León

The trip to León was already mentioned as our first microbus experience and, other than my precarious, somewhat uncomfortable perch on top of the engine, it was a very pleasant trip.  The bus station in León is perhaps the most chaotic station that I’ve seen in Nicaragua—maybe the most chaotic place I’ve ever been.  In addition to the usual vendors and buses, the addition of 10 or 15 minibuses constantly loading/unloading/arriving/departing adds considerably to the traffic confusion, plus the station has no central focus, no departure board and the passenger seating area is cramped and noisy.  The bus also approached the station with numerous turns down incredibly rough streets (equivalent to some in the country), so one is a bit disoriented by the time one finally gets to the station.  We tried to get our bearings (not quite as easy in the tropics where the sun is almost overhead around noon) and walked through several blocks of equally chaotic market stalls heading towards the city center.  Finally, we reached the “normal” (non-market) streets and were able to reconnoiter and arrive at the hotel (about 1 km from the station).   We arrived before normal check-in, but gratefully could drop off the bags, having the rest of the day to start exploring León.

Here are some shots of the hotel where we stayed, called Casona Colonial.  From the outside it looks much like any other building, but many building here are misleading in that there is often a beautiful interior courtyard.  It’s also striking how the outdoors and indoors are really one in the same in tropical areas.  (I’ve already mentioned this phenomenon when discussion my life in Sabana Grande.)  Here you can see that the living room and outdoors are literally a continuum.

León background.  León is one of two, principal colonial cities in Nicaragua (the other being Granada) and was the first capital, and if fact was the capital for over 200 years.  (Actually, this first capital was in León Viejo, located about 20 km south on the banks of Lake Managua.  Old León was abandoned (and current León founded) in 1610 after earthquake/volcano devastation.  Old León is currently an archeological site but we didn’t get to go there.)  For much of the 19th century, León and Granada struggled for supremacy and eventually, the compromise was that Managua became the capital.  León was associated with the Liberal Party and Granada with the Conservative Party, but the names don’t have much to do with what those terms mean in the US today.  León was also a Sandanista hotbed throughout the 1960s and 70s, seeing much fighting and considerable damage in the late 70s, but with lethal confrontations dating all the way back to the 50s (including the assassination of Somoza I).   

Some murals depicting some of León’s more revolutionary past.  The top two are parts of the same mural and show Edgar “The Cat” Mungía, an abstract of a confrontation between troops and students, the four student martyrs from the July 1959 protest (sort of a Nicaraguan Kent State), and finally, the ever-present figure of Sandino.  Of course, there is also selling going on!  The bottom photo is interesting as it depicts the violent incident from 1959, but the current activity is painting lines on a basketball court for enjoyment and recreation.  The partial mural that is cut off has an AIDS prevention message.

Today León is Nicaragua’s 2^nd biggest city and seems to be a very busy, energetic  place with almost every door in many neighborhoods seemingly selling something—clothing, cell phones, shoes, snacks, haircuts...—and virtually every shop had something displayed on the typically narrow sidewalks (in particular, more mannequins than I’ve ever seen—I  even saw a billboard advertising mannequins).  The streets are filled with cars, trucks, buses, trucks used as buses, motorcycles, bicycles and horse carts and there are pedestrians everywhere.  León is known as an intellectual center with several universities and many students.  While there are many very attractive old buildings, there are also many that are in great need of rehabilitation.   León has a large array of 17th, 18th and 19th century churches, interesting museums, a beautiful theater, proximity to Pacific beaches, and several nearby volcanoes for hiking or even “cinder surfing” or “sand boarding) (a sport invented on Cerro Negro, a cinder cone volcano that only appeared in 1850, in which you can “surf” or “sled” down the volcano on boards similar to surf or snow boards)—certainly there is more than enough to fill up the couple of days we had.

At the risk of getting a reputation and some kind of mannequin pervert, here are a couple of typical shots of sidewalk scenes.  By the way, the woman on the left at the top is read.  The “bottom” photo is especially for the Ebert side of the family as it is a rather impressive butt shot.

A couple of common street scenes in León.  At the top is a horse cart.  This one is pretty much along, but they typically mix with all kinds of motorized traffic.  The bottom photo is of one of the truck-buses.  They’re a bit cheaper than regular buses, but we never ventured onto one, if for no other reason than you can’t look ahead and anticipate where to get off.

Add captionA picture of the recently-restored theater named for the León composer José de la Cruz Mena.  He had leprosy and was not allowed to attend the debut performance of one of his compositions in this very theater and reportedly was in tears listening to it from outside.

Our stay can basically be divided into churches, museums and the beach.  We started with the Cathedral (Basilica de la Asunción), which is the largest (and reportedly grandest) church in Central America.  (There is an unsubstantiated legend that the plans for the cathedral were inadvertently switched with Lima, Peru, and that explains the side of the church in the relative backwater of León.)  It was begun in 1747 on the site of 2 previously-destroyed churches and took 113 years to complete.  For C$20 (about a dollar), we climbed to the roof for a nice panorama of León.  Also in the cathedral is the tomb of Rubén Darío, León’s (and Nicaragua’s) most famous son.  

Exterior and interior shots of the Basilica de la Asunción, Leon's cathetral.  The exterior shot is from the park across the street from the church.

A couple of shots from the cathedral roof.  In each one you can see both another church and a volcano.  The spacing to the nearby churches is fairly typical—you generally don’t need to walk more than a few blocks to find another church.

We saw most of León’s churches from the outside (all facing west, by the way, so morning shots are always backlit), but missed several interiors because of not being there at the opportune time, and also missed several of the farther-outlying ones, so these photos only  represent a sample of what is in León.  It would be a great place for a walking tour with someone knowledgeable about history and architecture, but our guide books were rather cursory, so ours was a less in-depth experience.  

A composite of four of León’s churches.  Starting clockwise from the upper left:  San Juan de Diós, San Nicolás de Laborío, San Juan Bautista and San Filipe.

A similar composite of five  more churches.  Again, starting clockwise from the upper left:  El Calvario, La Merced, Zaragoza, San Francisco and La Recolección.

A few representative interior scenes with the same order:  El Calvario, San Filipe, San Juan de Diós and San Juan Bautista.

There are a couple of church ruins as well.  One from a war in the mid-19^th century and this one, San Sebastian, from the war against the Somozas.  The bust is of José de la Cruz Mena (after whom the theater is named).  Similarly to the theater story, the bust is placed within earshot outside the church because he was not allowed to enter and could only listen from afar.

The buses to the beach leave from the neighborhood of Sutiava, and indigenous community that still tries to preserve many of its traditions.  It has the only indigenously-run museum in Nicaragua, but it was unfortunately closed when we were there.  However, the church was open so we added one more to our collection and we also wandered a few blocks to see the remains of the tamarind tree (called El Tamarindón) from which the last, great chief Adiac was hanged by the Spaniards for challenging Spanish authority.

On the left, the Iglesia Parroquial de San Juan Bautista de Sutiava, both outside and inside.  The inside is decorated for lent.  Holy week in Sutiave is very colorful with “sawdust paintings” on the streets.  These are similar to sand paintings, but the medium is apparently much more difficult.  The right shows what’s left of the Tamarindón, from which Adiac was hung.

And speaking of buses to the beach…  We spent a half day at the beach in Las Peñitas, about a 45-minute bus ride from León.  Although I’m not a fan of beaches or water, the beach was very nice and very uncrowded. (Apparently on the weekends and especially over Holy Week, it will get a bit more crowded.)  It’s a black, volcanic sand beach and the wind and surf were both fairly strong (and apparently the undertow is also very wicked in places).  In fact, the blowing sand stung the legs at times if you were higher up where the sand was drier.  Without a local hotel, there are no facilities for washing off or changing, so we just waded (actually, I found a rock overhang and sat in the shade most of the time—Susan waded).  We had a seafood lunch at the little restaurant before heading back to León.

A few beach scenes at Las Peñitas.  This is not the best surfing in Nicaragua, but under the right conditions it can be decent here.  If you like beaches to yourself, this is the place (at least on weekdays).

For museums, we don’t have as many photos because either a) photography was not allowed or b) the material did not lend itself to photography.  León has a very nice art museum that is actually run by a private foundation called the Fundación Ortiz-Guardián.  Works ranges from pre-Columbian (both European and Western Hemisphere) up to very modern pieces, such as interactive computer installations or I-phone art.  In addition to the art, the museum is housed in classic colonial-era home.  Another museum of historical significance is the Rubén Darío museum and archive, located in the house where the poet lived as a boy.  Coincidentally, another significant Nicaraguan poet named Alfonzo Cortés also lived here but went mad and was later committed to an asylum.  Neither of these museums allowed photography, but I would have liked to have recorded some of the art work in particular.  A third museum was the Galería de Héroes and Mártires, a moving museum honoring those who died in the struggle to liberate Nicaragua from the Somozas.  León and its students were a hotbed of Sandinista support and it suffered considerably not only with deaths, but also with damage to the city.  It covers not just the 1978-79 period, but includes the student martyrs from 1959 and goes through the Contra war in the 1980s.  It is run by mothers of the fallen and is mostly simple pictures, but includes a few artifacts as well.  

The top photo shows the exterior of the Rubén Darío Museum and Archive, about 4 or 5 blocks west of the cathedral.  It gives a history of his life and also had mementos from his life and a library of books both by and about him.  At the bottom is his tomb inside the Cathedral.

The museum where we could take photos was the Museo de Leyendas y Tradiciones, an interesting juxtaposition of fairy tales and torture.  The museum is located in an old Somoza prison called 21 (it was built in 1921) and was the site of much of the torture carried out the Guardia Nacional.  The museum contains hand-made models of various Nicaraguan legends and traditions, not all of which are light-hearted, but on the background walls are painted representations of who lived in the cells an some of the activities that went on behind these walls.  The entry courtyard contains murals, statues and an old tank.  The museum is all the work of a recently-deceased 90-year-old woman named Doña Carmen Toruño, who personally made the figures and funded the museum.  At the end we also could walk around the walls where the guards were posted and see their vantage point.  This place gave me approximately the same feeling I had at Dachau when I was in college—it’s almost eerie to separated from the horrors of a place only by the dimension of time.  It makes one grateful that time only travels in one direction and it’s impossible to “slip” backwards. (The second law of thermodynamics, of course!)

One of the displays in the Legends and Traditions museum with a drawing of prison beds on the wall.  The large woman here represents a Spanish lady and the little man with the big heat (big head because much smarter than the Spanish woman) is indigenous.  (We saw this particular story danced to a drum accompaniment in Granada—looking for money, of course.)

The statue to the unknown combatant at the entrance to the prison-turned-museum.  The guards’ walkway is seen at the top of the wall.

A composite of several photos from the museum.   On the top left are pictures of methods of torture (the guide also described some of the other techniques and unfortunately, my Spanish was good enough to understand) and at the bottom left are the water basins in which prisoners were dunked while suspended from their feet until they started to inhale water.  (Sounds like and enhanced interrogation technique to me!)  The top right is the outline of where the prisoners’ chapel was located.  It’s reassuring that the spiritual needs were being attended to during the torture.  Finally, a few of the mosaics in the outer courtyard.  The two on the left are prison scenes, but he one on the left adamantly declares “No more Somozas!”

Selva Negra (Between Matagalpa and Jinotega)

Early on Sunday the 4th, we left Sabana Grande and first headed north to Ocotal so Susan could see a little there and also so we could catch a southbound express to connect to a bus to Matagalpa.  We arrived at the station about 10 minutes before departure and I experienced another Nicaraguan first:  the bus was considered full and was not selling any more tickets!  It didn’t seem nearly as full as other buses I’ve been on, but we waited an hour for the next bus and headed to Estelí.  Since we had to change buses, we stopped at the small restaurant where I ate on my previous trip to Estilí.  We then caught a local to Matagalpa, which was amazingly empty for a Sunday (well, empty isn’t exactly the right word, but it wasn’t crowded at all by Nica standards) so there were fewer intermediate stops and we arrived earlier than expected in Matagalpa.  There was a bus loading for Jinotega, so we got right on and were heading up the mountains within a few minutes.  It’s only 10 or 15 km to Selva Negra, but the grade was very steep and the old, fully-loaded school bus up the hill for 45 minutes before dropping us at our stop.  From there it was about 100 m more to an old, disabled tank from Somoza’s national guard where you turn right into Selva Negra.  It’s a couple more km to the hotel and we were there before 4:00.

In the gardens at the restaurant La Casita in Estelí.  The tree I’m standing next to is a Ceiba (like the huge tree in Sabana Grande), but as a young tree, it apparently has spines on the trunk.

The old tank that marks the entrance to Selva Negra.

First, a little history to put Selva Negra into context.  I’ve already posted some about its approach to sustainable coffee growing, but it also includes a hotel.  Some of you who speak Spanish may have already noted that the name means “Black Forest,” and it’s no coincident that the name is more generally associated with Germany.  The history of the place as a coffee plantation actually goes back to the 19 th century.  Nicaragua recruited Europeans to immigrate and start coffee plantations and among them were some Germans who were the ancestors of the current proprietors, Eddie and Mausi Kühl.  This particular property, however, was actually owned be other German families in the 1800s and it was only purchased by the current owners in 1975.  They had made money in the rebuilding of Managua after the 1972 earthquake and wanted to return to the family roots in the mountains.  However, this was not a great time to start an enterprise for a couple of reasons.  First, the price of coffee was very low at that time and the hotel was started as a way to diversify and remain solvent until coffee prices rebounded.  Second, it was just about the time that the resistance to Somoza was gaining strength and the war of liberation was imminent.  In fact, the family had to flee to the US and lived in Houston for about 12 years, returning in 1990 (after the Contra war concluded).  An uncle oversaw the operation in their absence.  Eddie wanders the grounds, kibitzing with the guests and supervising various projects (his background in civil engineering/steel construction).  Mousi is the day-to-day manager and is in constant touch with all the operations.  They also have 4 daughters, 2 of which are actively involved in the management.  We met daughter Karen and her family, who remember William from his CELL trip 3 years ago because of the ukulele.  

One of the historical items on display is this painting of the ”Terrocarril,”  basically a steam roller pulling wagons of coffee.  The object was to go from near Matagalpa to the coast (I’d guess about 120 km), but unfortunately it never successfully completed a trip.  You’ll notice from the names, however, that this was a German enterprise.

A view of the owner’s house on the hill with typical Alpine style and the farm workers’ housing below.  There are some elements of a “company town” here, but you can see by features such as electricity and real chimneys that the housing is better than average rural housing in Nicaragua.

Here is Susan inspecting the evidence that William was here in 2009.  This was the CELL groups project to prepare this poster describing the world of the strangler fig (called Matapalo in Spanish, or tree killer).  These figs start in the branches, send down roots to the ground and eventually completely engulf the host tree, killing it.

 Since returning in 1990, they have continued to expand and now the hotel includes dozens of cabañas, some mult-room buildings, a youth hostel, meeting rooms for up to 300, a restaurant, a little museum, over 300 acres of cloud-forest nature reserve with miles of trails and a chapel.  Most of the architecture is German style and there is something of a German feel to the way things are run, but there are also Nica touches.  It’s amazing the amount of work that has been invested in the many details:  walkways and roads all lined with plantings, landscaping, trails, benches, bridges, fire rings, gazebos.  There is even “landscaping” on most of the roofs!  (Metal roofs prepared to accommodate various plants.  Actually, even if they didn’t plan for plants to grown on the roofs, they probably would anyway.  The lushness is remarkable and virtually every surface has moss, lichen or something growing on it.)  For a quiet family reunion, this would be a fantastic place.  (Perhaps quiet isn’t quite accurate because every night about 5:00 the howler monkeys start calling from the mountains and soon after the frogs in the lake start croaking in an almost rhythmic fashion.  Additionally, there are numerous geese swimming/strutting around that can become a bit boisterous at times.)

The building with our room.  Note the lakeside location and the solar hot water on the roof.

One of the many cabañas at the resort.  Note the profuse growth on the roof as well as how lush all the plants are;  not all roofs are covered this much, but most have at least some.

A view of the chapel which was completed 20 years ago for their daughter’s wedding.  This roof is also covered with plantings.

A view at the typical landscaping in the hotel area.  You can see a fern tree in the middle and an example of a stone path in the foreground as well as bananas and what looks a bit like a bird of paradise.

A couple of shots of the geese that act like they own the place.  They always marched around in single file and would come right up to our door.  They were not shy about asserting their territorial rights if you got too close.  I can now see where the term "silly goose" comes from.

A view of the lake with the geese in the background and showing how thick the forest is in the background.

The restaurant serves Nica food as well as German and US items, such as kraut and wurst, Wiener schnitzel and pancakes (panquekes).  Much of the meat, dairy and vegetables are organically grown right on the farm.  They also have a very good pastry chef and there is typically a selection of 5 or 6 different cakes each day.  Seating is either indoors or out overlooking the lake, but we mostly ate indoors due to fairly strong winds and cool temperatures.  (This is the only place in Nicaragua that I’ve actually put on my windbreaker.)  

Susan having breakfast on the deck of the restaurant.  I know she won’t like this pose, but it was the only photo I had inside.

A view of the restaurant deck from across the lake.  Our room was just behind the blue roof in the center.  This also gives a nice, sunny view of the mountains.  Being a cloud forest environment, it was often cloudy/foggy and damp, but there were generally patches of sun mixed in as well.

Like the farm, the resort also strives for sustainability with features such as solar hot water heating and micro-hydro electricity generation in addition to the locally-produced food.  We noticed that the sheets were actually sewn together, so probably salvaged from a couple of damaged sheets and sheets/towels are not changed everyday unless requested.  

The inlet to the micro-hydro generating plant located on the farm.  Note that the filter system consists of old washing machine drums pounded out flat.  I think they would do any depression-era farmer proud with the way they improvise and use what’s available.

There is also the nature preserve adjacent to the hotel where we walked several times during our stay.  There are nice, flat trails near the bottom of the hills, but some of the higher trails are very challenging, in part because the ground is always wet and slippery.  The growth is incredibly dense with many unfamiliar species, but some that are familiar as house plants.  It is also quite dark in the forest, even if sunny, but it was cloudy/misty for much of our time, so many of the photos didn’t turn out well.

A living example of the strangler fig.  In the center of the trunk is the rotting carcass of another tree.  You can see how the trunk is made up of the viney roots of the fig that have merged to form a solid trunk.

A flower growing from the trunk of another tree.  It is not an orchid (although there are many), but it grows in a similar manner.  Note all the moss and growth on the trunk as well

Susan standing next to a plant that is locally known locally as the poor man’s umbrella (for obvious reasons).

Here is a shot to show what the cloud/mist conditions are often like.  If it were a bit clearer, you could see Matagalpa through the notch in the mountains at the center.

 

Susan's Visit: Part I

(The next few posts will be a bit more of a travelogue than what I’ve been posting up to this point, since we spent most of the week traveling and doing the “tourist thing.”  I hope that the posts will meet with Susan’s approval, but if not, I may be editing them in the future.   It really was a great week!)

Susan arrived about 6:30 on March 1, too late for a bus to Sabana Grande, so we had a hotel room in Managua.  The highlight (other than seeing Susan, of course!) was my first warm shower in about 6 weeks.  Since Managua is so hot, we splurged and got a hotel with AC AND hot water!  (Although a splurge in Nicaragua is only about US$40 per night.)  The hotel, called The Güegüense (hopefully I can write a bit later about the significance of the name), was very nice and each room had a theme based on a region/city in Nicaragua.  We were in the Río San Juan room and in addition to a mural, there were Nicaraguan/Spanish sayings written on the walls.

Picture of the wall mural on our hotel room wall.  You can also see fragments of the sayings on the walls.  The Río San Juan is the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica and the Nicas are VERY adamant that the river is 100% Nica.  (I think there are some border disputes and disagreements about resource management in the area.)  This particular mural honors a woman who fought for Nicaraguan sovereignty against the infamous William Walker in the 1850s.  (I’ll put a bit more about William Walker in my post about Granada, but Google if you can’t wait.)

We caught a morning bus (without incident) and arrived in Sabana Grande in time for lunch.  We mostly just walked around, introducing Susan to the folks I know and work with here, but we did take a little hike to La Maisuta (another small community within Sabana Grande, but on the other side of the mountain ridge) to see the pottery coop.  Their main product is a filter made from porous clay that is coated treated with colloidal silver for purification, but they also make some fun, decorative stuff.  The neatest things, unfortunately, were too big and too fragile to travel with.  They happened to be firing when we were there, so we saw some of that, too.

Susan in the bus station in Managua already trying out some Spanish with a little girl.

Wood-fired kiln at the potter coop in La Maisuta.  Interestingly, they had a thermocouple with a digital read-out to measure the temperature.

A couple of pictures of preparing the clay.  They collect the clay locally and sift out the particles that are too big.  Just as we were watching, disaster struck and their collection basin gave way.  Somewhat ironically, the sun came out at that moment—seems like bad karma, but they took it very calmly.  I hope we weren't the jinx.

The other major activity we did was the Somoto Canyon tour that I took back in January.  The weather was perfect and it was just as impressive as before, so I won’t repeat commentary, but just put in a few pics to prove we had a good time.  We did experience something new for us but common for Nicaraguans on the way home.  As we waited for shared cab to go by, another group that had been in the canyon at the same time drove by in their pickup and offered us a ride part way, so I got my first ride in the back of a pickup since about 1958 on my uncle’s farm;  I’m not sure if Susan has ever done it before.

Susan and guide Olvin at the park entrance.

Susan and me at the start of the canyon.

I’m putting this in because I know Susan would like to see it to remind her than I actually got into water voluntarily.

Susan in the back of the pickup truck heading back to Somoto--no seat belt, no helmet!

A shot near the church in Sabana Grande on a Friday.  The Catholic church was doing a Lenten processional.  It just happened to be going on when we were there.  We missed several more of these along our route, but didn't know about them ahead of time.