Kerry and Mike here, writing our second entry of the trip from up in the northern volcanic lowlands of Nicaragua.
Mike would like to say: sweet trip so far, very informative tours of museums and nicaraguan history and folklore. complemented nicely by a trip to the beach today, huge swells, a bit of rain, and excellent company with kerry, shane, and our new swiss friend, michael. the rum is very smooth, and i was disappointed that distillery tours of flor de cana, a popular brand, are not possible this time of year. im surprised at the usual stuff, cheap food, no english, incompetence (my own) at communicating and keeping track of my things, but overall it seems as though there is a very concerted effort and strong attitude towards promoting and celebrating nicaraguan culture. between very passionate tour guides, elaborate celebrations of political anniversaries (the 30th anniversary or birthday of Carlos Fonseca marked our first day), folks here love their country, but not in an obnoxious or hegemonious (word¿) fashion. we´re going to be very irresponsible and unsafe volcano boarding tomorrow (kidding mom), wish us the best.
Kerry here¨: I agree very much with what Mike has written. The things that have continued to surprise me are how little English is spoken--even in tourist areas and the hostel, we have to have Shane translate for us! Mike´´s Spanish is coming along very nicely, so I have no qualms about depending on him for the second half of our trip.
We spent the morning wandering around Leon, seeing some very quaint churches and getting slightly lost. We went the museum (a former torture jail7prison used frm 1921 until 30 years ago) that strangely doubled as an explanation of local myths and legends. They covered everything from policital revolution and the violent history of the country to displaying American halloween decorations very elaborately and without any embarrassment. We spent a while trying to find a tamarindo (big) tree that dated back to Columbus, only to get quite lost and find ourselves wandering the backrounds, ¨road-less-traveled¨ part of the city, which turned out to be the highlight of the day! Every few feet some native person would stare at us, give a slight chortle, and smile to themselves--or blatantly at us--knowing that us GRINGOS looked extremely out of place! We found the tree, only to see that it was nothing special.
We then went to the beach, where I sat back while Mike, Michael, and Shane body surfed, then had a quiet beer served along the ocean by a boy who was around the age of 8. The poverty here is all around, but rarely I have I seen many people that look unhappy or ashamed of their position. That´s something that I have yet to learn.
From both of us: Hope all is well at home, would love to hear updates!
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