Exciting Leon!

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013--Leon

I understand that the link to my hotel, El Portal de 1610, did not work yesterday.  I tried to link all the way to the English language page rather than to the opening page.  I have updated that link, and I have also put it here on this post.

Breakfast here at the hotel is light, but it was fine--a plate of bananas and watermelon followed by bread with butter and jam along with coffee.  That makes it easy to just eat one more meal per day, and I've already picked out a place for eating later--a French bakery with sandwiches that look fantastic.

When I left the hotel, the young employee who has been hired because of his English asked if I would go to the museum.  Actually, I had been thinking of going to the one with art.  There is another across the street which was the home of Ruben Dario, the most famous Nicaraguan poet.  However, I didn't make it to either of them today.  Leon is just too interesting a city for me to enter a museum during the cooler hours of the day.  Instead, I walked and walked for 2 1/2 hours taking photos of old colonial buildings, peeking inside the buildings, going through the market, seeing the cafes and bakeries, etc.

Leon appeals to me much more than Granada.  The sidewalk cafe street in Granada seemed a bit too artificial and touristy.  The market in Granada was just too much of a hodge-podge of makeshift construction with trash and smells everywhere.  The colonial buildings there were nice.  But Granada also seemed to lack much life.  Leon on the other hand, feels real.  There is life everywhere mainly because of the students here at the university.  The university does not have a "campus." Instead, it has taken over colonial buildings all over the western side of the downtown area, so students are everywhere.  The market here in Leon is in two main buildings as well as spilling out on the streets at umbrella stands.  The older one has courtyards within it and has been completely restored; it houses small shops selling mostly clothing.  The other (newer) building has the food products and is very clean and organized.  The Cathedral here in Leon is the largest in all of Central America and its interior is beautiful and elaborate compared to others I have seen.  The city is so nice that I think I could stay here in Leon longer than the 4 days I've planned.
_____
When I went back out, I did go to the French bakery.  I had a sandwich with lemonade.  The sandwich was on multi-grain bread and had pesto, tomatoes, shredded carrots, bell pepper, and mozzarella cheese.  I added some hot vinegar to give it a bit of a bite.  It was delicious.

From there, I went to another bakery to try to see what they had for dessert.  I had gone by it in the morning, and there was such a crowd (using a number system for placing their orders) that I couldn't even get a glimpse of the counter.  Well, at 16:45, it was the same story!  Panaderia Munguia has to be the most popular bakery in town.  I hope I get to try something from there while I am here.

At 18:00, I got kicked out of the Parque Central.  Apparently they close it at that time, since they still do not have lighting up in it.  The whole park is surrounded by a metal wall, so they asked all of us to leave and then closed the openings that allow people to enter in the daytime.  By the way, the worker addressed me as "Jeffe" when he asked me to leave.

I saw a sign for Choco-Banano (frozen banana dipped in chocolate coating) while walking this morning.  I tried to find the place tonight after leaving the park, and couldn't.  Tomorrow, I will try to re-trace my steps when leaving the hotel to see if I can find it again.  With the hot weather, it would be nice to have one.

In the evenings, people here in Leon bring their rocking chairs out onto the narrow sidewalks outside their homes.  No one has air-conditioning, so it's a way to sit in a cooler place and visit.  Plus, like it used to be at home, it's a form of sitting on the front porch to watch everyone go by.  It's a nice characteristic of the city.  Within any given block, there can be several sets of people sitting outside in their rocking chairs after 18:00 when the sun has gone down.