Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Northern Highlands Highlights
Pick coffee beans beneath the towering cloud forest of
Reserva Natural Cerro Datanlí-El Di-
ablo (
Click here
)
Scramble, swim and float through the magnificent
Cañon de Somoto (
Click here
)
Hike through the
Área Protegida Miraflor
(
Click here
) to secluded swimming holes
Visit the cigar factories of
Estelí (
Click here
)
Scramble up Cerro la Cruz in
Jinotega
(
Click here
) for breathtaking mountain views
Get civilized and overcaffeinated in
Matagalpa (
Click here
)
Rappel down spectacular waterfalls shrouded in old-growth forest in
Reserva Natural Ma-
cizos de Peñas Blancas (
Click here
)
Cruise the high-altitude waters of
Lago de Apanás
(
Click here
) with local fishermen
Explore the cavernous abandoned gold mines around
San Ramón (
Click here
)
History
Originally home to Náhuatl refugees from the Aztec empire, the northern highlands were
off the radar until gold was discovered here in 1850, attracting an influx of Spanish,
mes-
tizos
(persons of mixed ancestry; usually Spanish and indigenous people) and the first wave
of German immigrants to Matagalpa. The Europeans married local, planted the region's
first coffee bushes, and then sold their berries in Berlin.
When the revolution bloomed in 1977, many of the region's impoverished farmers be-
came armed Sandinistas. Some of the heaviest fighting took place in the mountains in and
around Jinotega. When the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National
Liberation Front; FSLN) seized power, they made the area a priority, nationalizing and re-
distributing much of the highlands' arable land into community farming cooperatives.
Some have since been divided up among the cooperative members, but the spirit of collect-
ive farming remains strong throughout the region.
