Beisbol

Never did I think I would be able to watch a baseball game in a country other than America, but as it turns out beisbol is bigger than soccer in Nicaragua and we were staying in a town that just happened to be hosting a home game in the country's professional league. So... today we took in an epic Leon-Esteli baseball game. Well the game wasn't so epic for the home team Esteli, which lost 12-1 when the game was called after 7 innings (meaning I will now buy a Leon hat instead of Esteli), but it was kind of trippy to be one of 2 Americans watching a game we invented, alongside an entire town of Nicos. (We also brought along a British friend we met, and got to show him his first baseball game). The game actually took place in a town called Pueblo Nuevo (about an hour from Esteli). I guess they do 2 games a week in Esteli and two games a week in this other town, which is very small and EVERYONE in the town came out to the game. It was kind of funny, though, because David, who is fluent in Spanish but doesn't know baseball as well as me, ended up the whole game explaining baseball to the British guy, while I, who knows basically no spanish, spent the whole time talking to a Nicaraguan about all sorts of things. He told me players make $500 US a month (very good considering the minimum wage is only $75 a month), two guys from the league just signed on to minor league contracts, Vicente Padilla owns a mansion in Nicaragua and several $1 million racehorses, all while teaching me spanish terms for baseball (they pretty much just use english words for everything, outside of a lancedor throwing a pitch to a receptor).

Also, thanks to James from England for loaning us some money for the bus ride back to the hostel! We nearly did not have enough Cordobas to make it back. Good thing all 3 of us did not indulge too much on the $.75 cent beer or we would have been walking.

Edit from David: We actually had EXACTLY enough to get home, 51 cordovas by bus for the 17c each. oops, we got on an express bus where the fee was 30c each. the pavo (turkey/bus helper) wasn't too happy but eventually gave in to our desperation.

Had a pretty full day in Esteli, because right before the game we toured a cigar factory. Saw how the tobacco was treated and how they were rolled -- and even got a free cigar that we were able to smoke during the entire tour.

Nicaragua has been kind of eye-opening. It is a very poor country, however the people here are so nice and welcoming. But I did not realize how much political turmoil existed here and how unstable the country has been, up until very recent. In a few days they are celebrating a revolution that occurred about 30 years ago. Like half the people in that country lived through and experienced all of that change, so I imagine the celebration will be really charged with emotion. Compare that to our July 4 celebration, which is now just about BBQs, beer and fireworks, with no attachment to the real purpose. Unfortunately we can't go to the festival in Managua on July 19 b/c it would really push back our plans.

Thank you to Mercedes, who David met while serving in Panama. She let us stay at her house for 2 days in Leon and showed us around the town, including several awesome murals that depicted all of the change and turmoil here between 1950 and now (much of which America helped to cause). She actually was a reserve soldier in the revolution, so it was interesting to hear here take on why she joined and the sentiment here in the 1980s.

Leon was a cool town; seemed pretty safe with 15-year-old walking around by themselves around 11 p.m. We did some volcano boarding on Cerro Negro, which was a blast, but a little disconcerting since we were actually walking on top of and peering over an active volcano.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Caribbean coast of Honduras for a local dance festival and the some scuba diving. Apparently, it is whale shark season so hope we see 'em.