Capital: Managua

Other important cities: León, Masaya, Granada, Rivas, Matagalpa, Estelí, Bluefields, San Carlos y Corinto.

Population: 5,500.00 inhabitants.

Area: Nicaragua is the biggest country in Central America with an area of 120.254 Km², being its more than 40 volcanoes and 9.240 km² of lakes its highlights.

Geography: Its boundary to the North is Honduras, South with Costa Rica, to the East with the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and to the West with the Pacific.

Political System: Presidential Democratic Republic.

Currency: Córdoba

Language: The official language is Spanish. In the Atlantic Coast they also speak Creole, Miskito, Sumo and other indigenous dialects.

Religion: 85% of the population is Roman Catholic.

Weather: Tropical weather and the year divides into two seasons: dry and rainy season.

Discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus, the territory of Nicaragua was originally inhabited by chibchas, maribios, chorotegas, caribes and nicaraos.

In 1524, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba started colonizing and founded the cities of Granada and Leon.

In 1821, Nicaragua won its independence from Spain and after three years forming part of the Mexican Empire, it formed part of the Confederate of Central American Republics. In 1883 it became totally independent.

In 1854 civil war broke between the Conservatives and Democrats, moment that was taken advantage of by the North American filibuster named William Walker who took power of the country. Two years later he was expelled from Nicaragua with the help of the other Central American countries.

In 1926, another civil war broke between the Liberals and Conservatives; it ended with the North American army occupying Nicaragua until 1933, when they were expelled by the General Augusto César Sandino, leader of the Anti American Resistant Guerilla.

Between 1937, the General Anastasia Somoza betrayed the government of the time and started a dictatorship that was continued by his sons and that lasted until the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution on July 19 of 1979.

The revolutionary authorities of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional party, guided by Daniel Ortega started a Popular Republic, implementing social changes and confiscation of properties of the towering social class of the country.

With financial support from the United States government of Ronald Reagan, the old Somoza army was armed and started the Counter Revolution fighting against the Sandinista government leaving the country in a serious economic and social crisis.

Tired from so much war, in 1990 the Sandinista government called for general elections that gave the victory to the ultra right coalition, and Violeta Chamorro took over the presidency. Arnoldo Alemán (Liberal) followed who was president between 1997 and 2000, and then by Enrique Bolaños (Liberal) the current president of Nicaragua.

Nicaragua is after Haiti, the second poorest country of Latin America due mostly to wars and natural disasters that have punished the country in the last decades, such as the earthquake that destroyed Managua in 1972 or Hurricane Mitch in 1998 that destroyed a big part of the country. The external debt and corruption are two factors that make the situation worse.

The main economic activity of the country is agriculture being rice, beans, cotton, banana the main ones, and with less strength but increasing is the cattle raising, fishing and mining. One of the main problems of Nicaragua is the elevated unemployed rate.

The great absence of jobs forces great part of the population to extreme poverty, begging, criminality….but there is a great deal of people in Nicaragua that run away from these situations dedicating themselves to the noble task of crafts making, people with little resources, but with great talent, making authentic pieces of arts, living, and feeding their numerous families from the sells of these.

From ARTESANICA we want to give our visitors, the chance to know Nicaragua through their crafts, and at the same time we help the producers to show and export their work, contributing this way to their development.

We offer crafts from different parts of Nicaragua such as: Masaya, Catarina, Niquihinomo, San Juan de Oriente, Granada, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Solentiname… where wood products, pine needle baskets, rugs, hammocks, sandals, guayaberas, ceramics and Pre- Columbian ceramics are made. (Pre-Columbian art is the one that reproduces the art of the cultures previous to the arrival of Columbus to America.)

Let yourself be seduced by the art of Nicaragua…