Matagalpa Department

The department of Matagalpa is located 130 km from the capital and has a fairly rugged topography. It is located in the central highlands of Nicaragua, next to Jinotega.

Matagalpa is located in an irregular area surrounded by mountains, with an elevation of 700 meters above sea level with a tropical climate existing in the Pacific plains. Its constant rains allow for very green ecological vegetation.

It is one of the largest and most populated departments in Nicaragua. The Central Park and the Darío Park, together with the northern cuisine, the sarandajo, the polkas and mazurkas are part of the tourist attractions of the “coffee-growing” Pearl of the North.

To learn about the origin and development of coffee cultivation, it is necessary to visit the Coffee Museum, which offers information about the production of the red bean, includes photos of agricultural tools, other objects, as well as pre-Columbian ceramics and old photos of Matagalpa. In the city you can visit the museum of the founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, Carlos Fonseca, of Matagalpa origin.

Places of interest

Black Forest Mountain Hotel

Just 13 km from Matagalpa, with an altitude of 1,300 meters is the Selva Negra Mountain Hotel, where you can stay, eat, visit the coffee farm, the stable and walk through the virgin forest, it is a place where you can have the opportunity to observe its variety of fauna and flora, as well as contemplate the fresh splendor of nature, which will transport you to learn more about the nature of the department of Matagalpa. Chagüitillo Valley - Architectural Beauty It is a picturesque and attractive valley, within the jurisdiction of the municipality of Sébaco, here we can visit two sites of great archaeological value such as: Pre-Columbian Sanctuary Museum of Chagüitillo, also called Ceremonial Altar of Spirituality located in the rocks of an ancient ravine, where we find a calendar engraved by the aborigines of the area, there is also the Valley of the Deer built by numbers pictography petroglyphs.

Darius City

Birthplace of Ruben Dario

Rubén Darío, our distinguished poet, was born in Metapa, a provincial town of friendly and country-loving people. Today it is named Ciudad Darío in honor of the poet of Castilian literature. You can visit Rubén Darío's birthplace, now converted into a Dariano museum. It is located in the center of the town and legally belonged to Rubén Darío's maternal aunt. The poet's birth in this place was merely a coincidence, since at the time his mother was traveling to another destination. Declared a national museum in 1943. In the small amphitheater, the Dariana Week is held annually, celebrating the birth of the great poet with cultural events, poetry readings, dance, music and the election of the Dariana muse.

Sebaco

Sébaco Valley

It is the most important producer of vegetables and grains for national and international export. It is located in the Sébaco Valley, 30 kilometers west of Matagalpa. On the Pan-American Highway, the street market offers visitors carrots, onions, yucca, beets, cabbage, etc. Next to Sébaco is Chagüitillo, which has the interesting Pre-Columbian Museum.

Ecotourism

Apante Hill

Apante Hill, a mountainous massif to the southwest of the city, declared a protected area, preserves tropical rainforests at its summit, some of which are virgin, and an association of pines, oaks, as well as a variety of fauna, at a height of 1,442 meters above sea level.
Apante is a name that means “land of two waters”. In this area we find biological riches of flora and fauna such as very particular plant species, the following trees stand out: Sweetgum (styrciflua), a typical emblematic tree of this region; Walnut, oaks, and ferns, gigantic trees known as monkey tails and medicinal plants such as Culculmeca, balsam, peru, bramble, pyrilla and suelda with suelda, refuge for species such as the agouti and the spider monkey.

In order for tourists to enjoy and learn on this trip to the mountains of Nicaragua, a route is described that we Segovians take every time we return from a trip from Managua to the north of the country. Among them we find:

El Arenal Hill

Cerro El Arenal Nature Reserve

It is a protected area located 10 km north of Matagalpa, with a climate ranging from 20 to 14 degrees, offering a variety of typical flora and fauna, a lyrical haven of coffee plantations made up of rows of coffee trees in the shade, where the lush vegetation typical of the cloud forest can be complemented by orchids, begonias, heliconias, aroids, bromeliads, mosses and tree ferns. Everything is a cool climate of evergreen forests that grow at the foot of the mountains.

El Picacho Hill

Located within the El Arenal nature reserve, here we find birds such as the green toucan, the magpie saya quinqué, the woodpecker, the goldfinch, the quetzal and varieties of animals such as ocelots, puma, American lion, guardinajas, butterflies, as well as the black harrier, national bird of the department, being within the reserve one of the places with endemic species in flora and fauna to Santa Maria de Ostuma located on the edge of the panoramic highway to Jinotega, offers a microclimate with a charming wooded vegetation, as seen in the upper part of the Waswali valley below, and the Palcila valley birthplace of the great painter Loncio Sáenz, mysterious because its inhabitants have characteristic eyes descendants of Spaniards or Europeans.

Yukul Genetic Reserve

Yucul Genetic Reserve

Located 18 km from San Ramón on the El Jobo Matiguas highway. Spatulasp Tecunumani pine forests, a variety that is only found in three places in the country. Tests have shown that the seeds of this variety of pine from this region are the best on the continent.

Cerro Musun

Musum Hill

The Musún Hill massif is an ancient and eroded volcanic caldera from the Tertiary period and is the last link in the Dariense mountain range. It has an area of 4,778 m and its height ranges from 300 to 1,460 m above sea level at its highest point. The main resource of the Musún Hill is water, which supplies the city of Río Blanco and its communities. In this reserve you can see impressive waterfalls with natural spaces to walk around. The misty jungle covers the highest parts of the hill and is home to 53 varieties of orchids and ferns. Among the predominant fauna we can see 3 species of monkeys, anteaters, toucans, red and green macaws, chocoyo and owls, howler monkeys, sloths and a great variety of bromeliads, orchids and aralias.