Life keeps being unpredictable. After writing my entry yesterday, I went and had a light lunch and then headed back to my hotel. Upon entering my room, I found a note from César and Felix, indicating that they had left. Upon inspection of their room, next door from my own, I found that they had indeed cleared out that morning. This was disappointing, as I had wanted to talk more with César, as well as having him teach me how to sew. In fact, it would be accurate to say that my reasoning behind staying in Masaya for longer was to interact more with César.

When I found the note, I immediately began to pack my backpack, and within fifteen minutes I was paid and out the door of the hotel. I made my way to the bus station and took a couple of buses, through Managua, and up to León, where I am now.

A note about Managua: Horrendous. It was, without a doubt, the ugliest city I had ever seen. To make matters worse, a man on the bus thought it'd be a good idea to give me a lecture of how dangerous the city was right as we were arriving. My bus from Masaya just dropped me off in the middle of a busy intersection. Of course - it would be too simple to have a central bus station. I had to catch a taxi to go to another part of the city to take a bus to León. And, of course, the taxi driver brutally overcharged me (at least double the normal rate), but I was too tired, off-balance and eager to get out of Managua fast to put up a fight. Good for him, I suppose; he grinned as I climbed in.

Anyway, I arrived in León around five 'o clock yesterday afternoon and, after checking into a hostal in the downtown area, went and found a chinese restaurant, where I had some really good (and cheap!) shrimp chop suey. I spent the rest of last evening just kind of wandering around and enjoying the night air. I sat down in the park and talked with a woman who was sitting on the same bench as me. She was from a town in the South of the country, but worked in León. I had a good time talking with her; it was the first interaction that I had had with a Nicaraguan in a long time that didn't involve a monetary transaction.

I'm planning on spending at least until Wednesday here, although I may stay even longer if it turns out to be interesting. After that, I'm off to Estelí. What I'm working on right now are my notebooks - freestyle writing - and a book that César gave me, some compiled texts of Simón Bolívar. So far, while they are very interesting historical documents, I must admit that I am not entirely impressed by Señor Bolívar. He seems to be quite authoritarian, saying at one point that the first independent government of Venezuela made a mistake, "founding their policies in a misunderstanding of humanity, not authorizing the government to make free by force those peoples that are stupid and fail to recognize the value of their rights."

Genius. In other words, it's the job of the government to force the people to accept their "liberties..." He also goes off about how peace-time governments should be lax and liberal, but how during war, all laws should be ignored and the government should be a tyranny. Ironic, this point, considering that most of Bolívar's admirers would certainly be opposed to the Bush Administration, which is acting on this very principle. The paradoxes of Latin America... Always an education.