Leon...

Our first morning in Leon was spent walking the colourful streets, where shop fronts are distinguished from their neighbours by the use of a different colour of paint rather than a separation of each building. I found myself watching my feet as we walked along, afraid of the broken tiles and holes that lined the footpaths.

Leon is famous for its large cathedrals, including the largest cathedral in Central America known as the Cathedral of the Assumption. It took over 100 years to build and looked amazing towering over a corner of Leon’s busy market area. Old and worn on the outside with large lion statues looking out, it was very well maintained inside especially for a city where almost everything looks like it’s falling apart.

We continued through a busy marketplace full of produce and goods for sale. There was so much to look at and see, it was almost overwhelmingly crowded. We walked through the streets to another cathedral with its pale pink walls making it stand out from blocks away. At the top it had bell towers and as we stood admiring, Bryce asked a groundskeeper whether we could go up. He was more than willing to lead the way and we watched as he pointed the direction of a thin steep and somewhat unstable looking staircase. Hesitant at first, we followed as the stairs opened up onto a second level before another small staircase that led to the top. Once inside the bell tower you had a 360° view of Leon and further into the distance where you could see active volcanoes smoking above the green jungle. We stayed up there for a while, taking photos and admiring the scenery before carefully taking the steps back down. We walked around for a while longer before returning to the hostel for a swim and siesta. For dinner we headed out to a place called Barbados, which could be considered ‘up market’ for Leon and we all spent a little more money than what was originally intended. That being said, with beers going for around 20 cordobas ($1 US) we could probably afford to splurge every now and again.

The next morning, we ventured out to another of Leon’s cathedrals before we were setting off to Las Penitas, a beach area further out from Leon. This building had a lot of character, a deep yellow colour that picked up light from the sun. There were people everywhere around it and the surrounding streets celebrating a special festival day. The cathedral was surrounded by school girls who were somewhat awed by the presence of our group of guys. Jimmy in particular was receiving a lot of attention, he said it was the baldhead that did it but whatever it was, it was so funny to watch. They asked for photos of him, captured on their mobile phones and whenever I could, I told the girl to stand next to him and I’d take the photo for her. He did not find it as amusing and kept asking when we were going to leave. Eventually we did and checked out of Lazybones to catch the bus to Las Penitas.