Nicaragua is a country in Central America, with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Honduras is to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The capital is Managua. Spanish is the main language. The Spanish name comes from Nicarao, a native name, plus Spanish agua, “water” — which fits a land of big lakes and two coasts. Though actually, English speakers sometimes mix it up with Niagara, the famous waterfall on the US–Canada border; the names look cousinly on the page, but they are not the same place and not the same word. In the 1980s there was a civil war between the elected left-wing Sandinista government and a right-wing rebel force known as the Contras. Coffee, sugar and bananas have long been important products; cotton was too. A person from Nicaragua is Nicaraguan.