León, the city that was

León or Granada? Pick a side. Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the prettiest of them all? Whoever keeps asking these questions must have alternative motives. (Like bringing tourists into town?) For there is no contest. None. At least not regarding colonial architecture, preservation, restoration, maintenance, charm, beauty, cleanness and many, many other things. León doesn’t even stand a chance. It passed its prime long time ago. So, stop asking.

The two cities have been fierce rivals ever since the day they were founded by Spanish colonialists. Be it capital town privileges, number of historic churches, spectacular residences or this or that. It never ends. Until now?

Even though León is the second largest city in Nicaragua, home to the second oldest University of Central America and the largest cathedral in Central America, political center of Nicaragua, cradle of Nicaraguan nationalism (Sandinista Front) proudly documented on numerous murals, the nation’s intellectual and cultural center attracting many students, artists, poets, and most probably plenty of other things I don’t know about… still, the vibe of the city feels more like a vibe of small provincial village in the middle of nowhere than a prominent city.

I found León ugly, dirty and poor. Over 200.000 people living in the same dirty grey looking one-story houses on very much the same dirty grey looking streets. Only a few houses have a fresh coat of paint. The rest is… dirty grey. Once you leave the center (I imagine) the only difference you may notice will be different shades of grey. With only a few exceptions, all cars, including police cars, are wrecks that belong in the junkyard and not on the streets. Locals seem to love their local beer more than anything else. Bars begin to fill up first thing in the morning and are busy all day long. What a contrast from smoothie drinking Costa Rican men. The climate is much hotter than in other places I visited with almost no breeze at all.

(As they say) beauty in the eye of the beholder. León was not easy on my eye. Not as bad as Masaya, which is my least favorite town in Central America, but not much better. Other than the cathedral, few old grey churches, and maybe few murals there isn’t so much to see or do. This could be the reason why most tourist attractions concentrate on out-of-town activities and not the city itself. The tourists that come to visit, almost exclusively backpackers, come for volcano trekking and volcano boarding. After that experience, a 30-minute bus ride to the beach is ‘on the menu’. And then off they go to the next place. Either Granada or El Tunco in El Salvador – depending on which way they travel.

On a positive note:

• it never is all bad, sometimes it is a good idea to come to less attractive places and catch up on other things, e.g.the blog.  

• León was the first city in Central America where I felt safe. And it wasn’t only me – in no other place did I see so many DSLRs hanging around visitors’ necks as in León. Yet there were hardly any police around. The few policemen I saw looked friendly and didn’t carry shotguns with them. I had no problem walking alone and taking pictures after sunset, an activity I  was very uncomfortable doing in all other Central America cities.

• I spend my week in León in a hostel, in a private but hostel, nonetheless. Casa Ivana turned out to be just renovated, one dorm, 7 privates hot water hostel attracting older travelers and owned by a super nice Dutch guy.

  Traveling solo can at times be lonely. I needed to meet other travelers, exchange information and above all hear from people arriving from Honduras and El Salvador the real stories and the latest news about current political unrest in Honduras (ranked (by far) number 1 homicide country in the world) and gang activities targeting tourists in El Salvador (ranked 4 – used to be 1)  as both of those countries are my next destination…

… And I am leaving in one hour. Stay tuned. 

León in Pictures