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Nicaragua
Nicaragua lies in the center of Central America and is the largest country in that region. It shares its northern border with Honduras and is bordered by Costa Rica in the South. From a mountain in the middle of the country it is possible to see both the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Caribbean Sea in the east. The Nicaraguan government is a democratic republic.
The name of the country was derived from a combination of two words. Nicarau is the name of the tribe which lived on the shores of Lake Nicaragua before Spanish conquest of the area. Agua is the Spanish word for water, the two words were combined to form Nicaragua. Agua was included because of the two large lakes and several rivers in the area.
The Nicarau people moved to what is now known as Nicaragua from the north after the fall of Teotihucan. Religious leaders recommended that they travel south until they came to a lake with two volcanoes rising from its waters. The tribe embarked on a journey that ended when they reached the shores of Lake Nicaragua. A prominent feature of the lake is Ometepe, the largest freshwater volcanic island in the world.
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