One night, we head out to Don Senor as usual.  As we get to the town square, we notice that taxis and buses are blocking the road.  Asking around, we learn that a transport strike has begun.

Here are the issues:  apparently there are a bunch of illegal, unlicensed taxis in town.  The mayor wants to issue 100 more taxi permits, which the current licensed taxi drivers are unhappy about.  Plus the bus drivers want to raise the fares, so they could make a bit more money, but they were forbidden to do so.  So, the taxi drivers and bus drivers joined together to shut down all of the public transport in town.

At 6am the next morning, I'm woken up by a set of big explosions - someone is setting off a lot of fireworks.  It's hard to tell if it was related to the strike, or if people are still celebrating New Years.  The Nicaraguans do seem to love their fireworks.  But later in the morning, I do hear that two "scab" taxis breaking the strike, had been burned in the night.  That afternoon, a group attacks a taxi passing our hotel.  I don't think that anyone was hurt, but the tires were slashed.

The strike didn't scare me, but it was time for me to leave Leon anyways.  The strike only affected local transport; the inner city buses were still running.  I walk to the bus station, find a minibus heading towards Managua, change buses there, and continue on to Granada.  All of the transport so far has been very easy and convenient. 

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