Nicaragua - A Walk in William’s Footsteps

October 26-28

Hello everyone!

From one colonial town to another on our Nicaragua trip. Next stop: Granada!

View from Granada Cathedral

This is Nicaragua's sixth-largest city

As I alluded to in a previous post, these two cities were colonial powerhouses back in the day and possess many similarities. Like León, Granada is named after a strong medieval Spanish stronghold. Unlike Spanish León, I have been to the more famous Granada and its Alhambra Palace. 

The Municipal Palace in Granada

The city's nickname - La Gran Sultana - is a reference to the Spanish city

Granada in Nicaragua doesn’t have anything remotely like this. That’s likely to be connected to the fact that the Alhambra Palace is an Islamic creation, a religion which never took hold in the Americas. Instead, like León, Granada has a cathedral and churches. Lots of them.

View from Iglesia de la Merced - the Cathedral
and Lake Nicaragua are in the distance

Iglesia Xalteva - Xalteva was the pre-Columbian
name for the settlement here

Like its western rival, Granada (the Nica version) was founded in 1524. Like León, it was founded by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba. Granada was technically created first. The owner of our hotel, whilst giving me a whistle-stop driving tour of Granada, seemed keen to make this point.

Our peaceful hotel, Arca de Noe

I was in a car, rather than being driven by a horse!

One key difference is location. As I learnt when visiting the ruins of León Viejo, that city was initially built on the shore of a lake. Granada was also built on the shores of a lake. A different lake, though: Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America.

The lake is also known as 'The Sweet Sea'

I went for a run along the lakeshore one morning

The reason for this was that it helped the Spanish to have a major port on the western side of the lake to connect across the lake to the main river, the Rio San Juan. That river then gives them access to the Caribbean Sea, and therefore Europe. No Panama Canal at this time, remember. This helped the Spanish consolidate and grow in the region, making Granada an important city.

Volcan Mombacho is found to the south of the city

The front of Iglesia de la Merced

Even after the Spanish reneged power in 1821, Granada played an important role in global migration. According to my driver, it became a major player during the US gold rush in the late 1840s. With a lack of rail infrastructure in the western United States at the time, people from eastern cities such as New York who wanted to find their riches needed another way. The obvious route was a steamboat…which had to go all the way round the American continent, below Argentina. Cornelius Vanderbilt, a famous American businessman, established an operation to transport people from New York City to San Francisco via Granada, using the Rio San Juan and Lake Nicaragua. It saved months of travel time. Apparently, over 258,000 Americans used the route in a 20 year period.

Either this fish is a fascinating art piece
depicting ocean pollution...or is being used as a bin 

I saw a beautiful rainbow during my run

By the time of Vanderbilt’s operation, Granada was actually at war with…you’ve guessed it, León! It wasn’t its first time to be attacked. It was sacked successfully seven times by pirates connected to the English, French and Dutch. The most famous was actually Welsh: Captain Morgan, off of rum fame, looted the city in 1665. 

The main boulevard from the Cathedral to the lakeshore,
which has many restaurants and cafes

Some people buy food from the market, other get it from this!

My driver said the León vs Granada ‘civil war’ started in 1838. I can’t find evidence to support that, but the two cities were sharing the right to be capital of newly-formed Nicaragua at that time. What - or who - ends up bringing them together is an American mercenary called William Walker. I knew of him from my Costa Rica trip, but he was much more prominent in Nicaragua. After all, he - an American - became the country’s second president!

These blogs don't write themselves!

The fort in Granada - far away from the
lakeshore, and probably not very effective

To summarise a complex story, Walker offered to help León in 1855 by providing military forces. He initially helped them to better Granada but then betrayed them by establishing the latter as his new capital. He also made himself president, then…tried to legalise slavery. Bad move. Costa Rican troops invaded to help Nicaragua remove Walker, who left in May 1857. 

The Sun set on Walker's dream in 1857

A monument in Independence Square

Not before ruining Granada, however. In 1856 Walker and his troops systematically burnt the city to the ground using tar. The fires lasted for three days. The cathedral got special treatment, being filled with gunpowder before being detonated to rubble. Infamously, Walker left a sign saying ‘Granada was here’ before departing. Very few elements of this colonial city therefore actually existed during the colonial period.

The most recent version of the Cathedral was built in 1915 

This part of the Merced is original, dating from 1534

I’m focusing more on history here because we didn’t actually do that much in Granada. One of our two full days was spent nearby in Masaya, and the main options of things to do around Granada (volcano hiking, going on the lake) were going to be done elsewhere on our trip. We did enjoy Granada’s reputation for excellent food, however!

Middle Eastern mix plate from Pita Pita

Steak from El Zaguan 

A 'banana burger' from Tostometro - the bun is fried plantains

I spent much of my time in Granada trying to avoid comparing it to León. We liked both and appreciated their subtle differences: Granada seemed slightly more spread out, for example. Though intricately interconnected, both colonial cities are beautiful in their own right. We found it a nice place to relax, as well as being a good base from which to head to see some interesting things to the west…

The view from the Cathedral is stunning

Better people than William Walker

Love you all,

Matt

Nicaragua - The Evacuation of a City

 October 26

Hello everyone!

Ever heard about the one where a volcanic eruption caused a city to move?

A Chorotega tribal sculpture

Momotombo volcano

Nicaragua has sixteen volcanoes. One of these volcanoes, the brilliantly-named Momotombo, had a seismic eruption in 1610. It had been bubbling away for about 30 years prior, but this eruption apparently felt different.

Life here was a bit different before the Spanish arrived...

The volcano was regularly active during the 86 years of Spanish settlement in León Viejo

The eruption and simultaneous earthquake rocked the region next to Lake Xolotlán. There was a city on its shores, quite a famous colonial city. In January 1610, that city disappeared. Both metaphorically and literally.

A model of what archaeologists believe was the city of León

Foundations of the palace, which they think was 125 metres long

Our first stop in Nicaragua was the lovely town of León. This had also been one of the Spanish colonisers’ first stops. Well, León was. It’s just that León wasn’t…in León…

A picture of León

It is believed León Viejo also had a large church

Santiago de los Caballeros de León (now known as León Viejo, or Old León) was founded by Captain Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba. Fun fact: he was later executed and decapitated in the main square, with his body (not the head) being found centuries later. It was one of the first urban centres built by the Spanish in the New World. Its original layout is almost still intact so it helps with the study of urban planning. It is also about 30 kilometres from the current location of León.

Lakes and lagoons served as sustenance for aboriginal populations

After several violent events in the city, many colonisers had begun to emigrate to places like Granada, Managua and Chichigalpa, even before 1610

The reason it is still intact is because that volcanic eruption destroyed the original settlement. Apparently when some curious folk returned, they found only ashes and ruins of their original buildings. The city thus became ‘lost’ for over 350 years, overgrown with trees.

The major eruption was on January 11, 1610

The foundations of the town council building now have a large tree inside them!

When rediscovered by university researchers in 1967, Nicaragua was thus able to remind the world of an important colonial town in Latin America. Having been untouched for that long and the fact that more excavation occurred soon after, we now know more about the time before the Spanish arrived here in 1524.

Life in the city developed around the Central Plaza, which was near here. Markets, religious processions, dances and public executions were organised there.

After decades of searching, the ruins were finally discovered in 1967 by researchers from a Nicaraguan university

On a tour of this sweltering complex, we learnt about the lives of pre-Columbian societies such as the Chorotegas, Nicaraos and Sutiabas. They had a simple way of life revolving around hunting, fishing, agriculture and trade. Interestingly, it is believed that they may have had a democratic system of government, since they submitted all decisions to the vote of a council of elders or Monéxico. About 65,000 indigenous people had settled on the shores of Lake Xolotlan.

Many wood and stone sculptures were destroyed by the colonisers due to them being seen as demonic

Ocarinas, musical instruments, have been found here

The local knowledge of the lake and nearby lands helped the Spanish when they established a colonial settlement here. It was a natural port that allowed communication through the lakes to the Caribbean Sea and therefore the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific. From here, the Spanish traded by land down to Panama and by sea down to Peru. They also traded north up to Acapulco.

This picture shows the extracting of gold, which was done by slaves

Nicaragua has a lot of gold and silver - this is a silver coin used at that time

The main takeaway from our visit - as much as I could gather from a tour which was exclusively in Spanish - was that the colonisers were…horrible. Lots of murder and slavery, very little help or support for the indigenous, exploitation and fraud - their time in León Viejo shows the dark side of colonisation. 

This is a monument to the indigenous. It is not from the time of León Viejo!

The man who was decapitated? I think we were told that his body was found here. Head never officially found.

It got darker in a more literal sense in 1610, when records indicate that the skies were blackened by smoke from Momotombo. It was this eruption that caused a mass migration from León Viejo. They took the Virgin of Merced from its altar and trudged west, ending up settling about 30 kilometres away in what we now know as…León! The city moved!

The governors' palace took 14 years to construct

Some people had time to gather their belongings in 1610 and took the sacred image of Jesus and the Virgin of Mercy to new León.

It’s an interesting archaeological discovery and worth a detour from the main city. It’s fascinating to think of what it would be like here if Momotombo hadn’t rained down on this part of the lake all those years ago.

So cool that we now know much more about pre-Columbian and Spanish life here!

Momotombo: 'great bubbling top'

Love you all,

Matt