Day 11 - Freakin' hot day in León

____________________

This morning, I woke up, looked at our room, and started laughing. For the ones who know Steve and I well, it's not a surprise if I say that Steve is the organized and structured one and, most importantly, he doesn't like when his stuff is dispersed and messy. Steve likes things clean and tidy. Even when he travels...

Knowing that, for the past 15 years, I've always made a big effort to do the same too because, let's say, it's less in my nature… when we backpack and travel from place to place without staying in the same room for more than 3 nights, I do my very best to stay structured but it's not always a success. I call it my "kinda organized" chaos.

But, believe it or not, when comes the time to pack my stuff, it transforms into a work of art… at least, according to Steve standards!

So, after this little magic trick, we went for a very good breakfast and coffee and then headed in to the bus station. Next destination, León… 

To get to León, we had to take what they call a minibus, which is more like a big van with 5 rows of seats. But the thing is that you sit in the van and wait because it only leaves when it's full. It was missing 6 passengers… and it took 1 hour before we finally left, at noon. As you might know, Steve is as patient as I'm tidy so it was interesting. We were at the very back of the van, in the 2 center seats, nobody would open their window so it was hot as hell and the guy sitting next to Steve, to see how he spread his legs, thought he had balls the size of a soccer ball. I thought Steve would actually burst his neighbor's balls or push him by the window. But the ride wasn't too too long so he behaved relatively well. He had to take a few deep breaths here and there but he was good.

Jeez!!! Why is it so damn hot in León?!? It's less than 150 km away from Esteli, mostly West and it's more than 10°c warmer. Now, I can totally hear you guys, from Canada, saying "Ok, stop complaining, here it's like -20°c. We don't feel sorry for you!..." and I get it. But walking the city at 40°c is still pretty intense. And it's not a "fells like 40", it's a "it freakin' is 40°c plus whatever humidex factor". In fact, I'm sure that in the first 5 minutes that we were in León, the humidex actually increased by 10% just with our sweat!

So, instead of walking the 3 km to our hostel, we took a rickshaw. I know, it looks very heartless but it's actually very popular in the city and not just for tourists. And it's how they make a living. 

We got to our super nice hostel. It was a very cool and cozy place with a tiny but refreshing swimming pool and adorable friends. 

We went for a walk in the city, found some food, walked in the local market and stopped for good chocolate and banana smoothies.

Then we went to the Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The particularity that distinguishes this cathedral is its roof. You can actually walk on the white roof and admire the very impressive volcanic chain that never seems to end.

After a couple of hours walking down the streets of León, we needed to shower, for the second time since in the city so we went back to our hostel. Of course, Steve stopped for a dip in the pool.

We cooled down in a cold shower ( it was our only option anyway but we didn't bother at all). And after 5 minutes, we were still all sweaty, but with a few less layers. 

We went out for dinner on a rooftop patio with the view of the city and a nice and fresh breeze. 

We got back to our hostel, had a 3rd shower and went to bed, with no A/C. We had fans but no breeze from the outside and it was more or less a slightly windy sauna. It was a hot but happy night. After all, hot nights are often the most memorable.