Week 3 - Leon: A rude welcome

Wow, did I ever get a rude welcome to Leon! I left Granada on Sunday taking the minibus to Managua and cataching another to Leon. Little did I know that Sandinista vs. Liberale demonstrations had closed down the main road between the 2 largest cities in Nicaragua. We took an extremely worn out, very bumpy road for twice as long as it should have taken, all with my backpack on my lap. I know, whine whine whine.

I arrive into Leon with a couple of other Americans who I met at the bus stop. They don´t speak any spanish so I get to play translator with taxi drivers and people at the bus stop with my crappy spanish. Always fun and educational! I check into my hostel and these guys go around the block to check into theirs. I´m meeting them for drinks after I dump my stuff. Their place is right around the block so extremely easy and non-threatening, right? Actually, it appeared that the demonstrations that had engulfed the capital had spread to Leon. I make a left off of my street and suddenly their are 10 pickup trucks there all filled with young guys wearing red, some with bandana masks. They were FSLN, Sandinistas. I get a few catacalls of ´Hey gringo, George Bush sucks!´ and the like. Of course, the proper response to such a catcall is ´No shit, try living 3 miles from the guy.´ But, I basically keep my head down, yell an adios and keep going. I turn the corner, accidentally go past the hotel I´m going to and find myself staring at 20 riot police in full gear. I quickly turn around, find the right place, and go in after some playful joshing by the guys watching from the locked door. Luckily, it seems like the dmonstration had pretty much petered out by the time I got there, so no problems really. Just a bit of shock and a few too many ´bombas´ (giant firecrackers) going off. Everyone says that they won´t hurt gringoes. Its not our fight and they know it. Actually, Nicaragua is extremely safe for tourists. I think I did make the news though!

We were sitting there having beers and watching and NFL game on 1 tv, while the other was showing CNN Latina which was covering the demonstrations. Others were concentrating more on that one. Most of the video was from Managua and on the road to Leon where most of the violence occurrred. But suddenly, I hear from the crowd watching the news, ´Es tu! Es tu!´and they are pointing at me. Apparently somebody was filming as I walked through the dwindling protest and cought me moving quickly by. Places you have to go to get on TV!

So the welcome to Leon wasn´t the first impression that I had hoped for, but the week did get better. More on that later.