Nicaragua

Overview

Nicaragua lies in Central America, between Honduras and Costa Rica, with coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The country is the largest in Central America by area and is home to the region's largest lake, Lake Nicaragua, one of the few lakes in the world where freshwater sharks are found. Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821, and in the latter half of the 20th century its history was shaped by the Somoza dictatorship, the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, and the subsequent Contra War, which received support from the United States. The official language is Spanish, and most of the population is Mestizo.

The old town of León, with colonial-era buildings and the largest cathedral in Central America, built between 1747 and 1814, is a significant site in the country's cultural and revolutionary history. Granada, on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, with colorful Spanish colonial buildings, is one of the oldest continuously standing European-founded cities in Central America. Ometepe Island, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, is formed by two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas, joined into a single island, a formation that ranks among the region's most distinctive landscape features. Masaya Volcano National Park, where the road to the crater brings visitors directly to an active lava lake, offers one of the most accessible volcanic experiences in the region.

Nicaragua's chain of volcanoes, running through the western part of the country, includes numerous active and dormant peaks, including Cerro Negro, where "volcano boarding," an extreme sport in which visitors slide down black volcanic ash on a board, has become popular. The bull shark population living in Lake Nicaragua, one of the few freshwater shark species in the world, is a biological curiosity of the lake, though it has significantly declined due to overfishing. The Pacific coastline around San Juan del Sur, with surfing opportunities and turtle-nesting beaches, including La Flor Wildlife Reserve, is a hub of coastal tourism. Local cuisine is built around rice and beans, with gallo pinto, rice and beans cooked together, traditionally eaten for breakfast, and nacatamal, a dish of cornmeal and meat wrapped in a banana leaf, as signature dishes.