We got into Corinto about 9:30 am. We had tickets for a shore excursion to the mud pots. Note that I didn't use capitals because it didn't rate them. This being the end of the dry season here they were mostly dried mud holes with sulphur fumes emanating from them bit there were a couple thar were still bubbling so they didn't lie. Half an hour there was quite enough so we were off to Leon, an old city about 40 minutes away. This part of Nicaragua has seven active volcanoes at present Abe we passed close tone of them that was smoking but you couldn't tell the difference between it and all the smoke from the fires that are burning sugar cane fields.
I thought that Costa Rica was a poor country but Nicaragua is worse. Pry guide Ray was very informative concerning history and culture. Most of the land is owned by one family and another family owns all the rum factories. The government is still corrupt even after the Samosa communist regime ended. The police and army are corrupt as well.
The farmers here grow sugar cane, cacao beans, peanuts then export it all and buy it back as chocolate bars. There are many people working in factories making lots of clothing for The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Target, Levi and many others but it is all put on containers and shipped around the world. Only factory seconds and defective stock is sold locally.
Ray told us that everyone here is a third stage alcoholic because they start drinking early in life and early in the day every day. A very Catholic country, They celebrate religeous holidays Saints every day of the year and if you know which town the next party is in, you can have a good time all year long. Our bus got stopped on the highway and Ray said not to worry, they were just checking to see if the driver was drunk.