Boaco sits about 90 km northeast of Managua, a hill town that has grown from a quiet mountaintop community into the bustling capital of the Department of Boaco. The city spreads down the flanks of its mountain and out into the surrounding cattle country — it calls itself "La Ciudad de Dos Pisos" (the City of Two Floors) for the way it occupies two distinct levels of the same hillside.
During the rainy season the hills look like green velvet; in the dry season they turn tan and crisp. The contrast between modern and traditional is everywhere — narrow streets clogged with taxis alongside unreliable water and electricity. It is unsettling but genuinely interesting, the kind of place where a traffic signal fails mid-cycle because the power went out.
Boaco is not a tourist destination in any conventional sense, but travellers passing through the Nicaraguan highlands will find an honest, working Nicaraguan city with good views and a distinctive character. The Cathedral of Santiago Apóstol anchors the central park, and the mirador above the upper town gives a clear picture of the city's unusual geography.