Condega

Condega is a municipality in the Esteli department of north central Nicaragua, officially incorporated on 9 June 1962. It lies on the Pan-American Highway about 185 km north of Managua, at an altitude of roughly 560 m in a rugged highland landscape of oak and pine forests, near the Esteli River. With a territory of about 398 square kilometres it is the second largest of the six municipalities of the department. The 2005 census counted 28,481 inhabitants, mostly mestizo, with about two thirds living in rural areas. The site was inhabited long before the Spanish, and the Museo Arqueologico de Condega holds more than 300 pre-Columbian artifacts. Tobacco, cigars and coffee are produced locally, and workshops make reproductions of pre-Columbian pottery.