Pan-American Highway (North America) which is from Sébaco. From Ciudad Dario to the village of San Benito is . From San Benito, it is about to the Nicaraguan capital and largest city of Managua, on the shores of Lake Managua. From Managua south to the town of Jinotepe is about , and Jinotepe to the town of Rivas is about . Around this area the Highway is in view of Lake Nicaragua, which is the largest lake in Central America. From Rivas to the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border is about . Costa Rica is the second-smallest Central American country in area (after El Salvador). After
Managua the Old Cathedral of Managua was designed by Belgian architects, and the iron that was used to shape the core of the cathedral was shipped from Belgium. Construction lasted from 1928 to 1938, overseen by Pablo Dambach, who was a Belgian engineer residing in Managua. The architects had been inspired by the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, France. The St. James' Cathedral became the first cathedral in the Western Hemisphere to be built entirely of concrete on a metal frame. The cathedral survived the 1931 earthquake, but was heavily damaged during the 1972 earthquake, which eventually led to the construction