Nicaragua - Day 2

We woke up and took advantage of the hotel's free breakfast.  I was so excited for our trip that I barely slept (despite being up for nearly 24 hours) as my under-eye bags indicate.

At breakfast, we met a few fellow Americans who lived in Leon, and they gave us some great tips for how to get there as cheaply as possible.  We ended up taking a cab to the UCA bus station where we picked up a microbus to Leon (I believe we paid less than $2.00 per ticket). 

We arrived in Leon and took a cab to our hostel.  Our cab driver was quite the character.  He drove like a maniac and tore through the cobblestone streets like a bat out of hell.  He couldn't find our hostel, so he threw a coin at a man hanging out on a street corner (the said man then quickly pointed us in the right direction).  Thankfully, that's not how he handled our change when we paid him.

When we arrived at the Latina Hostal, we were greeted by Aleska, who worked the front desk.  She couldn't be sweeter and quickly showed us our room and gave us a tour.  We also had the pleasure of meeting Chela, the dog who lived at the hostel.  Our room wasn't fancy, but the bed was comfortable and the bathroom (which we had to ourselves) was close by.

The bathroom didn't have hot water, but since the weather was in the 90's everyday, the cold water was actually quite refreshing. 

Our first order of business was to check out the sites of Leon and hit up the city's vegetarian restaurant, Cocinarte.  So we walked around for several hours, worked up quite an appetite and then chowed down on some amazing vegan curry.

I was intrigued by the revolution monument (the one that features the red and black FSLN flag), and I look forward to learning more when we take our tour of the revolution museum. 

In the evening, we met Alejandro, who works maintenance at the hostel.  We ended up sitting in the courtyard chatting for hours in Spanish.  We missed a lot of what he said, but the fact that he could understand us when I spoke back made me feel quite pleased (and that my time pouring over my google translator was worth it).

A major portion of our conversation revolved around what happens when one consumes too much alcohol.  Perhaps this is why we understood each other.  After all, acting our vomiting is probably quite universal.