Hotel Cafe Leon

... really really slow, digging my feet into the sand and<br>screaming the whole way (nobody else so much as whimpered). Eventually,<br>I got the hang of it and started to go faster, and it turned out to be<br>really fun. But I in no way used the board to its potential. Oh well,<br>at least I still have all my limbs.<br><br>Then it was time for the snowboarders to go. I was at the bottom by the<br>time I could see them, and Ted was actually doing really well! (Damn<br>those natural athletes ...

... the cabbage patch because that was what all the skulls of the beheaded prisoners that had been tossed over the walls looked like!<br> Had a booluda dia - attempted to get to church roof for views but always shut - eventually found out cost $2 so didn't bother - spent a $1 that goes to breast cancer charity on seeing the excellent art museum, which was in several beautiful colonial rooms &amp; courtyards and had a wonderful collection.<br> <br><br>

... we would just have to stay in one terminal to change to another minibus. This suited us and our paranoia to a T. <br><br>Our walk to the taxi rank was nerveracking, thankfully that swing chair hammock we had purchased provided me with a weapon of sorts and I was brandishing this thing around in crowds and wouldnt think twice about hitting someone with it baseball bat style should they come too close to me... luckily people stayed out of my way! <br><br>The minibus ...

... Then we stocked up on supplies in the supermarket, returned to our hostel and cooked a meal for six for three people amd stuffed our faces till we could hardly move. Another relaxing evening followed by a reasonably early night too: its been pretty good catching up on all this sleep recently, I must say, even if it doesn't make for terribly exciting blog material!<br>

... landscape complete with more skyscrapping volcanes dotting the small farms that lead to the Pacific Ocean we were shown how to board down the volcano. In retrospect this could have been better since this demonstration could be summed up as follows:<br>Instructor-type: " So just sit on the sled and lean back. If you need to balance just stick your feet out. Oh and don´t open your mouth". <br>This was essentially the demonstration ...

... find Julie asleep in another bunk on the other side of the room, a tad weird. I get up to use the internet as its too hot and I cant get back to sleep and Julie wakes up and tells me shes feeling weird and all sorts of stuff like that. Typical woman.<br><br>17th July<br>Things are really weird with Julie in the morning. I look around town by myself, Leon is a nice place but im not in the best mood and have seen too many colonial cities to really appreciate it in the mood I was in at the time ...

... a shithole and all. Basically everyone I´d run into had said Managua is the shithole, but I was optimistic. I´m here to testify: Managua genuinely is the shithole of Central American capitals I´ve visited. It´s a confused, desolate city. It´s centre was destroyed in the ´72 earthquake and repeatedly battered by hurricanes, which effectively leaves Managua without a city centre. Literally, the city´s made up of numerous suburbs without a centre or central anything. Strange. I spent a ...

... the city centre of Chinandega. It is a perfect base for a day-trip to the Golfo de Fonseca, Jiquilillo and Estero Padre Ramos.<br><br>The city Chinandega is an active commercial centre where all types of mostly agricultural products from the region are traded. It sits in the middle of the most extensive plain of rich<br>volcanic soil and is the centre of thousands of hectares of farms that grow sugar cane ...

... or Boulder and Fort Collins. <br><br>I spent just short of a week in Leon attending language classes in the morning. Unfortunately, I had a cold, so I really didn't do much except go to class in the morning. Central America is a very ****** place to experience respiratory distress. <br><br>I did do some wandering around, but I also spent a lot of time napping, reading, and enjoying the AC in the grocery store and movie theater. At this point, I realized that I probably wouldn't ...