Saturday May 26

A big day. We were picked up at 7:30 to go to Leon with Jose and Lizzet form the Embassy. Leon is a city that was built in the 1500's and is the oldest city in the New World. Our first stop was a cultural center. An old hotel or house that the Sandinistas had taken during the revolution. We got a tour and met some of the artists. A great print studio with home made papers and prints of every type lithographic, etchings, and almost anything you could print with. A mask maker, a painter. There was a celebration for mother's day ( a big deal here) which is on the 31st but weekend events centered around that. We then sat down with about 10 theater artists who had their own companies. The discussion turned to the problem of a lack of a defined Nicaraguan theater. Something Pepe had told us in Granada yesterday. And the hopes that this group had that now that a leftest government was back in power, there would be more money for the arts. But this government hasn't yet done anything really and they have had three ministers of culture in 6 months. So there were others who felt that this is a false hope. We then went to the big community theater. We climbed a ladder/stairway to an attic office and met the administrators two elderly women. They greeted us and then took us down to the theater where they gave us the history of this very grand European type theater, that had was in need of some repair but was in regular use with programs that used theater in the schools to teach Spanish and to create theater competitions. They send one man to all the schools and he teaches drama and then all the schools come together for a drama competition. We then toured the old Cathedral, climbing to the roof and looking out over the city. We then drove to the beach and sat in an open restaurant and had fish for lunch. It was very relaxing. Rebbecca and Dennis decided to spend the night. Kerry and I returned to the hotel. It rained in the evening.
Here some pictures from the trip.