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Chontales

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Agricultural department offering a wide variety of nature and cultural activities.

Population: approx. 182,000 people
Location: just south of the center of Nicaragua, east of Lake Nicaragua
Attractions: archeology, cattle raising, Lake Nicaragua, waterfalls, natural areas, mountains

The cattle district of Chontales is located in the centre of the Nicaraguan territory. It is a vast landscape of plains and plateaus interrupted by steep elevations like the Amerrisque Mountains or the hills of the Chontaleña cordilleras.

Although this district almost unknown and rarely visited by tourists, Chontales offers numerous natural, archaeological, historical and natural territory points of interest and the agriculture all over its extension. The touristy offers and services are about to develop and the infrastructure of hotels and restaurants is already capable to receive visitors.

Chontales has an enormous amount of archaeological places and ornamental or utilitarian pieces, which proof that the area was extensively populated by indigenous tribes. During the colonial time, the region constituted the border of the Spanish reign and the Misquito reign, the Zambos and other indigenous tribes from the current Nicaraguan Caribbean (almost all of them allied by England), who frequently attacked and plundered the population of Chontales. Many cities of this district changed several times their location due to the enemy incursions or natural problems. Since that time it has been a productive cattle feud.

The culture of Chontales is strongly connected to cattle activities. Interesting options for visitors are the bull celebrations, which are hold in every village during the Saint Celebrations of each district.

Juigalpa: landscapes, nature and attractive cities

The capital of Chontales is the small dynamic city of Juigalpa, located at the shore of the road to El Rama. As the centre of this productive region, this city is an important place for commercial exchange. Even though it is still not an important touristy place, Juigalpa offers various options of hostels of different categories, good restaurants and snack bars, bars, discotheques and a nascent offer of tourist guides.

There is a lot of movement in the centre of this city, which is crowned by a central park with toys for children, a small grocery store and various monuments. In front of the park there is the cathedral of Juigalpa with an extraordinary architectural design. From here, walking a few blocks on the main avenue, one gets to the view point Palo Solo, from where one has a spectacular view over the Amerrisque Mountains and its rocks and tops.

Juigalpa offers two main attractions in its city centre. The first is the Archaeological Museum Gregorio Aguilar, which has a very important collection of ceramics, pre-Columbian utensils and statuaries, out of which there are two enormous idols of more than four meters height (probably the biggest of Central America). Furthermore, the museum exhibits antique colonial and postcolonial artifacts and a small exhibition of stuffed animals with astonishing deformations.

The second attraction of the city is the Zoological Thomas Belt, located at the south part of the city. It is a small but very diverse zoo. It exhibits more than 250 species and five percent of these species are exotic. Here, one finds interesting species from the local fauna such as a jaguar, a puma, an alligator, a turkey and royal buzzards. From foreign faunas there are African lions, a chimpanzee and a royal turkey, and many more.

Outside the city there are two more points of interest. On of them is El Salto, an artificial waterfall accessible from the road to El Rama, located approximately three kilometres from the city (in direction to Boaco); the place is frequented by the people from Juigalpa, especially in Holy Week. The second point of interest are the Amerrisque Mountains, which can be climbed until the tops, where one can camp and enjoy the views and nature, although one need a local guide to realize this tour.

There are two further attractions at the coast of the lake, which are presented as follows:

Puerto Díaz and Punta Mayales, at the shore of the lake

The coasts of the district of Juigalpa at the Lake of Nicaragua offer two further points of interest: Puerto Díaz and Punta Mayales. From the city one gets there on a road which connects cattle farms and grazing lands, in the North West flanked by the rocky top of the Hato Grande Mountain.

Puerto Díaz is a little fisher village at the lake coast, in front of this village there are four islands: la Grande, la Pelona, la Del Muerto y la Redonda (the last one is more north). It is a very tranquil village, even though in former times there was a big port, which was replaced by paved roads, today there is not much traffic at the port. The islands, populated by rural families who live on fishing and farming, are still not explored by tourism.

Going south from Puerto Díaz there is a broad peninsula called Punta Mayales, where there is the outlet to the lake of the river Mayales. This area is occupied by a huge cattle farm and offers a variety of touristy activities, which are including experiencing the cattle activities, visiting the forests and the wild conserved fauna, travel on the river Mayales, its outlet and the lake coast.

To get to both destinations from the city of Juigalpa, one takes the road to Puerto Díaz, which starts at the Esso gas station, located at the shore of the road to El Rama. The road starts with a small asphalted stretch, but later the pavement turns into dirt, which is accessible for low cars only in summer time. After 14 kilometers one gets to a junction. The way to the right leads to Puerto Díaz (11 kilometers from there), and the one to the left leads to Punta Mayales (nearly 15 kilometers). At the shore if this road, close to Hacienda Santa Marta, there are rocks with indigenous petroglyphs to see.

Comalapa and Cuapa: rural tranquility and religious fervor

At the extreme northwest of the district there are the two small rural parishes of Comalapa and Cuapa. Although none of them offers many promoted attractions nor touristy infrastructures, it could be interesting to explore the pasture region, hills and rocky monoliths, to watch the peaceful rural every day life of the main villages.

Comalapa is the first parish of Chontales where one passes through coming from Managua or Boaco, on the road to El Rama. From this road, approximately at kilometer 117½ starts a dirt road, which takes one after 15 kilometers to the village of Comalapa. This is a small and gentle village with a central park surrounded by antique colonial houses and a small church which was constructed two centuries ago.

At the north west of this village there are the Oluma Mountains, which mark the beginning of the Amerrisque Mountain. In the mountains there is the monolith La Palma. According to locals there is a cave with a huge petroglyph of an eagle. These places are generally not well known by the population.

Going east from Comalapa, accessible from this village or from the road to El Rama through another dirt road, there is the small village Cuapa, located at a height which provides a pleasant climate. Cuapa became famous in the country for its religious pilgrimages to a sanctuary of the Virgin Maria. The fervent story of a farmer who assures that he has seen the virgin in 1980 and other prior events converted this area in a destination for religious tourists.

A second point of interest is the famous Rock of Cuapa, a huge monolith of 150 meters height and located at the road to Juigalpa. There are various local legends about this rocky elevation; they say that it is populated by ghosts.

Acoyapa and El Nancital: archaeology, nature and landscape

The city of Acoyapa, maybe the second important city in Chontales, is located in a colonial area as one can see in the architecture of some centric houses. Even though this area is not very touristy, it offers interesting historical, natural territory attractions.

The parish is located at the south end of Chontales and borders with the Río San Juan. Besides its well developed cattle culture, there are also thermal water springs and beautiful waterfalls, which do not receive many visitors due to the hard access. As other areas too, this place was an important indigenous centre and in the city there are some private collections of archaeological pieces. There is also a collection which is frequently exhibited in a small store at the central park.

In this municipality of big cattle development, one of the most beautiful attractions is the almost unknown archipelago of El Nancital, formed by 24 small islands, similar to those of Granada, but without touristy activities or infrastructure. The bigger islands are populated by fishermen or farmers, but the lack of activities guaranteed the preservation of the natural environment. It is possible to visit these islands using the service of the local fishermen.

Going south from the archipelago, along the coast, there is the dock La Horqueta, from where one can leave to the islands. Here, in the exterior islands, one has an impressive view to the tops of the volcanoes of Ometepe. The sunsets here are a spectacular beauty.

Driving from Juigalpa on the road to El Rama one gets to Acoyapa. From there, after 27½ kilometers (25 minutes) one gets to a well indicated junction where one turns to the right. After another 4½ kilometers over a paved road in bad conditions one gets to Acoyapa. Until here the road is paved, the road continues without pavement to Río San Juan.

To El Nancital one gets over a dirt road, it is recommendable to drive a high vehicle with four wheel drive, especially in rainy season. From Acoyapa, one continues on the same road to Río San Juan 11½ kilometers until one sees a side road to the right. One has to pay attention because there are no signs; one indication could be the army booth in front of the beginning of the side street, which leads after 23 kilometers to La Horqueta.

Santo Tomás and San Pedro de Lóvago: trade, production and hidden attractions

Southeast from Juigalpa there are two parishes of a strong cattle production, neighbors and similar in traditions, but different in the dynamic of every day life: Santo Tomás and San Pedro de Lóvago.

The small city of Santo Tomás, located at the road to El Rama, is the most active one after Juigalpa. Due to its location, it is an important trade center and a station for those who travel to the south Caribbean region. There are various comfortable hotels, restaurants and bars. Furthermore there are interesting milk producers, which can be visited with a corresponding permit.

In the Northwest of Santo Tomás there is the neighbor San Pedro de Lóvago, a small and very tranquil village surrounded by productive cattle farms. The village still does not offer accommodations but in the main area there are various interesting points of interest, still not very frequented and almost unknown.

Going north from this village over the dirt road to Bulum, which passes by farms, grazing lands and mountains, there are various attractions. One of them is the Painted Rock, a place where there are some basalt rocks with indigenous petroglyphs. More north, in the environs of farm Zanzíbar, there are three points of interest: a small but wide waterfall, located at the shore of the road; waterfall Las Lajitas, of four meters height, which falls into a wide water, visited by locals in Holy Week; and last but not least the caves, a very interesting and mysterious net of caves, which are connected under a mountain. The caves have the height of a man, even though in some parts, like in the entrance the height hardly gets to one meter.

One gets to Santo Tomás over the road to El Rama (located at 40 kilometers from Juigalpa). To get to San Pedro de Lóvago one passes Santo Tomás and continues the road contiguous from the cemetery. This is a dirt road in good conditions, which one rides for 11 kilometers. In this part there are two intersections: the first one after eight kilometers from Santo Tomás, and there one turns right (the road to the left leads to the parish of La Libertad); the second shows up after another two kilometers, where one turns to the left (San Pedro de Lóvago is located at one kilometer from there).

Villa Sandino and El Coral: rural activity and indigenous vestiges

In the extreme east of Chontales there are the parishes of Villa Sandino and El Coral, also of big cattle and milk production. Even though this area is not much explored by tourism, there are interesting archaeological places, not much investigated but very interesting.

Villa Sandino, earlier called Villa Somoza, is the last parish in Chontales at the road to El Rama before one gets to the autonomous region at the south Atlantic. The village with the same name is very calmed but offers good possibilities to stay and eat. At eight kilometers from this place there are the Painted Rocks (at a private property), in the community of La Angostura, where there are many petroglyphs with different designs.

In the same parish, before one gets to the district of La Gateada, there is another farm with pre-Columbian pyramids, with hard access.

Going East one gets to El Coral, a small village in a completely rural district with nearly no touristy infrastructure apart from the cattle activities and without a big attraction discovered so far.

La Libertad and Santo Domingo: mining villages

The parishes of La Libertad and Santo Domingo form part of the mining region of Chontales. The main villages of the same name were founded because of the gold found in the area in the middle of the XIX century. Even though first there was a strong production, nowadays it is minimal. One attraction of these places is the observation of the güiriseros, locals who work in the artisan gold extraction in the currents of the rivers in this area.

La Libertad sis located north from San Pedro de Lóvago. It is a small village surrounded by mountains where a foreign company and a local cooperative extract the gold. These deposits can be visited (especially the one of the cooperative), even though one needs a permit. In the house of culture of the village there are exhibited archaeological pieces found in this area. One curious fact is that in La Libertad there were born two personalities of the national politics presently well known: Daniel Ortega Saavedra (current president) and the cardinal Miguel Obando and Bravo.

In the north there is the village of Santo Domingo, where there are also deposits, which are still exploited by cooperatives. Maybe the main attraction of the parish is the monolith Piedra Blanca, which has 330 meters of height and which can be climbed. There are also indigenous vestiges and sculptures strewed by the region.

To get to both villages, one can take the dirt roads from Juigalpa or San Pedro de Lóvago to La Libertad. Going north from La Libertad there is another road leading to Santo Domingo. The shape of these roads, especially in rainy season, requires a four wheel drive vehicle.

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