Cultural Exchanges

When we last signed off, we were enjoying Nicaragua´s historical characters like the ugly, crazy top-heavy woman and the headless priest. The latter once lived in Old Leon, which we visited with a local guide. It´s supposed to be the Pompeii of Nicaragua, as the whole town was buried by the eruption of Volcan Momotombo.

Beforehand, however, said priest was beheaded under the colonial governor´s orders for defending the natives from some truly awful treatment, including branding them and unleashing hungry dogs on a group of warriors in a Colisseum-like plaza to dissuade the natives from rebelling. In quick succession after the priest´s untimely death, the city was hit by a hurricane, an earthquake and a volcanic eruption. The townsfolk decided the city was cursed and abandoned it before a second eruption sealed the deal.

Like the colorful legends, a lot of Nicaragua´s fascination lies in its striking juxtapositions. Wonderful birds flitting around a ruined city. Smoking volcanoes in the skyline of a vibrant city boasting a top-notch collection of modern art from Latin America (Centro de Arte Fundacion Ortiz-Guardia in Leon). And in Leon´s most popular hotel and restaurant, El Convento, a bizarre ceramic statue of the Pamela Anderson Lee of angels showing off her ample assets to a crowd of gawking children. Which was tastefully placed within eyeshot of a beautifully restored altar from the city cathedral.

We were even more surprised when we strolled to the very-well designed and hopping central park in Granada and stumbled upon a well-received drag show, complete with overwrought power ballads, high heels and tiaras. Not really what we were expecting to see in front of the cathedral.

Granada is a bit less rough around the edges than Leon and more popular with tourists. We thought its churches were less interesting, but a museum in a former convent (Convento de San Francisco) showed off some of the country´s prehistoric riches - a great set of stone statues carved in volcanic basalt about 1,000 years ago that are part human and part animal, such as bird, snake, jaguar or alligator.

We saw strange animals of another sort the next morning when, on a tip, we visited the nearby city of Masaya to witness the annual celebration of San Lazaro at a church called Magdalena. It´s not clear exactly how or why it all started, but the people of the city celebrate the patron saint of mascotas (or pets) by dressing up their dogs as pirates, gypsies, clowns and other characters and bringing them to church for a candle-lit blessing. And then to an outdoor stage for a costume contest.

The animal theme continued when we arrived in Isla de Ometepe, a wonderful island in Lago Nicaragua formed by two adjacent volcanoes and full of cool creatures like howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys and blue Morpho butterflies. Unbeknownst to us, however, the island was in its first full day of a tronque, or roadblock. Two sets of them, actually, exactly between where the ferry let us off in the town of Moyagalpa and where we needed to be. From what we heard, the locals very much want to add a third ferry to the island to boost tourism revenue and spread the wealth - a plan opposed by the current owner of the only two boats transporting people to Moyagalpa. To demonstrate their displeasure to his opposition, a bunch of islanders decided that no one was going to go anywhere. For three days.

Which allowed us plenty of time to observe the domestic pigs, horses, dogs, cows and yes, chickens that were all crossing the road at will. Luckily, we were able to get a taxi to the first set of roadblocks, walk through them and pay a pick-up truck driver to hustle us to the second set before the people there became overly testy. Our hotel had promised to have a van waiting for us after that one, but the driver chickened out after seeing the unhappy people manning the blockade. A helpful tip, by the way: smiling a lot and saying "Hola" repeatedly can do wonders when facing a potentially hostile crowd.

We were saved by a local bus, which just happened to be turning around after the last barricade and took us all the way to the Finca Magdalena, a huge old farmhouse on a cooperative coffee farm at the base of Volcan Maderas, near a small village called Balgue. We met some awesome fellow travelers while staying at the finca for three nights (a big shout out to Tom and Anna from Boston) and witnessed the biggest tarantulas we´ve ever seen. In the communal bathroom, actually.

Fortunately, we were staying in a cabana and only had two smaller tarantulas spending their evenings with us. Harmless, everyone kept saying. And then laughing. Curiously, you can see spider eyes very well at night if you´re wearing a headlamp; if your light shines at the right angle, the eyes reflect a bluish glow back at you and on a brief night hike we saw dozens of blue lights in the grass around us. Very cool. From a distance.

While on the island, we also swam in a beautiful spring-fed pool in the midst of a banana plantation and did a lot of walking along the roadside while waiting for sporadic buses, while watching white-faced capuchin
monkeys trying to steal eggs from some very noisy tropical bluejays. On the last full day of our stay, Volcan Maderas kicked our butts on a day hike that produced more sweat than we thought we were capable of. By four kilometers up the volcano, at which point the steep path of rocks and roots had turned to rocks, roots and mud, Geoff´s knee and my thigh had declared war on our bodies and we were forced to retreat. On the plus side, we saw some extraordinary butterflies while howler monkeys hooted all around us.

No lasting problems, and the roadblocks mercifully ended, allowing us to make our way to Liberia, Costa Rica last night - a little redder, sorer and, hopefully, wiser (more pictures coming soon).