Although Nicaragua only has one international airport, the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, in Managua, it is only 3 hours by air from Miami and Houston.

Nicaragua is a constitutional democracy with executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral branches of government. The President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly.

The judiciary and electoral powers are independent of the executive and the legislature. The magistrates of both the Supreme Court and the Supreme Electoral Council are appointed by the President and ratified by the National Assembly.

The current composition of the Executive Branch includes President Jose Daniel Ortega Saavedra and the Vice President Jamie Morales Carazo.

The majority of the Nicaraguan population is Mestizo and White. Mestizos and Whites mainly reside in the western region of the country and combined make up 86% of the Nicaraguan population, approximately 4.8 million people. About 9% of Nicaragua’s population is black, or Afro-Nicaraguense, and mainly reside on the country’s sparsely populated Caribbean or Atlantic coast.

The remaining 5% are Amerindians, the unmixed descendants of the country’s indigenous inhabitants. The national language is Spanish, although many residents of the Caribbean coastal areas also speak English and indigenous languages.

Managua is the capital and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Managua. It is by far the country’s largest city, with a population that is larger than one million inhabitants and an ever expanding residential and commercial area.

Managua is the center of transportation, commerce, finance and manufacturing in the country and also serves as a major cultural and educational city. All of Nicaragua’s main roads lead to Managua. Travel between Montecristo and Managua is easy, almost all on paved roads.

Nicaragua remains the second poorest nation in the hemisphere.

Exports have been one of the key engines of economic growth. The U.S. is Nicaragua’s largest trading partner, accounting for one fifth of Nicaragua’s imports and almost two thirds of its total exports. Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country, but light industry, tourism, banking, mining, fisheries, and general commerce are expanding.

Property is much less expensive than in the United States, and labor costs are low. Cheap land surrounds picturesque crater lakes and active volcanoes. Active investment is stimulating growth. Since instituting free market reforms in 1921, Nicaragua has privatized more than 350 state enterprises and reduced inflation from 13,500 percent to single-digits.

Major corporations have established local operations, including McDonald’s, Hertz, Liz Claiborne, TGI Fridays, Payless Shoes, Kodak, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and more. Government incentives are also stimulating growth.

Tourism is the nation’s third largest source of foreign exchange. More than 60,000 Americans visit Nicaragua yearly, primarily business people, tourists, and Nicaraguan-Americans visiting relatives.

An estimated 7,000 U.S. citizens reside in the country.

Just as in the other Central American countries, there are two seasons: the dry and the raining season. During the dry season (January – June) there is virtually no rain and trees and plants start to dry out.

Once the rains come around June, July, everything starts growing and the yellow plants and leafless trees turn green and start blossoming. In August and September it often rains once a day. Fortunately, it just rains for a short period of time and these are often spectacular, tropical downpours.