So... a bus, a bike-taxi thing and another bus later and we were in Nicaragua, a fascinating and lovely country with possibly the most interesting history of any country I've visited so far. A nation of proud, friendly people this place felt undeniably safer than many of its neighbours. This, despite me reading that, after Haiti, here is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. The two main cities founded when the Spaniards came a-rapin' and a-pillagin' were Grenada and León. A number of factors made Grenada a rich colonial city attracting the wealthy elite, who brought their conservative political outlooks and Spanish beliefs in the strength of the monarchy and Catholicism, so it wasn't long before Grenada became the base for the colony's Conservative party. Meanwhile León attracted intellectual types and radical clerics who quickly
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