Ticuantepe is a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Managua

Managua (department)

Managua is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 3,672 km² and has a population of 1,380,300 . The capital is the city of Managua.- Municipalities :# Ciudad Sandino# El Crucero# Managua# Mateare# San Francisco Libre...

 department

Departments of Nicaragua

Nicaragua is a unitary republic, and for administrative purposes, it is divided into 15 departments and two self-governing regions based on the Spanish model:-Zelaya Department:...

 of Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

.

Etymology

Ticuantepe comes from the Nahuatl language of the first inhabitants of Nicaragua. Ticuane, which means fierce or tiger, and tepeh, which means hill, are combined to make Ticuantepe ("Hill of the Fierce").

Overview

Ticuantepe has the largest underground aquifer

Aquifer

An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...

 in the nation and is the largest supplier of pineapples to all of Nicaragua. Ticuantepe has an estimated population of 34,000, 37% of which live in urban

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

 zones and 63% in rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 zones. The town has a nice "pueblo" feel to it. It is one of the safer areas of Nicaragua and is located just 20 minutes from downtown Managua. There is easy transportation to and from Ticuantepe to most of Nicaragua by bus, microbus and moto-taxi.

Flora and fauna

Located in Ticuantepe is Chocoyero Nature Reserve, which is the smallest protected area

Protected area

Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...

 in Nicaragua at just 455 acres (1.8 km²). Chocoyero is a tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest

A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...

 and is abundant in water. It is home to two waterfalls, El Brujo and Chocoyero, named after the Pacific Parakeet

Pacific Parakeet

The Pacific Parakeet or Nicaraguan Green Conure is a subspecies of the Green Parakeet. It was long considered a distinct species....

s that make the walls of the cliff their home, they are locally known as Chocoyos.

Chocoyero is home to an estimated 113 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 species, 29 species of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s and 21 types of reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s and amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s.

Tourism

Chocoyero Nature Reserve is regarded as an important tourist attraction. Each year an estimated 10,000 people visit the reserve. There are wild howler monkeys as well as a vast array of flora and fauna and two waterfalls. It is a two-hour hike around the reserve and most people travel in and out of the reserve by moto-taxi. It is about 7 kilometers off of the main road. There are a handful of clean hotels and nice restaurants. The main hotels are Viva Guesthouse and The Chocoyo and both have pools and are secure. The restaurant Las Pitahayas is well-known throughout most of Nicaragua and is located in Ticuantepe.

External links

• Nicaragua.com Ticuantepe