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Nicaragua
The land of lakes and volcanoes at the isthmus's heart
Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America by area, a land named for its great lakes and ringed by a chain of smoldering volcanoes. Around seven million people share a country of colonial cities, Pacific surf, Caribbean rainforest, and the freshwater expanse of Lake Nicaragua, home to volcanic islands and even bull sharks. Marked by revolution, dictatorship, and recurring political crisis, it remains one of the hemisphere's poorer nations, yet one of striking and varied natural drama.
A line of active volcanoes runs down the Pacific side, from Momotombo to Concepcion rising straight out of Lake Nicaragua. The highest point, Mogoton, reaches 2,107 meters on the Honduran border. The wet Caribbean lowlands and the Bosawas rainforest dominate the east, while the central highlands grow coffee. Earthquakes and eruptions are frequent, and the 1972 quake that leveled Managua still scars the capital.
Independent from Spain in 1821, Nicaragua saw US interventions, the Somoza dynasty, the Sandinista revolution of 1979, and a contra war through the 1980s. Coffee, beef, gold, and remittances support the economy. Colonial Granada, the Corn Islands, and volcano-boarding on Cerro Negro draw visitors, while a deepening authoritarian turn under the Ortega government defines its troubled present.