Nicaragua Day 8 – Leon Viejo, Leon sorta

(Costa RIca Day 62)

With great regret we left Big Corn Island early this morning to catch our flight back to Managua. The plane ride was dun, since the plane was small, a 20 seater at most, and we were able to see into the cockpit. I won’t pretend I knew what all the semi-shinny gadgets did, but they were fun to watch. We had already decided though that we would spend our day in Leon, rather than Managua and ran out of our hotel in Managua almost as quickly as we arrived.

The trick was, which Leon would we visit? The original Leon had been left in ruins after an earthquake some 500 years ago, and the new Leon, which stood today was built some 20 km to the west. Although we were really interested in seeing the excavation and reconstruction of Old Leon, we didn’t think we could get there without taxi and did not want to spend the money.

So we were quite ecstatic when we arrived in Leon to find out that there was a bus that the driver said drove right by the entrance to Old Leon. He said it was less than an hour away. Excited we got on, with that kind of timing we would be able to see both cities.

We had forgotten about Murphy, and the fact that not all people were like the people we had met on the island. Turned out “right in front of the entrance” meant about in front of a 7km road that led to where Old Leon lay. We knew something was wrong when the bus zoomed away as soon as we got off.

The group of men painting lines on the road got a good laugh when we asked them where Old Leon was and they pointed down the road telling us it was 7 km in that direction. Our faces must have been quite comical. Luckily one of them took pitty on us and offered to drive us there for what amounted to $6. We agreed, since the bus that would actually go by, wouldn’t arrive for another hour.

Old Leon itself, turned out to be pretty, an excellent spot for a picnic if one had the time, but unfortunately by the time we got there we only had an hour before we had to catch the bus heading back. We did get to see the ruins and an amazing view of the volcano that had caused the rumbling that had toppled the town. Unlike Arenal, you could see the purple and red tinted soil on this volcano.

We headed back into the town, which I swear could have been out of an old western movie and caught the converted school bus, which would take us back to La Paz where we could catch a bus to Leon. When we got to Leon it was already 5:00 pm, we were starving because we hadn’t eaten, and a little put off that we had not been able to get as much out of the day as we had wanted.

We bought the Nicaragua equivalent of a chicken pita from a street vendor, it was absolutely delicious, and made our way to the main square, hoping to at least get to see the cathedral. We did get to see the cathedral, but arrived just in time to watch them close the doors for the day. I guess we were too late to see inside.

So in case someone if keeping score, it takes a full 3 hours to go the 20 km between Leon and Old Leon by bus. Turns out there was a reason why Lonely Planet had taxi written down as the only mode of transportation between the two. We resolved to find the nearest hole in Managua and bury Murphy in it before we returned to Costa Rica.