Desembocadura de Río Grande is a municipality of the

South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region The South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It was created along with the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region by the Autonomy Statute of 7 September 1987 through a division of the former Zelay ...

in the

Republic of Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and ...

. The head town is the locality of Karawala.

Geography

The municipal term borders to the north with the municipality of

Prinzapolka Prinzapolka () is a Miskito municipality in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. Prinzapolka (sometimes spelled Prinzapolca) is also an important river and river basin in the Caribbean Coast Region of Nicaragua. Language ...

, to the south with the municipalities of

Laguna de Perlas Pearl Lagoon () is a municipality that is often time called just Lagoon and was historically known as English Bank. It is located in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. It is the most important town of the largest coastal lag ...

and El Tortuguero, to the east with the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

and to the west with the municipality of

La Cruz de Río Grande La Cruz de Río Grande is a municipality in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. According to the 2005 census, the population of La Cruz de Rio Grande was 3,000. It gets its name from the Rio Grande de Matagalpa which flows t ...

. The municipal head town is located 470 kilometers from the capital,

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

History

The territory was formerly inhabited by the

Miskito Miskito may refer to: * Miskito people, ethnic group in Honduras and Nicaragua ** Miskito Sambu, branch of Miskito people with African admixture ** Tawira Miskito, branch of Miskito people of largely Indigenous origin * Miskito language, original la ...

and Ulua peoples. In the mid-seventeenth century, the different ethnic groups of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua were militarily dominated and subordinated by the Miskitos allied with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

pirates, thanks to their numerical superiority and having firearms provided by the latter. In 1860, the Mosquitia Reserve on the eastern (Caribbean or Atlantic) coast of Nicaragua was created by an agreement between the English and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

governments, until in 1894 during the government of

José Santos Zelaya José Santos Zelaya López (1 November 1853 – 17 May 1919) was the President of Nicaragua from 25 July 1893 to 21 December 1909. He was liberal. In 1909, Zelaya was ousted from office in a rebellion led by conservative Juan José Estrada w ...

it was incorporated into the national territory. In the early twentieth century, American

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

and timber companies settled in the region, and the ruins of the machinery they used and later abandoned are still preserved. In the 1950s, the last enclave companies left, and from then on, the local economy became subsistence-based, based on hunting, fishing, and subsistence agriculture. The municipality was founded in 1996, by a split from the municipality of La Cruz de Río Grande, which is located further up the same river.

Economy

The main economic activities are agriculture and fishing.

Demographics

Karawala has a current population of 4,068 inhabitants. Of the total population, 49.5% are men and 50.5% are women. Almost 73.5% of the population lives in the urban area.

Nature and Climate

The climate is tropical humid rainforest, mainly on the Atlantic coast, with tropical monsoons in the western part that borders with La Cruz de Río Grande. Its average temperature is 26 °C, and rainfall ranges between 3200 and 4000 mm. The municipality is mainly located on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, characterized by a dominant relief that is flat to strongly undulating, with slopes that fluctuate between 0 and 15%.

Localities

The territorial organization of the municipality consists of six communities and two sectors: Karawala (uluas), Kara (miskitos), La Esperanza (miskitos), La Barra (creoles), Sandy Bay (miskitos), Sector Guadalupe (miskitos), Walpa (miskitos) and Sector Company Creek (mestizos).

Culture

The

and Creole languages are the most used in the municipality; while

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

is ordinarily spoken only by the respective populations. The Ulua language is extinct. The population is multilingual, as most people speak the three aforementioned languages.

Transport

There are no roads to speak of in Karawala. All longer transports are done by boat, along the rivers and the coast. There is no regular boat traffic. For longer trips to the municipalities, it is often possible to hitch a ride with someone, even if you may have to wait a few days. For shorter trips within the municipality, most families have their own boat.

References

Municipalities of the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region {{Nicaragua-geo-stub