Nicaragua: landmarks, animals & facts for kids

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, lying between Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south, with coasts on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is Managua. Nicaragua is often called the land of lakes and volcanoes: a chain of volcanoes runs along the Pacific side, and Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America. It is also known for colonial cities, rainforests and its love of poetry and baseball.

On My Earth Toy you can visit León Cathedral, a huge white cathedral in the city of León and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where the great poet Rubén Darío is buried.

Geography and nature

Along the Pacific, active volcanoes such as Masaya, whose crater sometimes glows with a lava lake, rise above fertile plains. Lake Nicaragua holds Ometepe, an island made of two volcanoes joined together, and the San Juan River carries the lake's water to the Caribbean. The eastern Caribbean side is a wide, rainy lowland called the Mosquito Coast, with the large Bosawás rainforest reserve in the north. The highest point, Mogotón, is 2,085 metres. Howler monkeys, sloths and sea turtles live here.

People, languages and culture

Spanish is the official language, and on the Caribbean coast people also speak Miskito, Creole English and other languages. Most Nicaraguans are Catholic or evangelical Christians. Poetry is a national passion, thanks to Rubén Darío, who started a new style of Spanish poetry called modernismo. Unlike most of its neighbours, Nicaragua's favourite sport is baseball. Gallo pinto, rice cooked with red beans, is eaten almost every day, and the colourful street play El Güegüense is listed by UNESCO.

History in a nutshell

Indigenous peoples such as the Nicarao, whose leader may have given the country its name, lived here when the Spanish arrived in the 1520s. Granada and León, founded in 1524, are among the oldest cities built by Spaniards on the American mainland. Nicaragua became independent from Spain on 15 September 1821. In the 20th century it was ruled for decades by the Somoza family until the Sandinista revolution of 1979, followed by a war in the 1980s and elections in 1990.