Leon day 2

Sweet Leon Murals:

The writing on the right translates to: Nicaragua will be free while she has sons that love her.

What I did on my second day in Leon:

I had 2 fruit juices.

I bought fruit in the market.

I ate tofu.

I walked and got lost and realized my Lonely Planet map is actually all wrong and it´s not just I have a sudden inability to orient myself.

I swam in the pool.

I tried (one bottle of) the Nicaraguan beer Toña. It was ok, nothing to make me want to drink more.

I also got to talk to 2 mothers who lost their sons in the conflicts and revolution a few decades ago. Here in Leon there is a memorial set up with pictures of many fallen heroes (several women actually!), but the coolest part is that at the memorial, there´s always mothers or other people who were there when it all happened. So I sat and asked to hear their stories. I don´t know the history very well and a lot flew over my head because they just sort of talked in a flow of consciousness, but what I did pick up was very interesting. Most striking to me was how these women sort of heard their sons had died, but wanted to go get their bodies but were often prevented. But still, they felt they needed to identify the bodies so they figured out ways to do it. THey also just talked about that time in general, when Leon was bombed and everyone was still in town and they just hid where they could. And one was telling me how she was escaping somewhere and had to trick a guard, but then he gave her food for the kids she had lied to say she had to go take care of. One kept saying how it´s true about the motto: ¨Patria libre o muerte¨ free country or death. These young people (one of the sons was 13) realized they would probably die but kept trying and joining the cause until they completed it. One made it clear that her 2 sons joined voluntarily, and she knew she couldn´t stop them. Admirable (the sons and the mother), if you ask me. Then we started talking about modern politics and how even today they feel that there is tension between the Sandinistas (the party that overthrew the dictatorship) and other political parties. I was grateful to get that opportunity, and also grateful that I´ve never lived through that sort of trauma. Amazing how many people in the world could tell such stories.

Headed to Masaya, the heartland of folklore and handicrafts.