Sights in Nicaragua
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Playa Pie de Gigante
This glorious white crescent of sand snuggled into the wildly forested mountains has long been famed for cheap lobster, best enjoyed with a servicio of rum at one of the ramshackle seaside restaurants, and great surfing. The popular sandy beach break right in front of 'town' gets hollow and fun when conditions are perfect, and has reliable peaks year-round.
There's an endless tube about 45 minutes north that's also good for beginners. Special-name waves include Chiggers and Outer Chiggers, close to a rocky reef, and Hemorrhoids - this tube is for serious surfers, as it dumps you right onto gravel.
You'll need to hire a boat to most of the breaks, including the point break…
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Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Flor
Between July and December - peaking in August and September - some 30,000 female Olive Ridley turtles, and a few hundred very endangered leatherback turtles, visit Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Flor to nest. And you have to see turtles laying eggs on the beach, not to mention tiny baby turtles making their death-defying run for the water, at least once in your life. Several hotels, including Hotel Nina and Casa Oro Hostel, run night tours, including transportation. Bring insect repellent.
The reserve, south of San Juan del Sur along a shocking road, is managed by Fundación Cocibolca, who have been aided in their efforts by strong new pro-enviromental legislation, which…
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Las Isletas
One of the most enjoyable ways to pass the time is touring this miniature archipelago of 365 (OK, maybe fewer) tiny tropical islands, topped with rare birds, colorful flowers, mansions hung with hammocks, and a few hotels and restaurants where you're welcome to sit back and enjoy it all for a while. Catch a ride with a tour company or hire a boat yourself.
There's even a Spanish fortress, the 1784 Castillo San Pablo, with great views of Granada and Volcán Mombacho, plus a fine swimming hole nearby. The residents of Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island) are friendly, but may run off with your picnic lunch!
Formed 10,000 years ago when Volcán Mombacho exploded into its current…
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Catedral de León
Construction of León's most famous building began in 1747 and went on for over a hundred years. The largest cathedral in Central America, it was voted by the Nicaraguan National Assembly as the country's 'building of the millennium'. This architectural jewel is also home to Rubén Darío's tomb, guarded on one side of the altar by a sorrowful lion.
According to local legend, the city's leaders feared their original grandiose design for the structure would be turned down by Spanish imperial authorities, so they submitted a more modest, but bogus, set of plans.
The fairly sober facade (more triumph-of-the-will Neoclassicism than fluttering cherubs) fronts an interior that…
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Convento y Museo San Francisco
The oldest church in Central America and the most striking building in Granada (that is to say, Nicaragua) boasts the big blue birthday cake facade of Iglesia San Francisco which, incidentally, houses the region's best museum.
The museum is through the small door on the left, where guides (some of whom speak English) are available for tours; tips are appreciated. Museum highlights include top-notch primitivist art, a scale model of the city and a tribe of papier-mâché Indians cooking, relaxing in hammocks and frolicking on comelazatoaztegams, a sort of a 360-degree see-saw.
The reason why you're here, however, is the Zapatera statuary, two solemn black basalt statues…
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Museo de Café
There's a lot of information in the Museo de Café, almost all of it in Spanish, and very little actually pertains to coffee. Staff, however, who also operate a tour desk, are highly caffeinated, offer free cups of coffee, and also sell bags of the stuff.
This is actually more of a Nicaragua and Matagalpa history museum. It begins with a nice archaeology display, then segues into high-school-quality exhibitions about the city and region, from photos of beauty-contest winners past and present through a list of Latin America's great liberators, from Bolivar to Martí.
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Petroglyph
There's a spectacular Petroglyph not far from town; if you do Da Flying Frog canopy tour, ask to be taken by. Otherwise, walk toward Rivas, passing the Texaco station, and make a left after the bridge. Pass a school and then a gate on your right. Continue to the old farmhouse; if anyone's around, you should ask permission to cross the land.
Otherwise, follow the irrigation pipes to the river, where you'll find the stone, showing an enormous and elaborate hunting scene carved perhaps 1500 years ago. If you continue upstream, you'll come to a small waterfall.
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Centro Turístico
Enter through the mock Spanish fortress to a long stretch of lakefront with shady paths, sandy beaches, trees that seem designed for hammocks, restaurants, picnic areas and playgrounds, and free mangoes (if you can beat the parrots and street kids to 'em) all over the place, starting in late February. The Centro is also home to some happening nightspots.
Before splashing headfirst into the water with all the smiling families, you may like to take a good look at the river draining into the lake nearby and contemplate its contents...
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Casacada San Ramón
One of Ometepe's classic hikes is to San Ramón waterfall. This excellent four-hour trek follows a steep, clearly marked trail to the mossy, 40m (131ft) waterfall that you see on all the postcards. The trail has been ravaged a bit at lower elevations by the owners of Estación Biológica San Ramón, but the payoff is still delicious.
Bus service is convenient: take the morning bus from Moyogalpa or Altagracia, then exit at the ecological station. Buses return from San Ramón in the early afternoon.
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Xolotlán
The malecón is a bit depressing on off days, especially if you're pondering almost beautiful Lago de Managua, more properly known as Xolotlán, since 1927 one of the most polluted bodies of water in Central America. Foreign governments are helping clean it up, and in the meantime families turn out on Sundays and partiers on weekend evenings, not to swim but to enjoy the quirky collection of seaside kiosks, and the rickety theme park rides at the west end of the complex.
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Turicentro Estelimar Science Museum & Pools
A good excuse for a 2km walk toward Jinotega, Turicentro Estelimar Science Museum & Pools has a small science museum with some pretty fabulous solar- and pedal-operated dinosaurs made out of old car parts, plus displays involving alternative energy, gears and hydraulics. There are also three attractive pools where you can relax afterward and big cabañas that are a good deal for groups and families.
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Estelí Cathedral
Although Estelí's most impressive attractions are in the mountains surrounding the 'Diamond of the Segovias,' the 1823 Estelí Cathedral is worth a wander, and the murals surrounding the parque central (central park) are interesting as well. Several parks display petroglyphs that were brought down here from the mountains in the early 1900s, many of which are now badly damaged.
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Moravian Church
Activities in town are sparse, but do stop by the Moravian Church, built to the exact specifications of the 1849 original, destroyed in Hurricane Juana. Friendly and simple with nice columns, it has the typical stained glass of the order, depicting a chalice. But chances are, you're eager to explore the constellation of wilderness areas and other attractions just a boat ride from town.
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Parque Central
The recently refurbished Parque Central is a fine place for people-watching, purchasing a souvenir Sandino T-shirt and enjoying that most Leónese of treats, raspados. A small wooden cart opens to reveal a block of ice, which is shaved (with a rasp) into a cup, then topped with your choice of sticky fruit syrups.
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Mi Museo
This brand-new museum displays an incredible private collection of ceramics dating from at least 2000 BC to the present. Hundreds of beautifully crafted pieces were chosen with as much an eye for their artistic merit as their archaeological significance, and displayed in the grand old adobe with the same aesthetic awareness.
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Plaza de la Independencia
Head north of Parque Central to Plaza de la Independencia, also known as the 'Plaza de los Leones.' The obelisk is dedicated to the heroes of the 1821 struggle for independence, while the Cruz de Siglo was erected in 1900 to mark the new century.
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Cathedral de Granada
The Cathedral de Granada, on the east side of the plaza, was originally built in 1583 but has been destroyed countless times since. This most recent version, built in 1915, has four chapels; a dozen stained-glass panels are set into the dome.
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Mausoleum of Heroes & Martyrs
Another monument to the local heroes, the eternal flame of the Mausoleum of Heroes & Martyrs rests within a small plaza just north of the parque central, surrounded by the city's best murals.
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Casa Museo Comandante Carlos Fonseca
The low-budget but heartfelt Casa Museo Comandante Carlos Fonseca honors Commander Carlos Fonseca, the intense and bespectacled architect of the Sandinista Movement. He grew up in this humble adobe with his single mother and four siblings, like Sandino, caught between abject poverty and relative wealth after his coffee-scion father finally admitted paternity when Carlos was in grade school.
At age 19, in 1955, Fonseca joined the PSN (Nicaraguan Socialist Party) and started publishing Marxist tracts. After the 1959 Cuban Revolution he was invited to a journalists' convention in Havana, where he ended up staying to host Sandino discussion groups. This sort of thing didn't…
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Museo de Leyendas Y Mitos
The Museum of Myths & Legends is unmissable. The contrast of its main subjects is striking: a quirky collection of life-size papier-mache figures from Leónese history and legend, handmade by founder Señora Toruña (also represented in glorious papier-mache), and murals graphically depicting methods used by the National Guard to torture prisoners.
The museum is located inside what used to be a prison during the Somoza regime. The prison was built in 1921 - hence its name, La XXI (the 21st Garrison). You'll be led from room to room, each dedicated to a different aspect of Leónese folklore, from La Gigantona - a giant woman representing an original colonist still ridiculed…
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Reserva de Biosfera Bosawás
The North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) province of Nicaragua is fertile ground for exploration. The region's great jewel is the Reserva de Biosfera Bosawás, the largest protected expanse of rainforest north of the Amazon. At 20,000 sq km (7,722 sq mi), it's almost 15% of Nicaragua's national territory. Access is tough, and travel is most easily done by river.
Three geographical features delineate the reserve - the Río Bocay, Cerro Saslaya and Río Waspúk. Enormous Bosawás is home to more than 200,000 people, including 30,000 Mayangna and Miskito Indians, who have some claim to this land. The reserve loses 120 to 175 hectares (49-71 acres) of forest per year to…
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Parque Nacional Volcán Masaya
Described by the Spaniards as the gates of hell, the craters that comprise Volcán Masaya National Park are the most easily accessible active volcanoes in the country. There are two volcanoes, Masaya and Nindirí at the park, which together comprise five craters. Of these, Cráter Santiago is still quite active, often smoking and steaming.
From the summit of Volcán Masaya (632m/2073ft), the easternmost volcano, you get a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside, including the Laguna de Masaya and town of Masaya beyond. The park has several marked hiking trails, many of which require a guide. These include the lava tunnels of Tzinancanostoc and El Comalito, a small…
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Fortaleza El Coyotepe
Built in 1893, the eerie hilltop Forteleza Coyotepe is worth the climb just for the view: Laguna de Masaya, Lago de Managua, Volcán Mombacho and, if it's clear, Volcán Momotombo, rising red and black above Managua. Its historic significance is profound: it was here that Benjamín Zeledón, the 1912 hero of resistance to US intervention, drew his last breath.
Zeledón's death was not in vain. The marines may have managed to take the fortress, but they were watched all the while by a certain young man named Sandino, who vowed his revenge... In the end Fortaleza El Coyotepe would be overrun during Sandinista's final 1979 offensive.
Your entrance fee, a donation to the…
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El Viejo (Tezoatega)
The ancient indigenous capital of Tezoatega, (today called El Viejo) is among the most symbolically important of Nicaragua's colonial cities. It is the site of the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Inmaculada Concepción de la Virgen María, home of Nicaragua's patron saint and mistress of its biggest national religious event, La Gritería.
La Gritería is the festival where you'll hear troupes of fiesteros shouting the question ¿Quién causa tanta alegría? (Who causes so much joy?), to receive the response, ¡La concepción de María! (The conception of Mary!).
The most dedicated pilgrims show up to her beautiful church a few days early for the Lavada de la Plata…
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Museo de Arte Fundación Ortiz-Guardián
Probably the finest contemporary art museum in Central America, the Ortiz-Guardián Collection has spilled over from its original home in Casa Don Norberto Ramiréz, refurbished in 2000 to its original Creole Civil style, with Arabic tiles and impressive flagstones. It and another beautiful old home across the street are now packed with artwork; a Spanish-speaking guide costs extra, and is well worth it.
Begin surrounded by the luxurious realism of the Renaissance and spare beauty of the colonial period, then wander through romanticism, modernism, postmodernism and actually modern pieces by Cuban, Peruvian and other Latin American schools. Rubens, Picasso, Chagall and…
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