Now I asked you guys, the Nicaraguan Geograpeeps:
If Central America was a family, what member would Nicaragua be?
And more or less, it kind of goes like this:
Costa Rica: Oh jolly good show, Panama old chap.
Panama: Hmm. Yes indeed. It is of utmost excellence.
Guatemala & Honduras: AY YAY YEAH WOOOOOO!!!
El Salvador: All these fakes motherf*ckers sh*ts...
Nicaragua: ********
A little exaggerated but ehh, come on it's kind of true.
Everybody, I'm your host Barbs, and we are back in Central America.
Now in the words of Nicaraguan Geograpeep Luis,
"I love my country, but I kind of have to admit.
It's kind of like the "New Jersey of Central America".
Like everyone knows that a Nicaraguan can cuss you out...
But once you befriend them, you are part of a tight loving family...
a family that cusses each other out."
Hey! Honest uptight confrontation beats false delusional sense of complacency any day.
We're getting ahead of ourselves though.
Let's talk about the technical stuff first.
Here's the mappy, segment... thing, we do it in every episode.
You know what I'm talking about.
[♪ Political Geography ♪]
Nicaragua, named after the Nicarao tribe and
Agua, the Spanish word for water referring to the two major lakes found within this country.
First of all, the country is located in Central America, a bicoastal nation with coasts on both the Pacific and Caribbean Sea.
They are located just below Honduras and above Costa Rica
and with Costa Rica,
they really did not want them to get even the slightest touch of Lake Nicaragua,
at its narrowest point,the corridor is less than 2 miles wide from the border.
And not only that but it gets even weirder with Costa Rica along the border with the Caribbean.
They take some strange twists, cut through a peninsula, claimed the entire Portillos Lagoon completely enclaved by Costa Rica.
Anyway, the country is divided into 15 departments, 2 autonomous regions
with the capital and largest city Managua, located right under Lake Managua or Xolotlan
and it contains the country's largest airport, Managua's Augusto Cesar Sandino International.
The second and third largest cities are León and Masaya.
The majority of the country at about 89% lives along the southwestern portion of the country.
Here, most major roads and avenues of transport lie.
Otherwise, only one main highway, number 5 connects to the Eastern Caribbean coast and it ends in Puerto Cabezas.
And in the southwest, the Port of Corinto is the largest seaport that handles most shipments.
Most of Nicaragua's west side has an uninterrupted coast, whereas the east side has all the main offshore islands.
The largest ones being the Cayos Miskitos Biological Rreserve and the Corn Islands.
See these guys that are nicely close to Nicaragua?
Nope, they belong to Colombia for some reason.
Otherwise, the country has a few territorial disputes:
You have the Bajo Nuevo and Seranilla Banks, Jamaica and the US.
And back to the border with Costa Rica,
This entire island called Isla Calero is disputed and it has a crazy story behind it.
Look it up.
Interestingly enough though, like Costa Rica, Nicaragua address system is ridiculously confusing.
They don't have street names or postal codes.
So in order to find a place or send mail,
they go by direction and distance from landmarks.
And half of the time the landmarks don't even exist anymore
so they have to write "where the landmark used to be". It's like:
Hey, I want to write you a letter. What's your address?
Oh, it's simple
you know just write down the west barrio of the city of Managua the third floor unit in the light blue apartment three and a
half blocks down from the statue of the soldier with the hat by the lake
but not the soldier with the hat and the gun there's a lemon tree across from us with an old lady that sells lemonade with
the lemons that she stole from the lemon tree
but not the old lady selling lemonade and condoms like ten varas away from her just the left. What's a vara?
Oh, it's ~84 centimeters. Roughly. Yeah, it's a unit of measurement. We use here in Nicaragua as well
Okay, maybe not that extreme
But yeah, it might be hard for non locals to know exactly where things are when they arrive. Let's see
What else do we have? The country used to have a rail network, but it was kind of suspended in 2001
Ah, there was a point in time when multiple countries like the USA and China were like hey
Let's try to do the same thing Panem
I did and build the second canal from coast to coast but then Nicaragua was like no, it's gonna destroy too much
rainforests and everyone hates that idea
Anyway, if you decide to visit some places of interest might include the National Museum
The lay owned ruins and lyon cathedral the beautiful historic city of granada. The messiah crafts market the cliff carvings of LT
Say the revolution museum so many cigar factories that offer tours soffit era island monoliths
apoyo lagoon matagalpa
chocolate factory and tour this cool chocolate spa where you can get a chocolate massage a casita volcano memorial the San Jacinto mud pools
still communities a chaos mosquitoes beautiful city of Esteli and its waterfalls and one of the top attractions you can actually
sandboard down cerro negro the youngest volcano in Central America and that
The thing if there's one iconic symbol that summarizes the power of Nicaragua it would be the volcano and there's quite a few of them
That we can talk about in this next section
Central America is known for many things the vibrant traditions the confusing politics
And of course the landscape the country may have some tent stuff going on and we won't gloss over it
But for now, let's just kind of enjoy the natural view
first of all
The country is located on the eastern part of the Ring of Fire right at the convergence of the North American plate and the Cocos
Plate were the middle American trench off the coast lies
This is essentially what gives Nicaragua its
volcanic belt about 19 of which are active mostly dotting the coast on the southwest side the largest one being San
Cristobal just a skip away you find the largest lakes Lake Managua or Lake Chelan and a big one Lake Nicaragua or
Casablanca it is the largest lake not only in Nicaragua
but all of Central America volcanoes dot each one of these lakes you have Appa Yakka and Momo Tom
Beaufort Managua and the most famous landmark almost a pea island made of two volcanoes
Concepción and maderas in the middle of Lake Nicaragua all of which are active to some degree
The weird thing is even though the lake is less than 10 miles from the coast
It actually drains into the Caribbean via the San Juan River that creates part of the border with Costa Rica
Nonetheless the Cocos River up north on the border with Honduras is the longest river of the country
However, the Rio Grande de matagalpa is the longest completely within the country
The country is divided into three physical regions the Pacific lowland where the volcanic cool stuff is in the north central highlands where the tallest
Peak Mobile tone lies and the Caribbean lowlands which are made up of primarily dense rainforest on the Caribbean coast
You have swampy wetlands that receive the most rainfall out of anywhere else in the country at over 250 inches
There's so much more we could talk about like how the masaya volcano has a constant bubbling lava pit
So motel Canyon is cool Lake Managua has a bit of a pollution problem
But we'll save some of that for fan Friday in the meantime
This is the part where I take a triple shot of espresso and Noah fills in
The things you see on youtube and nicaragua's land is lush and rich
But the sad reality is these resources don't exactly quite reflect the fragile state of their economic output
They ranked as the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti in terms of nominal GDP and GDP per capita around
40% of people live off less than a dollar a day and about 15% of GDP is
Subsisted by remittance money and sent from family member abroad they are currently members of the IMF's heavily indebted poor countries
Initiative that assists an international relief this is due to a number of factors
We will discuss later but essentially nicaragua's economy is kind of like this. Oh, we're doing great. We're doing great. Okay
Well, that wasn't too bad. Hey, we're doing great again
Okay, well stuff like that happens all the time. Nothing could possibly go wrong this time
Hey, by the way, uh, this is uh, Duncan from curly kid life follow him and Instagram. Say hi. Oh, yeah
They're also the nation with the lowest percentage of electricity generation in Central America
Many private home was a pen on oil for generators
Which also led to an energy crisis in?
2006 interestingly enough the energy they do produce in the private sector is pretty clean
The world Energy Council was recently ranked Nicaragua as the country with the highest
geothermal energy
potential as over ten percent of their energy has already generated through heat from the volcanoes with potential for more wildlife is abundant here of
Course you have hundreds of different mammals such as primates bats felines like the Jaguar hundreds of different birds
Including the national bird the turquoise brown motmot. Otherwise, it's time to end this segment
Like we always do food. Some dishes might include things like Matunga kco Indio Viejo
Rondon tanto con. Yoga. Naka Tom Oh Ajo. Supa de mon
Dango, you know leo drink and almost all you mentioned bigger owned and Gayo pinto classic dishes
alright so that does it for the land now, there's just one piece left missing to this puzzle the people
Thank you know follow him on instagram you got it
Now we've discussed some of the nicknames of other previous Central American states. Costa. Ricans are Tico's Salvadorans are guanacos
Guatemalans are chopped beans Hondurans our cutthroat Jose and the cog wins our penal arrows
Yeah, and Nicaraguans love being Nicaraguan. In fact, they have a saying so I pour open Alero Nicaraguan
Say por Gracia de dios, or I am totally penal arrow Nicaraguan by the grace of God
first of all
The country has about 6.2 million people today and due to diaspora about one out of every six
Nicaraguans in the world lives either in the USA or Costa Rica the country is primarily made up of mestizos at around 69 percent
whereas the white population
Mostly with Spanish heritage makes of about 17 percent the black community makes about 9 percent and the remainder are mostly made up of various
Indigenous Amerind groups they use the Cordoba as their currency
They use the American type a plug outlet and they drive on the right side of the road now
You've probably gathered from the graph that
Nicaragua is pretty diverse much of it is due to their history of colonization and various powers getting
Involved everything from Christopher Columbus to French pirates to this crazy American dude for one
Nicaragua has the largest community of people of African descent in Central America most of whom live on the East Caribbean coast
especially in the town of blue fields as
mentioned in the Honduras episode the majority were actually brought over by the British back when they had colonized what back then was called the
Mosquito Coast named after the Mosquito tribe that lived there and today the Garifuna community
Lives on today the majority of them actually speak English or English Creole as their first language and they have a similar dialect Jamaican
Otherwise, they're around 20 men indigenous communities found within Nicaragua
Most of whom are related to the larger Aztec and Maya peoples that historically inhabited the Mesoamerican subcontinent like the Rama
Mosquito and sumo tribes now, of course Spanish is the official language
however
Nicaraguans are known for having their own distinct way of talking and slang here are some of you guys the geography is explaining first of
All we do not pronounce the letter S at the end of words
for example, when we say number two in Spanish we say though instead of
Using
An example and growing up. We have a lot of slang word used Ronnie and Catina
mahi, Nightfire
so La Motta sauce maker own systems occurs a lot in all the things that they say one of their most famous ones is
Course and I guess everything that the matter is the phrase that can be heard as their battle cry for all the protests
Google, it look it up get informed about the unrest going on in you get out. Thank you
They're very passionate and despite being the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It's totally safe to travel and visit
They have the lowest homicide rate in Central America at only about 6 or 7 per 100,000 inhabitants lower than Panama and Costa Rica Nicaragua
Yeah, less than those two. And those are often seen as the good guys
The largest faith group like many other Latin countries is Roman Catholicism at about fifty eight percent
Whereas about a third are Protestant often during times of political crisis
The Catholic Church will act as mediators between parties to help alleviate tension
Religion has played a crucial role in the development of Nicaraguan culture. There's so much to discuss and here is random Hannah to explain
Did someone say Hanna?
Nicaraguans are known for having a colorful mixture of variables that make them who they are like the traditional mesta saw a
Costume that fuses Spanish and indigenous textures worn during celebrations
Nicaragua is loaded with full klore and legends. They're often called the Latin country with the most poets per capita
Some folklore stories are fun and happy others creepy and scary a lot of them contain ghosts women for some reason
Unique to Nicaragua is Elba win say it's honored on the UNESCO intangible heritage list
This performance tells legends and folklore done with masks and costumes are usually at the feast of san
Sebastian the mask also make great souvenirs
Then you have the levite area or policeman a celebration similar to Halloween
But done to honor the assumption of the Virgin Mary on the 7th of December the east coast of Nicaragua within the black community
Celebrates a maple festival every May with music and dancing the prima
Vista art style gained popularity in the 70s and today is still prevalent and finally
Nicaragua also sticks out as one of the few Latin countries that prefers to play baseball instead of soccer many
Nicaraguans have moved on to play for the MLB including national hero Dennis Martinez the first Nicaraguan to play in the majors
Thank You Hana now it's time for history in the quickest way I can summarize it native tribes
Christopher Columbus arrives this dude founded the first cities independence from Spain annexation to the first Mexican Empire overthrow of Mexican Empire now
It's part of the Federal Republic of Central America five years later. Yeah, that didn't work out
Nicaragua is finally its own thing small civil wars this American dude tried to take over the country. He gets executed British
Let go of the Mosquito Coast u.s
Occupies Nicaragua creation of Santino's army Americans leave Somoza dynasty santista revolution country leans more towards communist allies
Post-conflict period defeat of santista in the first democratic elections in history slow recovery of the economy
Santista party returns to power things cooled down economy starts to grow a bit
Protest against the president refugees flee and that's kind of where we are
Now some famous people either from Nicaragua or of Nicaraguan descent might include people like Augusto Cesar Santino Arlen Shui realtor. Barrio
Stay tomorrow Ruben Dario, Daisy Zamora, Eddie. Cool luis enrique
Granados Zuniga, Tony Melendez, Salvador and Katya now Bianca Jagger, Michele Richardson, Alexis. Argüello Roman chocolatito gonzález
And Claudia Paul. Alright, well that being done and said we have to move on to the final segment
Nicaragua's friends
Now when it comes to friends Nicaragua kind of has like a double sided nature they have their core group
But then they have their like whoa, what the really group for one?
There are one of the only a few countries that recognizes disputed autonomous nation states like South Ossetia of kasnia and Taiwan Taiwan
In fact even gave a controversial 100 million dollar loan as a lifeline support that was accepted by President Ortega amidst
Protests, although the USA has a lot and I mean like a lot of historical controversy with Nicaragua
They still remain both their largest important export partner
USA also has the largest community of Nicaraguans outside of Nicaragua mostly situated in Miami
There's even a little Managua district
then we get to the big Alba countries or
Alianza believe ariana para los pueblos de nuestra America or the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of our America aka Cuba
Venezuela and Bolivia
These are the countries that hold tight to the ideals of simon bolivar with bolivar ian socialist based governments and nicaragua fits
Right and you both provided grants and development funding in the 70s and 80s?
Venezuela provided them with oil. They even have a monument to Hugo Chavez and Managua which was later destroyed by protesters
but otherwise
Yeah tech group the other Central American countries generally get along with them five of them with Mexico share the same Independence Day on September
15th from the Spanish Empire so they all kind of party on the same day in 2006
They signed the Central America for free mobility agreement that allows free movement of peoples between El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua
without any restrictions out of the five though almost every Nicaraguan I've talked to has said either El Salvador or
Costa Rica are probably their closest friends
Salvadorans get the gritty rough tough lifestyle that comes with a touch of
Controversy and they share much culturally whereas Costa Rica is a softer gentler
Girlfriend that took in many refugees during war times, even though Salvador took in refugees, you know
It's a close bond when even El Salvador with its own problems takes in your refugees in conclusion in many ways
Nicaragua story is very much like its land. There's a touch of volcanic precaution mixed in with beautiful tradition
It goes up it goes down, but the people always know that in the end
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