Matagalpa to Leon

Nat and I inadvertantly joined the Sandinista campaign during our last night in Mataglpa. We were playing pool with some guys who offered us a ride back to our hotel. It turns out it was a truck with the black and red Sandinista flag all over it and we were the only ones in the back.

I awoke early the next mornig to the sounds of speaches being blasted from trucks, the Sadinista campaing song, "Give Peace a chance" and people yelling from the back of pickup trucks parading downtown. As we left Matagalpathe next mornig, the bus inched slowely through a large crowd of Sandinistas who were gathered to great their leader, Daniel Ortega who is likely to be the next president. He must be ok because CNN doesn't like him and already called him a dictator, not even waiting for the election to be over. Although campaigners are of all ages, the vast majoritty seem to be in their late teens or early 20's.

After we got through the crowd, we started to pass about 100 trucks full of campaigners on their way to the rally. I'd guess about 2000 people were travelling to the rally, but there were so many trucks that it was hard to guess. Many of the trucks were simalar to old grain trucks you see in Alberta at harvest time. Each was completely full of people with more hanging off the sides. It seemed pretty dangerous. The hiway was lined with supporters who came from their mud huts to show support. There was one brave soul who was on the side of the road with a Liberal flag holdiong up his index finger. We saw a truck slow down for him and there was yelling both ways. There did seem to be a little respect for the brave soul though.

Leon is a city of about 1 million and a university town. It is very hot here, and I do see the odd whitey. We saw the first airplane in the sky that we have seen in Nicaragua. It was a crop duster flying low towards us while we were at a swimming pool. Nat said,"It looks like it's going to bomb us."
Right after that, it did. It was dropping political leaflets about every 30 seconds over the city. This morning I heard it make about 5 passes overhead. Just when I think the campaigns are by far the biggest I have witnessed, they get crazier. I don't feel that there will be any violence though. The pols definately show the Sandinistas in the lead by enough to rule by law. If for some reason they don't then there could be a cival war.

Tomorrow, we are going to San Juan Del Sur. We have been told that it is a good place to learn how to surf.