estelí, nicaragua

this week i am in estelí, this dusty mountain town in northern nicaragua. it´s pretty different than what i´ve seen so far. outside of the school, i have yet to run into another gringo on the street, but instead the streets are filled with kids in catholic school uniforms and serious nicaragüense cowboys.

along with leon, this is a sandinista town that saw tons of fighting during the revolution and with the contras in the 80s. yesterday after lunch i ended up studying at cafe at the casa de cultura, which is a former mansion of somoza´s that the city has turned into a gallery and vegetarian restaurant! there´s a picture of it above. this has been such a crash course in all the nasty u.s. involvement in this poor country. it´s so shameful how the u.s. supported all the dictatorships and then the contras and who knows what they´re going to do next. i am absolutely falling in love with this place and will definitely be back soon.

i am staying with this wonderful family in this pretty humble house that is definitely not the colonial mansion i was priviliged to stay at in leon, but a small concrete house with a hot tin roof. i´m rocking the bucket flush and bucket hand-wash again, which is fine, especially since this family is so awesome and so into having a student in the house. they talk to me all day long and it´s really helping my spanish. when i got into town my stomach was totally bothering me and they called a doctor who came over to the house and got me a prescription for some antibiotics, which all turned out to be about $30. the family is SO wonderful. i was talking with geovanna, the mother, today during lunch and she told me that her father was murdered by the national guard during the revolution, just a block from the house when she was six years old. she said there´s a picture of him hanging in the gallery of heroes and martyrs in town, which i am definitely going to check out tomorrow.

spanish is improving and it´s really nice that there is absolutely no one around to speak english with. heading to the miraflor nature reserve at six am on saturday for the day and then off to honduras on sunday. then rana in guatemala next thursday!

best weekend ever

yikes! left leon on friday after class and hopped on the bus to las peñitas, this awesome low-key beach 30 minutes outside of leon. i met the most interesting people of my trip this weekend. my friend seth came out on saturday night from leon and we spent the weekend with the other guy in the dorm, steve, a latin american studies/development professor in australia. aside from staying in the best hostel right on the beach for next to nothing and with maybe eight other people in the whole place, we went back to leon on saturday for the final game in the nicaraguan ¨world series¨! so rad. everyone from the hostel went to the game and we went nuts for leon, who totally lost to managua. after many many beers, this was a pretty epic night.

here are some shots of the game, the riot police marching into the game (they later stood right behind us), the fire department hosing down the field, all the ridiculous headbands and hats we ended up with, crazy managua fans, some sunsets, my new pals and finally a billboard of ortega that had been decidedly paintballed.

overall, an amazing weekend of lounging in hammocks reading steve´s books about foreign debt cancellation and nicaraguan politics. didn´t surf (sorry george, no great stories..) as the waves were nuts and i am still a little traumatized from getting thrashed around in san juan.

i got a ride from the beach to esteli where i am now from this brother-sister duo from new york. they own two restaurants on the lower east side and offered me a job when i get to new york, as well as housesitting their huge townhouse in the west village.

leon, nicaragua

this city is amazing. i would really love to live here. in contrast to granada, which was so touristy and sterile, this place is so alive with actual people and whatever they happen to be doing with their lives. leon is a really progessive city with a major sandanista past. everywhere are che guevara bumper stickers, but right as i´m about to think it´s really typical or something there´s a building for disabled revolutionaries and a bunch of people in wheelchairs trying to get down the street. the spanish school i´m at is really professional and i´m learning so much, although i´m at a frustrating point where i can understand a fair amount but can´t really communicate it back. i´m staying in this awesome house with this woman who´s a dance teacher and her very punk rock 19 year old daughter. i´ve been hanging out with this community development-y guy from london and the "mom" in my house (she's like 40) and last night we all went out to hear some salsa bands play, it was awesome. felt like i actually lived here, aside from the fact that i´m so far behind everyone with my spanish.

ok here are a million photos of leon. the first few are of this torture museum i went to yesterday with the other students at the spnish school. it was really intense, considering people my age were murdered there 26 years ago. below, there is a drawing of someone being dangled off a tree into a well. below that is the tree they were hung from.

here are some shots of the house i am staying in. it´s perfect. this beautiful shabby colonial house with tons of rocking chairs and a gorgeous courtyard that opens into the house. below is sam, the new love of my life and strangest dog i get to stay with. below that is the window in my room. this place is like the kim pierce dream house. i love it.

some snapshots of some amazing churches and murals and scenes around leon. it´s so lovely here. the first shot is of the largest church in central america, which is right off the parque central.

some street shots of leon. in the next photo you can see the school i´m studying at.

today i went to this fortress outside of leon. it was another former prison and from what i got out of the tour, tons of people were killed here.
now teenagers come to make out and drink fanta.

cockfight!

yess. the vegetarian at the cockfight. it was pretty hilarious. i am in leon, nicaragua right now which i absolutely LOVE. on sunday night i stayed at the hostel and a few of us found our way to a real live pollo brawl. nuts! here is a picture of the blade they tie on the chicken´s leg, a picture of the rink which is in someone´s backyard, a picture of one of the chicken owners sucking the blood out of the chicken´s head and much much more...

photos! granada & laguna de apoyo, nicaragua

i spent last sunday at the laguna de apoyo, this amazing crater lake about 20 minutes outside granada. here are some photos of it and then some shots of granada from a bell tower.