RACCN

Located on a large plain with its municipalities Waspán, Rosita Prinzapolka, Bonanza, Siuna, Puerto Cabezas, Waslala and Mulukuku, it is characterized by the existence of mountains whose maximum heights are 30 meters above sea level, a jungle region, with a multi-ethnic culture, in many of these communities they still maintain their ancestral form of communal government headed by the Council of Elders. Its coasts are rich in marine biodiversity such as the red coral reefs, the Cayos Miskitu Biological Reserve and the coastal strip.

Among the tourist sites we find: Spas such as the beautiful Pahara Lagoon, the Haoluver Community, natural reserves such as Los Cayos Miskitus and the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, in Waspán is located the longest river, the Coco River, which runs through almost all of Nicaragua. The RACCN is suitable for Ecotourism, Adventure Tourism and Community Tourism.

The Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast (RACCN) is located in Miskitu territory, with Bilwi as its departmental capital; a word of Bawihka origin meaning snake leaf, the Miskitu were people who inhabited the Matagalpa area and were forced to emigrate to the east when they came into conflict with the Spanish.

Places of interest

Port Heads

Puerto Cabezas, 560 kilometers from the capital, was an indigenous village called Bilwi “Snake among leaves”, sparsely populated, with straw huts, bamboo and pine wood structures, without production, without economy, with its ancestral customs. From 1921 it began to develop as a city and was elevated to the same on April 15, 1929 following the triumph of the Constitutionalist Liberal Revolution.

In Bilwi there are tourist sites of interest such as: La Bocana spa, El Mirador del Restaurante Kabupayasca, located northeast of the city of Bilwi where the visitor can enjoy a very beautiful view of the Caribbean Sea, you can also visit the beaches of the Tuapi spa where the visitor enjoys the tranquility of the river and the calm of the mountains.

Prinzapolka

Prinzapolka was founded in 1860 by indigenous Manyagnas expelled from their community of Wankluna by the Miskitu Indians. It is a picturesque town with a hot and humid climate, where its inhabitants are dedicated to fishing. In the mid-twentieth century, it was the gateway for entry and exit of goods to the interior of the region. Located on the river bank, it traditionally functions as an exit port for products from the region such as bananas, metals, rubber and precious woods.

From the Siuna-Rosita junction and in the middle of a pine plain, you reach Alamikamba, on the banks of the Prinzapolka River. A 100-kilometer journey passes through some 36 Miskitu communities.

Surrounding Prinzapolka are two hamlets on stilts: El Masmalaya and Walpa Tara, a peaceful town dedicated to fishing and the joy of playing guitars and chirping birds. In Alamikamba, the Sihkru festival is discreetly celebrated, where the population drinks an elixir made by the sukia to invoke the spirit of their ancestors. Prinzapolka served as the capital following the incorporation of the Caribbean Coast into Nicaragua, of the municipalities of Puerto Cabezas, Siuna, Rosita and Bonanza.

King pulanka

The celebration of King Pulanka is a sociocultural tradition of the Miskitu people, traditionally celebrated in the months of January to March in the different territorial sectors and neighborhoods of the municipality of Puerto Cabeza, a cultural activity that is celebrated with the aim of maintaining the identity of our ancestors, where the communities express the cultural sense of their ancestors and with the aim of strengthening this cultural value, through the exchange of experiences with other communities.

Among the communities, the groups that made the best presentation by sectors or territorial blocks are chosen. The outstanding groups participate with their presentations in the Municipal King Pulanka to be held in the city of Bilwi, in the presence of regional, municipal and communal leaders and authorities and special guests.

Ethnic Celebrations

Each ethnic group celebrates its cultural traditions according to its historical characteristics; the Miskitu celebrations that preserve the memory of their ancestors do so with cultural acts accompanied by indigenous speeches, Miskitu dances, the selection of indigenous queens and communal festivals, especially the Sihkru Tara festival, in memory of the dead each year, where a great amount of ancient dance and music can be observed, as well as gastronomy that has been forgotten to a certain extent.

The Creoles with the tradition of the Palo de Mayo, with their typical foods the rondón, the "pati", the bread with coconut and the "plantitak".

All ethnic groups celebrate autonomy on October 30, approved by the National Assembly in 1987.

The Creole Cultural Group, founded in 1979, is made up of elders who are the custodians of Creole oral traditions with the aim of rescuing Afro-Caribbean culture. The purpose of the Multiethnic Cultural Center is the Historical and Cultural Rescue of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua "Tininiska" which is interested in the diffusion, recovery and preservation of the cultures of the Caribbean Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, oriented to the Sumu and Miskitu peoples.

Culture and Gastronomy

The population is distributed as follows:

72.3% are of Miskitu origin, 21.7% are of Mestizo origin, 5.7% are of Creole origin and 0.3% are Mayagna.

Creole, English, Spanish and Miskitu are spoken.

THE CREOLES OR CREOLES

The arrival of Africans reduced the supply of aboriginal labor, which was decimated by the forced labor of the European conquerors. In light of this fact, from 1562 onwards, English slave traders began trafficking African aborigines into slavery. As a result, the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, an English protectorate, increased the African population integrated into a new social class, the slave, becoming the main servants of the Europeans.

The slave class mixed with indigenous people gave rise to new racial groups, the zambos and the creoles or criollos.

THE SPANISH MESTIZOSLES

The Ulúas, with the arrival of the great migrations of Nahuatl (Aztecs), Maribios (Tlapanecs) and Chorotegas (Mangues) from Mexico from the 9th and 10th centuries, were expelled from their territories.

Mixed with Spaniards, the new mestizos marched towards the Caribbean Coast at the end of the 19th century, after the expulsion of the English and the reincorporation of the Mosquitia, by the Zelaya government, to the Republic of Nicaragua, initiating the strong biological and cultural interbreeding of the Sumu-Ulúa, Ramas and Miskita populations.

THE SUMUS

Sumu is the collective name with which the Miskitus refer to other groups of the Ulúa family, called Chontales (in Nahuatl; barbarian), Karibíes or Caribisis by the Spanish settled in the Pacific of Nicaragua, where the indigenous Prinsus and Kukras, adopted the Miskitu language that was always a lingua franca of the Tawira, later adopting some words from the English language.

Among the Sumu family, the Twahkas and Panamakas groups stand out, Ulwas extended in Karawala and the basins of the Grande de Matagalpa, Kurimwás, Siquia, Mico and Ramae rivers that were absorbed by the interbreeding.

MISKITUS

The name Miskitu comes from Ta Upla “Miskut” and they began to call them Miskut Uplika Nani or People of Miskut – So little by little they forgot that the real name was Tawira, the arrival of the Tawira (Miskitu) to Sita Awala (Ostiones River) current Cape Gracias a Dios occurred in the 800s, the first foundation occurred precisely at this time with Sita Awala.

Gastronomy of the RACCN

Typical foods: The base of the food is coconut and ginger, where rondón and gallo pinto seasoned with coconut or without coconut are consumed, flour tortilla is consumed in almost all the inhabitant cultures, but each ethnic group has its own gastronomy detailed below:

MISKITO GASTRONOMY

Dishes: Luk-Luk, Rondón, Auhbipiakan, Tualbi

Beverages: Buña de yucca or pijibay; Banana wabul, ripe banana, Greyfrut

AFRICAN GASTRONOMY (Creoles)

Dishes:

Turtle fin rondon
Gallo pinto with coconut
Fish rondon, Turtle meat rondon, Wari rondon, Smoked pork rondon
Steau Beans (Coconut Beans with Donplín: seafood soup and breaded shrimp)
Rice with dried or fresh shrimp and coconut
Mixed or seafood soup, fried fish, shrimp, fish, snail and lobster ceviche
Crab Soup and Crab Chowder

Cake shop: Quequisque Cake, Yuca Cake, Stale Bread Cake
Banana cake, Pati, Toto, Bon, Coconut bread, Yani cake, Plantintá, Coconut pie, Stewed

Drinks: Jinja Beer; Tea: lemongrass, sour orange, basil; Fermented: corn, rice, orange

MAYAGNA GASTRONOMY

Dishes: Baho, Boiled meat, Roasted meat and Dikuruhna (like an old Indian)

Drinks: Buña made of pihibay, yuca, ripe plantain; Cocoa with milk; Pozol and Wabul

They season almost all foods with cilantro (kisuri).

MESTIZO GASTRONOMY

Dishes: Baho, Nacatamales, Corn Tortillas, Old Indian, Vigorón, Ripe with Cheese and Gallopinto

Soups: Meatball, Cheese, Tripe, Beans

Drinks: Fermented and unfermented chicha, Pinolillo, Cacao and Tamarind with chilla

Ecotourism

Miskitu Cays

The Archipelago is located 80 kilometers northwest of Bilwi, its extraordinary turquoise waters allow you to appreciate the banks of underwater grasses, they are nestled in the Caribbean Sea, in an area of 40 kilometers, it is surrounded by coral reefs, and located on a shallow marine platform with a coral outcrop covered with mangroves that surround the semi-fresh or brackish water lagoon.

The core of the archipelago is made up of more than 70 coral islets of various sizes. The seabed of the Miskitu Cays is one of the most beautiful ocean landscapes in the entire Caribbean. Fishing is abundant in the coral reefs, where Miskitu fishermen set up houses on stilts or structures of drums where they stay during the lobster fishing season.

The seabeds of the keys, rich in algae, are home to the largest colonies of vegetarian green turtles in the Caribbean. Turtles have traditionally been one of the staple foods of the local population. There are also a good number of hawksbill turtles in the keys, which are hunted for their shells and are also in danger of extinction.

In the Miskitu Cays, some of the attractions that can be enjoyed in these keys include artisanal fishing, bird watching, professional or amateur diving, and living with the inhabitants and their customs.

Bosawás Biosphere Reserve

The RACCN has 6 natural reserves, among which the following stand out: The Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, a rainforest that is part of the Mesoamerican biological corridor, is inhabited by indigenous communities of Manyagnas, Miskitus, Ramas and Garifunas, where it houses hundreds of small rivers forming a river network of four main rivers, including the Coco River, most of which originate in the wooded heights in the core area of the reserve.

The Bosawás reserve (shared with Siuna, Bonanza and the department of Jinotega) located between the Bocay River, the Saslaya massif and the Waspuk River, from whose first syllables it takes its name, is the largest rainforest reserve in Central America, with 8,000 square kilometers. In this area are the Yeluca Mountains, where the Waspuk River is born and which is a sacred place for the Manyagnas, where they venerate their ancestors.

The reserve is located in one of the most remote and unspoiled regions of Nicaragua, made up entirely of intact tropical rainforest, in a landscape of gentle mountain ranges and valleys. There are primary forests with tree species of great value: mahogany, cedar, oak, pochote, laurel, etc. And non-timber species such as bamboo, balsam and musaceae. The animal fauna is also very rich. Tapirs, jaguars, monkeys of various kinds, deer, peccaries, snakes, magpies, king vultures and orioles are some of the many species that inhabit this reserve characterized by an astonishing biodiversity. Within the Reserve is the 630 square kilometer Saslaya Hill National Park.

Bosawás was declared a biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997 and is the lung that generates good weather and botanical diversity.

Rivers of the RACCN

There are 5 hydrographic basins in the RACCN that empty their waters into the Caribbean Ocean. The aggressive and powerful rivers with their rapids are part of the Caribbean coast. These basins are made up of the Wawa River, the Ulang River, the Kukalaya River, the Prinzapolka River and the Coco River. Sailing the rivers is an eco-tourism option where you can enjoy scenic attractions, contemplation of nature, humid tropical forests, pine savannahs, gallery forests on their banks and mangrove forests that occupy the coastal areas, especially on the banks of estuaries and lagoons on swamps.

Waspám – Coco River

Bihmuna is a city located on the banks of the Coco River, populated by Miskitus and with more than 80 indigenous communities located along the river and on the coast. In the Waspám area, the large Bihmuna Lagoon is located next to the sea, surrounded by mangroves, with a rich fauna of birds, crocodiles and other animals, almost in a virgin environment. Bihmuna is connected to the Caribbean Sea by the narrow Turku channel. Its climate is typical of the tropical monsoon rainforest and its hydrographic system includes the Coco River, the longest in Nicaragua.

Its climate is that of a tropical monsoon rainforest. It crosses two important formations: the tropical rainforest and the plains, the latter covered with pine trees (Pinus caribean). The Coco River stands out, the longest in the country and a natural border with neighboring Honduras. To the south of this municipality is the Bihmuna Lagoon, which connects to the Caribbean Sea through the narrow Tukru channel.