The small Latin American state of Nicaragua is a very beautiful country, but far from being the most prosperous. It is really dangerous here, and in all Nicaraguan cities there are areas where even the police prefer not to go. But you should not think that all local residents are like that – on the contrary, there are a lot of good, sympathetic people in Nicaragua, and there are a little more of them than criminal elements. In addition, it is the locals who primarily suffer from rampant crime, which, alas, is one of the main problems of this country.
Facts about Nicaragua
- The population of Nicaragua is 6.6 million people.
- The first European to visit the territory of Nicaragua was Christopher Columbus, who arrived here during his 4th expedition (interesting facts about Columbus).
- About 30% of the total population of the country lives in the capital city of Managua.
- In most cities in Nicaragua, the walls of all buildings are painted with graffiti, sometimes very picturesque. And the city authorities completely gave free rein to street artists, officially allowing them to paint the city with paintings.
- Being a colony of Spain, for several centuries the lands now belonging to Nicaragua were part of Guatemala, which has long been an independent state.
- Also, for 17 years, the country of Nicaragua was part of the Mexican Empire.
- Throughout the 80s of the last century, a revolution was in full swing and a civil war was going on. The echoes of these bloody events are still felt here.
- Nicaragua borders only two countries, Costa Rica and Honduras, and along with the latter is one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America (interesting facts about Latin America).
- The population density in Nicaragua is lower than in all the rest countries of Central America, except for Belize.
- In the lake of the same name Nicaragua, located on the territory of this state, there are unique freshwater sharks. By the way, they are quite large, up to 3 meters in length.
- About 20% of Nicaraguans are not literate.
- The HIV infection rate in this country is one of the lowest in the world.
- In the entire Western Hemisphere, only two countries are considered even poorer than Nicaragua – Haiti and Honduras (interesting facts about Haiti).
- Nicaraguan money is called «cordoba», but American dollars are also readily accepted here absolutely everywhere. But the euro is not, they will have to be changed at the bank.
- At the time of the collapse of the USSR, the government of Nicaragua owed the Union about 3.5 billion dollars. However, Russia forgave the Nicaraguans for this debt.
- It was Nicaragua that became the first country in Central America to have a woman as president. This happened back in 1991.
- Iguana meat is part of the traditional local cuisine.
- In the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, there is a museum with a unique collection of traces of ancient animals and people forever imprinted in volcanic ash.
- From the beginning of November to the end of May, it almost never rains in Nicaragua (interesting facts about rain).
- Because the local address system is very confusing and illogical, Nicaraguans often list the nearest landmark as the address, and describe how and where to get from there to your destination.
- A very popular Nicaraguan side dish is fried bananas.
- The two largest cities of Nicaragua, Granada and Leon, founded centuries ago by the Spaniards, have long disputed the status of the capital with each other. To resolve the dispute, Managua was eventually made the capital. A similar picture was observed in Australia, where the city of Canberra was built specifically for the role of the capital to resolve a long-standing dispute for the right to be the capital between Sydney and Melbourne (interesting facts about Sydney).
- There are 18 active volcanoes in Nicaragua.
- Nicaragua became the second country in the world to recognize such currently partially recognized states as South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
- Of all the countries located entirely in Central America, Nicaragua is the largest.
- The brown momot bird is the national symbol of this state. Locals respectfully call momots «keepers of the ravines».
- In the 80s, inflation in this country exceeded 30 thousand percent. At the same time, the authorities did not have the money to print new banknotes, so it was decided to simply overprint existing banknotes with black ink, increasing their denomination tens of thousands of times. So, a bill of 1000 cordoba was turned into a banknote in denominations of 1 million (interesting facts about money).
- Each Nicaraguan city has its own patron of Christian saints, and the day of this saint is always celebrated on a grand scale. This holiday is called «fiesta patronal».
- On average, Nicaragua has about 30 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants.
- Oddly enough, but the most popular sport in this country is baseball, not football.