The Parks

There are over 2 million hectares of protected areas in
Nicaragua. The network of 76 parks, reserves, and refuges
classified as protected is known as the "Sistema Nacional
de Areas Protegidas (SINAP)." To date, enforcing the
protected status of these national resources has been
hampered by a general lack of resources. Many of these
protected areas are also privately owned, thus remain
unmanaged, unguarded and completely undeveloped for
tourism. Listed below are a few of the more well known
areas.

National Parks
Volcan Masaya (crater pictured above)
Nicaragua's best organized and most easily accessed park,
with a paved road leading to the crater, a musuem,
interpretive center and paid guides take you through the
more than 20km of nature trails. Declaring the 5,100
hectares that surround Volcan Masaya a national park
was one of the last things President Somoza did before
the revolution took him from power in 1979. The parks
extensive lava fields are home to coyotes, garrobo lizards,
white-tailed deer and cusucos. There is also a rare variety
of sulfur tolerant parakeets that inhabit the inside of the
craters walls.

Zapatera Archipelago
Made up of the Zapatera Volcano and the eight islets that
surround it, the park is located in Lake Cocibolca
(Nicaragua) between the Isla de Ometepe and the city
of Granada, 34 kilometers to the north. Although owned
by private landholders, the islands were given national
park status in the 1980s in recognition of their immerse
natural, cultural and historical value. The government
subsequently took control over much of the land. The
islands still contain virgin forests, lovely shorelines, and are
perhapsmost famous for the pre-Columbian statuary found
there. Many of the statues are observable today in the
Convento San Francisco in Granada.

Biological Reserves
Rio Indio Maiz
Composed of nearly 264,000 hectares of jungle between
the Indio and Maiz Rivers. "La Gran Reserva," as it is
known, is adjacent to the Punta Gorda Nature Reserve to
the north, and the Rio San Juan Wildlife Reserve to the
south. Togther these reserves combine into an immense
chunk of protected lands in southeast Nicaragua. The
reserve is one of the few areas remaining in the Americas
where you can experience virgin tropical humid forest as
it was 200 years ago. To date, the extent of the wildlife
is undermined, and probably one of the last refuges in
Nicaragua for ocelots and other bug cats.

Cayos Miskitos
Located in a 40 km radius off Isla Grande in the Atlantic
Ocean off Puerto Cabezas and nearly impossible to reach.
The Cayos Mistikos are an important ecological treasure
whose impenetrable lagoons, reefs, mangroves and
swamps are home to marine turtles, manatees, dolphins,
and several endangered species.

Wildlife Reserves
Rio Escalante/ Chacocente
The 4,800 hectares of dry tropical forest along the edge
of the Pacific Ocean was declared a reserve primarily
because of its importance as a nesting grounds for the
endangered tora and paslama turtles. Each year
thousands crawl up the beach to lay their eggs in the
sand. The reserve is also home to exotic orchids like the
flor de nino and the huele moche that fill the nocturnal air
with a sweet, romantic fragrance. Look for howler and
white faced monkey as well as reptiles, pelicans and deer
where the forest meets the ocean.

La Flor
This southern Pacific beach is one of the most beautiful
beaches in Nicaragua. The entire reserve is 800 hectares
where each year between July and January, thousands
of paslama beach themselves to nest and lay eggs. It's
one of just a handful of beaches in the world that you
can witness such a spectacle.

Natural Reserves
Volcan Cosiguina
In the farthest northwest corner of Nicaragua, over
12,000 hectares of the Cosiguina peninsula have
been declared a natural reserve. After a massive
eruption in 1835, the tropical dry forests of the region
have been slowly regenerating themselves. Climbing
to the volcano's crater you may see spider monkeys,
coyotes, black iguanas, deer and coatis, but much more
obvious are the hundreds of species of birds. From the
crater there is a phenomenal view of the crater lake,
Gulf of Fonseca and beyond.

Volcan Mombacho
A scant 41 kilometers from the lowland heat of Managua
is an otherworldly island of cloud forest atop an ancient
and dormant volcano. Volcan Mombacho's lower slopes
are dedicated to coffee and cattle farming, however it's
upper third is a spectacular, misty wildlife and cloud forest
reserve. Mombacho is home to several endemic species
of butterflies and the endemic Mombacho salamander.

Biosphere Reserves
Bosawas
The largest continuous expanse of virgin cloud forest
in Central America is found in Central America. Located
350 kilometers north of Managua, the 730,000 hectares
of forest, mountains and rivers remains unexplored,
unmapped, and untamed. Besides unequaled stretches
of cloud forest, there is tropical humid forest, rainforest
and a wealth of seperate ecosystems that vary greatly
in altitude. Bosawas is a Central American treasure, an
immense genetic reserve of species that have vanished
elsewhere in Mesoamerica, including Jaguars, rare small
mammals, 12 kinds of poisonous snakes, and many bird
species.