Honduras vs Nicaragua

Why people mix them up

Honduras and Nicaragua are neighbours in the middle of Central America and both fly blue-white-blue horizontal flags inherited from the Federal Republic of Central America, which broke up in the 1840s. El Salvador and Guatemala use similar colours too. Both countries are Spanish-speaking, both have a Caribbean coast with a long Mosquito Coast lowland, and both are roughly the same size, so neither the flag, the shape nor the name gives an easy anchor.

How to tell them apart

• Honduras is north of Nicaragua, bordering Guatemala and El Salvador; Nicaragua is below it, bordering Costa Rica.
• Honduras's flag has five blue stars in the white band; Nicaragua's carries its coat of arms, a triangle with volcanoes and a rainbow, in the centre.
• Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America at about 130,000 km²; Honduras is roughly 112,000 km².
• Nicaragua contains Lake Nicaragua, a huge freshwater lake in the south-west; Honduras has no comparable lake.
• Honduras's Pacific coast is only a short stretch on the Gulf of Fonseca; Nicaragua has a long Pacific coastline.
• The capitals are Tegucigalpa (Honduras) and Managua (Nicaragua), and the currencies are the lempira and the córdoba.

Memory hook

Honduras is "higher" on the map, Nicaragua is "nearer" to Costa Rica. Stars on the white stripe mean Honduras; a picture in the middle means Nicaragua.

On the map

For Honduras, find Guatemala at the top of Central America and tap the country attached to its eastern side, the one that bulges out into the Caribbean below Belize. For Nicaragua, find Costa Rica, just above Panama, and tap the country directly north of it with the big lake near its Pacific side. The two share a border, so if you land in the wrong one, simply move one country up or down.