Known as "La Perla del Septentrión" - pearl of the north - MATAGALPA is spoken well of by virtually everyone in Nicaragua, principally, you suspect, because of its relatively cool climate : at about 21-25°C, it's considered tierra fría in this land of 30°C-plus temperatures. Located 130km northeast of the capital on the Carretera Interamericana, Matagalpa is a small, quiet town set among blue-green mountains covered in coffee plantations. Most visitors come here to visit the Hotel Selva Negra , famous all over Nicaragua and one of the country's premier tourism attractions.

Thanks to its climate and coffee-growing potential, there's a significant European immigrant presence in the area - mostly Germans, Italians and Americans, whose ancestors moved here in the late nineteenth century. The town has strong Sandinista credentials, too: Tomás Borge, the former Minister of the Interior under the Sandinista government, was born and raised here, as was Carlos Fonseca, a key Sandinista gunned down by Somoza's National Guard in 1976.

Matagalpa's services, hotels and restaurants are spread out between the seven or eight blocks that divide the town's two principal parques , and you'll find yourself constantly trekking between the two. At the northern end of town, the Parque Morazán fronts the Catedral de San Pedro , dating from 1874. Unusually, the cathedral was constructed side on, with its bell towers and entrance facing away from the Parque. A large Sandinista monument showing three men firing guns stands on the east side of the Parque. Tiny Parque Darío in the south is the site of several hospedajes and restaurants. Two main thoroughfares, Av José Benito Escobar and Av Central, link the two squares.

The town's only museum, the Casa Museo Comandante Carlos Fonseca , 100m southeast of the Parque Darío, documents the life of Carlos Fonseca but is currently closed due to lack of funds, though it may reopen by the time you get here. At the Tienda de Cerámica Negra, two blocks north of Parque Rubén Darío, you can buy examples of Matagalpa's typical artesanía, including the distinctive black pottery ( cerámica negra ) whose style indicates a link between the indigenous people of the Matagalpa area and the Maya - this type of pottery is otherwise found only in southern Mexico.