity of Aldo, the owner of our hotel who spoke perfect English as he had spent time living in Florida. Aldo drove us the 30 minutes to Selva Negra, showing us around a little by stopping at one point for a beautiful panoramic view of the valley. The following day Aldo drove us up to a ranger station where he confirmed whether it was safe to hike or not. Apparently there were reports of robbers along another trail to the top of this hill climb and that route was off limits. But there was another route, and together with a local guide they determined it was probably safe but it would be better with a guide. We took the guide, a ~65-year old wiry farmer, and no robbers in sight. Another grueling hike, I am starting to think there is no such thing as a hike with a nice, easy 250’ elevation gain per mile anywhere in Central America, 500’ seems to be the bare minimum.
The center courtyard of our Airbnb. The doors on the blue wall lead to the bedrooms (which had A/C).
The white winged doves nesting in our place.
Our place in Leon was again a Spanish colonial house with an open courtyard, but this time there was no pool. We realized we had very little desire to leave the house with its fans and A/C in the bedrooms during the day, and the heat left us pretty exhausted by evening when it became pleasant. We did find out that we were sharing our Airbnb with pair of resident nesting doves.
We were eager to leave this heat behind, particularly as our next stop, San Salvador, sits at 2000’ and is cooler. We were happy to have visited Nicaragua, but because of the heat, we feel like we didn’t give the country a real chance, and if we were to return, we would only go in December or January when it’s dry but not stifling, or only spend time in the high country. Despite our complaining about the heat, we would still take it over cold, dreary weather.
Categories: Central America, Travel
I’m not sure who is going to win the booby price: the folks instigating the banana wars, Reagan’s folly or the shitshow currently going on in DC. And I am wondering if the “mass deportations” they are dreaming of will affect Nicaragua as much as it is affecting other Central American countries, and let’s not forget the re-named Gulf of Mexico!
Listening to German news daily, and their consternation as to what’s going on here, I wonder what Central America is thinking. Do you have any conversations about the geopolitical ramifications with the people you are meeting?
Interestingly perhaps, we really haven’t had conversations about the US with people down here. Partly due to the language barrier (despite improving our Spanish, it’s still very basic), and partly because of the local politics here. Although we’re in safe windows to visit these countries, they are far from perfect, and that seems to be the focus whenever politics comes up. It’s been a nice escape for us! 🙂
I am enjoying traveling vicariously.
Love reading about your adventures! Thanks for sharing.