Day 12 - Contemporary or freaky art?!

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Today is a relaxed day. No alarm, no rush, no plans… other than visiting the city.

There was a city walking tour plan in the Lonely Planet so we decided that it would be a good starting point. For a population of about 200 000 inhabitants, the city of León counts not less than 16 churches. Some are very humble and don't really look like a church, some others have a certain charm, evidence of a long gone magnificence and some are still splendid, solid and majestic. 

We also visited a huge semi-interior local market where we shared a very good lunch and had fresh orange and nectarine juices.

When we visit a city, we like going to the local market but I also like visiting a grocery store. I like to see all the different products, see the prices and also compare what we have in common. Well, I was very surprised to see that, in Nicaragua, they do have maple syrup. Not from Canada but directly imported from Vermont! But if, in Nicaragua, cane sugar, bananas and avocados cost nothing compared to us, maple syrup is the equivalent of CA$22.34 for 250 ml!!!

We finished our tour in the Contemporary Art Museum. Just like almost all the other places we visited in Nicaragua so far, it looks like a normal building from the outside but it's actually HUGE!!! And the museum has 2 parts. The first building was more for Nicaraguan art and was a reasonable size. The second part was across the street and this building was like a never ending maze! I love art and it was very interesting. And the actual buildings themselves were true work of arts.

But the more we plunged into the art labyrinth, the more it became dark, weird and strange… at least, in my humble opinion. 

I have a lot of respect for art but sometimes, I don't get it… 

But we got to see original paintings from Pablo Picasso!

After a couple of hours in the museum Steve's legendary patience was burning like a bush fire and it was time to find the exit. 

We had dinner in a good typical restaurant and went to bed early because we had to wake up early the next morning.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we must have showered 4 times today! It was another incredibly hot day!