León - a city of artists and free spirits

Yeah, let’s get some more stamps in our passport and off we go to León. But not before the Border Control cheated us with the exchange rate for the Immigration Fee. Welcome to Nicaragua, haha.

Changing minibuses, tricycles and buses we finally arrived in León. This heat was following us and it felt like the Sahara desert or standing in front of a colossal hair dryer. Sure we were ready for a walk with our 25 kg gear, just 20 minutes’ walk around the city.

Where is the freaking hostel? Oh good, let’s just take this one here, I don’t care since I am melting away. So we found this small, family run hostel with only 5 rooms, only Spanish speaking and the use of a kitchen.

Last one was very important since we were sick of chicken, rice with beans and tortillas. How much of this can a human being possibly eat? Let’s have some salad and pasta tonight. This sounded like a 5 star dish to us and it felt good in the stomach.

In the heat we literally swam through the city. At the park we run into a German woman who sells beautiful jewelry on the street and left Germany already in the 90’s. We invited her for a Cappuccino and had an interesting conversation. Especially when potential customers joined us and the conversation changed into Spanish.

Somehow the Spanish woman had a crush on Michael and when we bumped into them in the Supermarket again she wouldn’t stop talking. We think she tried to invite us for the evening but with our limited Spanish we didn’t understand fully her plans.

León is a great place to see and we enjoyed our time here. We are still adapting to the heat – if sweating tremendously but still moving is an improvement. The city has a lot of old churches, all with wooden ceiling and beautifully decorated.

It is a lively city with the heart at the Parque Central and the Markets with its Artisans. Just make sure you don’t buy the dried Mango. Even fruit can’t stand the heat. Those are times when an Air Con comes handy and we went suspiciously often into the cooled supermarket. 

Accommodation: Hostel Nicarago, León 

Price: NIO 200, private room, shared bathroom, Wifi 

Comment: small family run hostel with kitchen to use. Cheap and friendly people.
                 Perfect to practice some more Spanish. The kitchen would need some 
                brushing.