Cen­tral Amer­i­ca’s largest lake at 177 kilo­me­ters long with an aver­age width of 57 kilo­me­ters. It is home to more than 365 small islets and larg­er islands, like Ome­te­pe, with two vol­canos, in the lake’s cen­ter. Anoth­er inter­est­ing fact about Lake Nicaragua is that it is the only fresh­wa­ter lake to have ocean ani­mals, includ­ing sharks. It is believed the lake was once a sea bay, but then a vol­cano erupt­ed, trap­ping marine life and turn­ing it into an inland lake. Over the mil­len­nia, the marine life has adapt­ed to liv­ing in fresh­wa­ter.