1/2/12 In Leon

Our group left in 2 shifts with 4 of us heading down to Granada and the rest being dropped off at 2 bus stations. We were back at UCA (pronounced ooo-ka and an abbreviation for the nearby university) and quickly swept up in the barkers who try to get you on their bus. Found seats in a microbus and were soon on our way. The road occasionally follows the edge of Lago de Managua where you can see one of the volcanoes in the distance. No chance for a photo as we sped along and I was glad I could not see out the windshield as we were bobbing around passing everything in sight.

 Got to Leon and got ripped off by a taxi at least I paid more than I was originally told. The Lonely Planet mentions an  extra charge for large backpacks so who knows. (I think everything seems to work out in the end. I got ripped off at the border by someone who played a trick on his calculators and shorted me $15 in Cordobas. That was almost exactoly what we saved by taking the local buses from San Jose across the border and on to Granada rather than the international  bus that would have taken us in comfort all the way but were filled up months before by the huge number of Nicas who work in Costa Rica but head home for Christmas every year.) We made it to the place Caitlyn suggested and there were not 1 but 2 rooms waiting for us. The one I successfully but without knowing it reserved via  the ViaViaCafe website and the one Caitlyn called in. The former was the quoted $18 but the newer one was $28. We took the former and found a delightful and very clean room in a colonial motif. We showered, this is one of the hotest spots in the country, and quickly got out on the street. The survey from 2008 showed that 60% of the people who stayed here were European, 20% from the US, and 10% from Canada.

Though the museums were listed as being open everyday, we found all of them closed except the Museum of the Revolution. Today is a federal holiday, but leave it to the veterans of the Sandanista campaign to ignore that and keep their marvelous place of worship open. Can{t wait to post the pictures! Our guide spoke only Spanish but Joanie was able to follow him fairly well and I made the best of it. I got out the Lonely Planet guide and followed the whole history from hero Sandino who was betrayed by the first Somoza, through the death of both of them, Sandino through assasination, the birth of the Contras, thank you USA, the assasination of Somoza number two in Paraguay, Ortega's first presidency followed by 3 failures which he took honorably, and on. Both our guide and another one posed next to their pictures as young men with rifles. He took us up on the roof for some awesome views of the chain of volcanos, Costa Rica has nothing on them. The air was incredibly clear, so our photos should be awesome.

We nibled on some gelato and came back later for a light lunch of a panini and salad which we shared and much much later at our hotel we had Indio Viejo (Old Indian) a thick soup with chicken that we threw in a torn up tortilla to make life interesting. We had the coldest beer I've ever had and tried the rum drink Cathy Z told us about,  but aren't sure there was really rum in it. Both were very refreshing. Found an open internet cafe for our last hurrah of the day.

Tomorrow the museums will be open and we plan to get out early and start by exploring a park that has representations of the 4 flora zones of Nicaragua. We're working on getting out to Playa Jiquillo which is not overly comercialized thanks to a tsunami that destroyed the entire town 15 years ago.