And the campaign begins!

2011 is a big year here in Nicaragua - it's election year.  And while we Americans may think that politics can get a bit heated at home, its nothing like the full-fledged furor that exists here.  As I mentioned before, El Sauce is predominately Sandanista, but to those who aren't Nica fluent that would need some explanation.  I will give a very brief summary as I understand it, but if you are actually interested Wikipedia has a lengthy explanation of Nica history and the politics of it all.  But here's the short of it - the US financed and supported a lengthy period of ruthless dictators that took total advanatge of the Nicaraguan people for many years (a rather common story here in Latin and South America).  Augusto Sandino was a Nica who stood up to the US government and the corrupt dictators of the time, but was subsequently killed.   Much later, his name was used to drill up popular support to overthrow the regime and the Sandinistas came to power.  Their political position is socialistic and they have done a great many things to help the poor people of the country.  Under the Sandanistas illiteracy has dropped, health standards have risen and the general welfare of the country has improved.  The current president Danieal Ortega is up for re-election and things are going to get interesting.  As with all political parties, his is not squeaky clean and the papers are currently full of allegations against his government, so we will see what will happen.  But now for the reason for bringing this up:
This past weekend was the official kick-off of the election campaign.  The elections are Nov 6 so that only leaves a little more than 2 months for campaigning, but the truth is that the last 4 years have been a campaign.  But the kick-off was a great excuse for some fun events.  Every year all the municipalities of Leon(of which El Sauce is a part) take part in a big sporting competition and this year it was in Leon and coinicided nicely with the start of the campaign.  So I got myself a spot on one of the 4 buses from El Sauce heading into Leon to discover Leon and the festivities.
The day began early - very early.  The buses were scheduled to leave at 6am and I had been encouraged to show up at 530 to make sure I got a seat so i figured 5 would be an ok time to get up and not that much earlier than the normal rising time around here.  Unfortunately the muchachos next door decided they would rather take the Katie Fitz approach and stay up all night rather than get up so early.  So around 330 sounds began to come from next door and buses heading towards the further afield towns passed through revving their engines and merrily tooting their horns.  So the day began early.  We actually left at 630 but the 1 - 1.5hr trip took more like 2.5 hours because we kept stopping randomly on the side of the road for prolonged stretches - no idea why - i was told it was so all the buses would arrive together but I am not sure how we got split up. Isat next to El Sauce's runner who talked almost constantly and of which I understood maybe half - but he did a 1hr 9 min 1/2marathon - thats quick!
Then we finally arrived and the parade started almost immediately.  Music, marching bands, super-sized dolls, trucks packed with people - and above all political propaganda.  There's a song, chants, shirts, flags - everything.  I then wandered around Leon all morning/afternoon and then returned to watch the end of the games.  Some volleyball, soccer and dances(some good, some of the high school dance group quality) all interspersed with lots of Sandanista rhetoric (who are we voting for?!?!  youth for Daniel!!  Peace, love, christianity, socialism and revolution!!!)  it was certainly something else.  We capped it all off with some litres of the Nica staple, Tona(a rather bland but refreshing cold beer that is ubiquitous - Mac you would be hating the beer world down here!) eventually boarding the buses and getting back to El Sauce at 130am.  Just in time to catch some sleep before the campaign started in El Sauce at 900am...

 That's a tall woman...

 FSLN!!! for life!!!

 They won!

 Dancing with Daniel's blessing.