Visit Lake Nicaragua

When Spanish colonists first saw Lake Nicaragua, it was so vast, they thought it was a sea. In reality, it is Central America's largest lake at 177 kilometers long with an average width of 57 kilometers. It is home to more than 365 small islets and larger islands, like Ometepe, with two volcanos, in the lake's center. Another interesting fact about Lake Nicaragua is that it is the only freshwater lake to have ocean animals, including sharks. Therefore, visiting Lake Nicaragua is one of the best things to do in Nicaragua. It is believed the lake was once a sea bay, but then a volcano erupted, trapping marine life and turning it into an inland lake. Over the millennia, marine life has adapted to living in freshwater.

Lake Nicaragua, also called Lake Cocibolca, is nearly the same size as South America’s Lake Titicaca, which is why the Spanish nicknamed it the ‘Mar Dulce,’ or Sweet Sea. There are plans to make the lake the centerpiece of a canal project that would rival the one in Panama, likely causing serious environmental degradation, though it might never become a reality. For now, the lake is an ecotourism hotspot, with the island of Ometepe – made of two volcanoes and the narrow strip of land between them – as the focal point. Farther afield is the Solentiname archipelago, an artist colony, and the Rio Coco, which runs parallel to the Costa Rican border and gives access to the Caribbean coast.