Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, occupying 120,254 square kilometers (about the same size as England or New York state). It is located in the heart of the Central American isthmus, between the Caribbean Sea on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.

Nicaragua is divided into three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific lowlands (Rivas, Carazo, Granada, Masaya, Managua and León); the north-central highlands (Matagalpa, Jinotega Estelí and Nueva Segovia); and the Caribbean flatlands, also known as the Mosquito Coast or Mosquitia.

More than 65% of Nicaragua’s 5.3 million inhabitants live on the narrow umbilical strip of west-coast land between the Pacific Ocean and the country’s two largest lakes (Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua). North of Lake Managua, the Pacific lowlands are further divided by a ridge of 10 volcanoes (of the country’s 58 total) of which Momotombo and San Cristóbal are the largest and most imposing.

Nicaragua's Map

Central America Map

The agricultural north-central highlands, famous for its shade ­grown coffee, are cooler due to the altitude. The northern part of the country is often plagued by extreme conditions of nature, whether it be floods or droughts.

The Caribbean side of Nicaragua is divided into two autonomous regions known as the North Atlantic Autonomous Region and South Atlantic Autonomous Region, or the RAAN and RAAS. This is the largest and least populated part of the country, accounting for less than 10% of the population and 60% of the land.

Infrastructure is almost non-existent in most of the jungled RAAN and RAAS. There are only two poorly maintained roads connecting the Atlantic region to the rest of the country, and only about 30% of the homes have electricity, mostly in the larger cities such as Blue fields and Puerto Cabezas.

Perhaps Nicaragua’s most prominent geographic feature is Lake Nicaragua (also known as Lake Cocibolca). With a surface area of 8,264 km2, Lake Nicaragua is the largest freshwater lake in Central America, and second-biggest in Latin America. The lake extends from two miles north of the Costa Rican border to the colonial city of Granada, and is bordered by five municipalities. The lake connects to the Rio San Juan, and for centuries was used by explorers, traders and pirates, who in the 17th and 18th Centuries repeatedly sacked Granada by traveling up the 120­kilometer river and across the lake.

EcoCanal, a project that seeks to reestablish this historical trade route, was granted an exploratory concession in 2002 to build a shallow-draft river-barge canal connecting Granada to the Caribbean Sea via the Río San Juan.

Lake Nicaragua is also considered the future source of drinking water for Nicaragua, and perhaps all of Central America. The municipal government of Granada has recognized the importance of the lake as a future potable water source, and prioritized efforts to conserve it. A new project to modernize the city’s sewage system in 2005, promises to dramatically reduce contamination into the lake.

Lake Nicaragua also holds the distinction of being home to the world’s only fresh-water sharks (a species related to the bull shark). The shark population has been depleted in the last half­ century, although they are still spotted from time to time near the mouth of the Río San Juan. Mostly the sharks stay out of people’s way, feasting on the river’s endless supply of fish and trying to avoid motorboats.

Lake Managua (also known as Lake Xolotlán) is the country’s other major lake, located on the northern shore of the capital. Tragically, the lake is heavily polluted to the point where it could almost be considered a fire hazard. There appears to be new political will in Managua to clean up the lake and turn it into a tourist attraction, but don’t expect that to happen anytime soon. Efforts have started to clean up downtown Managua’s Lake Tiscapa, which former Mayor Herty Lewites identified as a priority for his government. The lake has been cleaned up considerably as an attempt to make it a center of town tourist attracting, complete with zipline canopy tour. Lewites demonstrated how successful cleanup efforts had been in Tiscapa by taking a swim in lake in December ’04. At press time he was still alive.

In the municipality of Masaya, Laguna Masaya is another sad example of a body of water that has incredible tourism and development potential if someone were to clean it. Nearby Laguna de Apoyo is still clean enough for swimming and water sports, although residents are already starting to grumble that development in the area is threatening that lake’s future as well.