North or south?

Agree - unless you're set on mostly seeing howler monkeys, give up the wildlife and just spend your 6 days in/around León. Just did exactly that; plenty to keep you as active pumping as you care to be, and you'll quickly realize it would be easy to stay even longer!

We went to CR a few years ago and saw plenty of howler monkeys and plenty other fauna. So I guess if it's just more of the same we can do something else.
Do you include Esteli as being around Leon?
Anyone know if there is a spot to see turtle laying eggs on the coast near Leon?

On Ometepe and in the northern highlands you wouldn't see the abundance of wildlife you so easily see in CR. If I were you I would focus on volcanoes (one of the big draws in Nicaragua), trekking and surfing. I gave you two itineraries in my last post : Leon and Las Penitas or include Somoto and Matagalpa. Did you look at the Sonati website ? Anything of interest ? I did Cerro Negro, Telica, San Cristobal, El Hoyo, Cosiguina. Focus on Leon and trekking, volcanoes, surfing. Or add Somoto and maybe rafting but then you will spend more of your short stay on the road.

Yes, in Las Penitas you can go on an evening turtle tour in Juan Venado. They will take you to the beach where they have a hatchery. We were able to see a few baby turtles. Then we walked and waited. We saw two turtles lay their eggs which was amazing. They will take the eggs to the hatchery to protect them from the poachers. We saw poachers too which was disturbing. But of course it is a weird situation : some people from the village are being paid to save the eggs while their neighbours and friends are still poaching... Sometimes there are large numbers of turtles but that depends on the moon. August is the start of the season.

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