Interesting facts about Nicaragua

Nicaragua is a country that is famous for its nature, constantly unstable political situation and generally not a serene life. Perhaps that is why Nicaraguan lands, beautiful in many respects, do not attract American tourists who prefer the clean beaches of Mexico and Cuba. However, Nicaragua is not a less interesting corner of the Earth from this.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, its area is 129,494 square kilometers.

The state motto of Nicaragua: “In God we hope!”.

Lake Nicaragua, the largest in the whole of Central America, has freshwater sharks up to three meters in length and swordfishes that normally live in the seas.

The national bird of Nicaragua is guardardarco (the scientific name is brown moth), which translates as “keeper of ravines”.

In the 1980s, due to hyperinflation, reaching 35%, the Nicaraguan authorities began to print new banknotes on old bills, increasing their denominations by thousands or even tens of thousands of times. Overprints were made with a simple black ink, often they were crooked, only on one side of the bill or generally upside down. Criminals also did not stay aloof, releasing a huge number of fakes, virtually indistinguishable from the originals.

The debt of Nicaragua to the USSR at the time of the collapse of the union state was about $ 3.5 billion, that is, almost $ 1,000 per inhabitant of that country. Russia gradually wrote off this debt.

Nicaragua became the second country in the world to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The first was Russia.

Every year, all the settlements of Nicaragua celebrate the “fiesta patronal”, that is, the day of their guardian angel. Celebration is often accompanied by masquerades and colorful processions.

In the past, the inhabitants of Nicaragua were confident that if a young woman was thrown into the volcano, the eruption would immediately cease. It’s amazing that the girls did not disappear at all, because there are 18 volcanoes on the territory of the country.

Nicaragua is the first Central American country to become the president of a woman – Violet Chamorro headed the state from 1991 to 1997.

The inhabitants of Nicaragua consider the iguana a delicacy.

Nicaragua is an extremely dangerous country, each year there are about three dozen murders per 100,000 of its inhabitants.

Managua became the capital of Nicaragua in 1858 only in order to end the struggle for the primacy between Lyon and Granada, the two largest cities of the country.

National Nicaraguan drink “test” is made from grain and cocoa.

Local housewives prepare unusual variants of traditional salads – for example, vinaigrette with rice and seafood.

The most common side dish to any dish is fried bananas. Food is not served in plates, but on tortillas.

The most popular sport in Nicaragua is baseball.

In Nicaragua there are pyramids, and, according to archaeologists, they are older than similar structures in Mexico and Peru.

In Nicaragua, instead of numbers in addresses often use the names of attractions located near the right place.

The capital museum of Guellas de Akahualinka has a unique collection of traces of primitive people and animals imprinted in volcanic ash. A similar exposition is only in the Italian city of Pompeii.