Geographic zone
Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. It is situated between Honduras in the North, and Costa Rica in the South. It is bordered on the West by the Pacific Ocean, and on the East by the Caribbean Sea. The surface area is 129494 km2, and the population is a little over 5 million.
Topographically, Nicaragua is divided into three large regions:
- The Pacific Low Plateaux, or West Region, which are characterised
by a relatively flat relief that is interrupted by a chain of volcanic
mountains that lie parallel to the Pacific coast. To the East of the
volcanoes, which are still active, is situated a Rift valley within
which lie the two greatest lakes in Nicaragua and Central America as
a whole: Lake Managua (56 km long and 24 km wide) and Lake Nicaragua
(160 km long and 75 km wide).
- The Caribbean Low Plateaux, or East Region, which covers half
of the national territory, and merges with the tropical rain forests
and the pine savannah that are intersected by lots of rivers emptying
into the Caribbean Sea.
- In the middle of the Caribbean and Pacific regions is located the
Central High Plateaux, which are particularly developed in the
North of the country.
In close
relations with its physical features, Nicaragua possesses two main climates:
a humid tropical climate that is humid and dry in the Low Plateaux of
the Pacific and Caribbean, and a temperate climate, which is calm and
very cold, in the zone of the Central High Plateaux.
Nicaraguan soils are among the most fertile soils in Central America. The fertility of Nicaraguan soils is guaranteed by their volcanic characteristics, and the availability of water that is assured by the huge beneath-the-earth hydrologic reservoirs.