A weekend in Granada's Nemesis
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2007
1
65
120
Trip End
Dec 24, 2007
Leon,
Nicaragua
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Our frustrations in Granada during the week have firmly cemented in our minds that we must away on the weekends to stop becoming 'those moaning Kiwis', so away we did to Granada's colonial rival, Leon.
We were quite looking forward to our visit here, but Sam was a little disappointed, probably because of the hype in the guide books about Leon being Granada's traditional rival - Granada apparently being full of the stuffy rich, conservatives, while Leon is its less visited, liberal, student and university-filled nemesis.
Admittedly, the most obvious manifestations of this rivalry occurred in times long past - like in the 1850's when Leon hired US mercenary/crook/eye-to-the-main-chance-dude William Walker to attack Granada with a motley crew of likeminded cronies, who then decided, after he'd destroyed Granada, he'd actually quite like to rule Nicaragua and the rest of Central America.....not surprisingly when Walker was finally defeated and brought to justice (i.e executed), the rest of Nicaragua didn't like Leon much either, and the Liberal candidates didn't win an election for another 36 years
01. Francie and the Cathedral
. In more modern times, Leon is one of only 2 cities in Nicaragua the Sadinistas had won in the presidental elections until recently, while Granada has remained staunchly conservative. Anyhoo, none of this rivalry was readily apparent to us (no 'I Hate you Granada' signs anywhere - so no Auckland vs Canterbury then) but our visit was nice anyway. Having spent half the day getting there, we spent the afternoon trying to make sense of our volunteering and discussing packing it in and what we might do if we did, while looking at historic churches and murals remembering Nicaragua's turbulent past, and continued struggle with the US' high-highed approach to diplomacy.
Speaking of which, should take a moment here to explain this rather flippant inflammatory remark. Kiwis may remember the furore that surrounded our dear Prime Minister Helen Clark, after she observed 'If Al Gore had been president, the US wouldn't have invaded Iraq'. At the time, America and its ambassador to our fair shores were seriously miffed - how dare our Prime Minister dare to pass comment on such things? It's just not cricket!
Well here in Nicaragua, the US ambassador can say things along the lines of 'If you vote for the Sadinistas we will drastically cut your aid budget, try and stop remitttances from Nicaraguans in the States and just generally try to make life uncomfortable - but hey, we still fully support the democratic process'.
Thankfully, Nicaraguans are pretty wise to US interference, having fought a brutal civil war against rebels funded in the main by illegal CIA arms transactions with Iran (another story entirely, but some of the people responsible for orchestrating that sounds as decidedly dodgy as it was are in top positions in the Bush administration), and voted the Sadinistas in anyway
02. Un Leon
. Not trying to infer that the Sadinista's are the best thing since sliced bread, or indeed that the US may actually have a good point, but as they had been defeated in the presidential elections 3 times before the last one, surely the Nicaraguan people, if they do vote them in, know what they are getting?
Whew - sorry for that little rant. If you are interested in reading more, try Googling something like 'Daniel Ortega US ambassador' or 'Iran Contra affair'.
The rest of the afternoon we rested in our hostel, with a thunderstorm unleashing hell outside for a couple of hours, although this was nothing compared to the ''f****n drought breaker!!'' (as a usually unexcitable Aussie volunteer referred to it as) that drenched Granada on Thursday. It must have rained about 15-20cm in an hour with lightning and thunder crashing stimultaneously overhead - so loud it sounded like some one was firing a shotgun in the room, and we had to shout to be heard above the rain. Unfortunately we weren't at home when it started, and during our mad dash back home with friends we got completely drenched and nearly lost our jandals in the mid-calf deep water flowing the streets.
03. Sam y un otra iglesia
Had a pleasant dinner of pizza, even though we choose to accompany it with the liquid bubblegum flavour of Fanta Roja (red) - won't be doing that again.
Sunday we surprised ourselves by bothering to visit a mildly interesting archeological site in the middle of nowhere, Leon Viejo (Old Leon), so called because it was the original site of Leon, before it was abandoned before nearby Volcan Momotombo unleashed a can of whoop-ass and covered it in metres of ash. So it basically it's like the Nicuraguan Pompeii (it's even a UNESCO world heritage site), except far less impressive, as all the building remains are only about waist high and uniformly boring to look at. Not even interesting in a 'so this is how they used to live' kind of way, as you can visit countless colonial towns that are actually living monuments to how people lived....
Shouldn't make it sound so bad though - we really enjoyed seeing that little corner of Nicaragua.
Ooooo - actually, the one very interesting thing about Leon Viejo was that archeologists found the beheaded remains of the town's founder underneath the church ruins. Apparently he was found guilty of treason after he asked the Governor of Nicaragua to rule the city he founded. At least it was a better death than the 10 Indians found who were executed by being mauled to death by rabid spanish hunting dogs - gruesome.
Made a number of fortunate connections to arrive in Granada before dark, and enjoyed a hearty feed of street food and icecream to celebrate.
Comments
Minor point really!
Just that as its a volcano wouldn't that be 'whoop ash'?
Welcome back!
Lovely to have you back incommunicado Sam. We've missed you. Love the photos. What incredible detail in the mural. Glad you're getting a break or two. What a couple of slim Jims!