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Boaco

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Agricultural heart of Nicaragua with steep hills and pleny unexplored areas.

Population: approx. 317,000 people
Location: center of Nicaragua
Attractions: agricultural areas, hills and elevations, nature

Located in the center of Nicaragua, Boaco is a very productive region. It is a department that has a lot of tourism attraction. Nonetheless, tourism has not yet reached this area.

Boaco is formed by six municipalities, dedicated to agriculture; primarily cattle raising as well as milk production. Its name comes from an indigenous sumo tribe: ‘Boaj’. This tribe inhabited this region and it is said that the word Boaj became Boaco due to the union of nahuatl and sumo pronunciation.

The capital city of the department has the same name. Located at 90 kilometers from Managua, Boaco is known in Nicaragua as the two floor city. The city is located in a very irregular terrain that goes up and down throughout the whole area. This is why part of the city is known as ‘Boaco arriba’ and the other as ‘Boaco abajo' (Boaco up and Boaco down).

At the beginning of July, Boaco organizes the ‘milk fair’ and during 25th of the same month, Boaco celebrates its regional parties in honor to apostle Santiago.

Following the highway, before entering the city of Boaco the road hits another municipality known as Teustepe (word in nahuatl meaning ‘hill of rabbits’). Here you can find a huge petroglyph in the shape of an animal, carved on an enormous rock and considered to be one of the oldest in the country.

In the northern part of the department, in the outskirts of the village of San Jose de los Remates, you can find two natural attractions. The first one is ‘El Cerro Alegre’, a hill with its top covered by a dense cloud forest, considered a national reserve. The second attraction is a canyon: ‘Cañón de los Talnites’. This canyon surrounds the border of the Malacatoya River.

Another remarkable attraction in the region is the hats workshops. These hats are made from a material known as ‘cabuya’ (a part of a tree used to weave hats). They are produced throughout all Boaco but the most famous town is Camoapa.

A bit of history

The region currently known as Boaco was once inhabited by the sumos and nahuas tribes, primarily in pre-Columbian time. With the arrival of Spanish conquerors new towns were formed, dedicated to agricultural and then to cattle raising activities (in what is now known as the department of Chontales).

Its location positioned the area as a colonial frontier; which is why they suffered from frequent attacks from the neighboring Caribbean English town ‘Mosquitia’. The attackers were plundering towns and kidnapping its inhabitants to sell them as slaves or to exchange them for weapon.

The city of Boaco (at the time just a small town) changed its location four times before reaching its current position (reasons for such changes include sicknesses, bad terrains, and most importantly colonial attacks).

During the Independence time, the majority of the Boaco population was helping during the national war, fighting against North American filibusters. Many of these boaqueños were murdered or expropriated by the invaders and their followers.

In April 1936, the government recognized the request of the inhabitants of the zone and authorized the creation of the department of Boaco with the borders that now shape it, separating it from the department of Chontales.

This is how Boaco was born, known by Nicaragua as a cattle and agricultural department, famous for its cheese and milk, and holder of natural beauties and other attractions not well-known, but worth to be explored.

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