The bluest skies in Central America...

Two days ago, after my class, Róger took me on a little tour of León.We went to an art museum and it was interesting, but, you know, and art museum. I love art, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't hold my attention for very long. It was interesting, though, because it featured a lot of old and modern Central American art which isn´t something you get to see very often. I figured it existed, but never really thought of Central America as far as art goes. Literature, yes, which brings me to our next stop: the Rubén Darío museum. Rubén Darío is a very famous poet here in León. There are statues of him everywhere and streets, schools and restaurants  named after him. He was born in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, but spent most of his life in León. He was a raging alcoholic, but his poems are beautiful and powerful, as the story usually goes. The museum is in his old house.

After we spent an hour doing the things Róger wanted to do, we finally got to climb to the top of the cathedral (the picture I posted a few days ago). I had been wanting to do this ever since I'd found out that you could climb to the top. We had to pay to go up, which I figured, but my gosh. Here in Nicaragua, there is this thing called "the gringo tax," which basically means that Nicas are charged less then half as much as gringos for pretty much everything. It's frustrating, to say the least, when Róger pays 15 to 20 cordobas for everything and I pay 40. The extra money was worth it, though. Standing in front of the cathedral, it's just incredible. The architecture commands attention. Standing on top of the cathedral, though, is breath taking. I don't even have the words for it. Everyday, I am amazed but how vividly blue the sky is, but from the cathedral, it's like...you couldn't even imagine a blue like this. The top of the cathedral consists of the immense domes. You can't walk on them because only the little pillars that edged the roof contain iron, and it wouldn't take a lot to fall through. The whole city can be seen from the top, a little plain of red tiled roofs and narrow streets. The first thing I noticed when I made it to the top, though, made me gasp. Beyond the reach of the city, settled in a thin, grey fog, were rolling hills and volcanoes. God, the volcanoes. It's hard to describe, it was just...I couldn't believe that this was the backdrop to the city. It was the kind of thing you see in the movies, wonder where a place like that might exist and then shrug your shoulders because it's seemingly so exotic and distant that there's a very small chance you'll ever see anything like it.