Andrew & Jenny´s blog: Leon, Sign Language, Volcanoes and Sand Boarding

Leon is a must see city of Nicaragua, not especially beautiful, as colonnial cities go Granada is much more impressive, but it does give you a feel of real Nicaragua life. And as so much of Nicaragua´s history has been based around this city it´s no surprise. It has been the capital longer than the current capital Managua and for a long time was the relgious capital of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the crazy number of Churches are living proof of that. It´s a ratio of church per block. The cathedral, the biggest in Central America is a bit of a disappointment (architecturally speaking :) But it has got a certain unkept charm to it. Revolution is in the air in this city with a history of starting and feeding rebellion.
The truth´s growth here is an encouraging story of revival in a war torn province that suffered as much as any in the turbulent war decades. Now there are 16 congregations in a city with a population of 140,00. We had to visit to give a talk at the local Sign Language Congregation, and as its a 6 hour bus ride away we thought we would make the most of it and see the town.

As usual in Nicaragua getting there is half the fun. The bus driver here was not exactly a health and safety fanatic.

There was an attendance of 21 deaf, my largest deaf audience ever :) they were really kind and pretended to understand me. The talk was about how God will destroy those destroying the earth, so it gave me the chance to include loads of nature pictures...it was fun choosing them.

The bus back home didn´t leave till 15.00 pm so we managed to squeeze a visit to Cerro Negro, an active volcano you can actually sand board down, (a unique setting for sandboarding). Here you can see us with David and Yemima who are actually planning to get back by September. They were great company.