Sandwiched between stops in Guatemala and Costa Rica, Nicaragua can’t compete – at least, not from what we saw.

We pulled into a busy industrial port called Corinto, (just sqeezing between these two ships with metres to spare). Only thing to do here was go big distances for something to do/see.

On the ship’s tour bus we drove for more than 2 hours (at one stage the driver got lost) through endless flat and sometimes scruffy farming land and past volcanoes. Sugar appears the dominant crop.

Eventually we arrived at the ruins (discovered by accident in 1967) of the Spanish city “old” Leon, now UNESCO protected, buried by this (still active – see the steam) volcano in 1610 (I think?)

The ruins are quite extensive, but not all that exciting. As Jan said “a very long drive to look at old bricks!”

The grounds weren’t bad … lots of big shady trees, including this one. The green balls, that look stuck on, are the gourds they use to make maraccas.

Then on to “new” Leon, established when “old” Leon shook too much in earthquakes for the Spaniards’ liking, and just before the volcano buried it. As you can see, after the super attractive Antigua in Guatemala, Leon was just an (unattractive and dirty) old Spanish colonial city.

Lunch was in an old convent, where they did serve free beer!!!

The highlight of Leon is the Cathedral (the biggest in Central America), visited several times by Pope John Paul II apparently, and now UNESCO listed … but when we arrived they were fixing the renowned west face … hmmmm …

Inside was massive.

But the highlight was a climb and walk on the roof!

But notice the dust.

Obviously lots of farmers have ploughed in anticipation of the wet season due to start back in May. The rain hasn’t come, but unusual hot dry winds have come, so all the top soil is blowing everywhere. Very unfortunate, and very unpleasant!

I guess Nicaragua has more to offer than what we saw. And, on our visit, the dust storms were a real downer.

It is interesting though, how environment and climate change aware, the few local folk we have chatted to in Central America have become …