Masaya & Los Pueblos Blancos

While the crowds stick to Masaya’s overhyped artisan market, aficionados of traditional craftsmanship head out to the Pueblos Blancos, where each village has its own specialty, from exquisite pottery to handcrafted wooden furniture. The villages also hold exuberant religious festivals.

Towering over all of this is cantankerous Volcán Masaya whose recent activity briefly pelted the surrounding countryside with rocks, and whose crater bubbles restlessly with molten magma.

Sloping down from the meseta are the Carazo towns – home to some of Nicaragua's oldest coffee farms and pleasant stopovers on the way to a stretch of coast with several low-key fishing villages.

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