[2] The city of Jinotega "Las Brumas" is the departmental capital of the homonymous department with an urban population of 53 265 inhabitants in the year 2017.

It is located in a valley at an altitude of 1,003.87 meters above sea level with a cool climate at an average temperature of 25 °C and a distance of 142 km from Managua (2h 44 min, by Carr.Panamericana / Panamericana Nte./CA-1).

Isabelia Mountain Range contains several cloud forests peaks and massifs such as Chimborazo (1,688 m), Datanlí Diablo (1,550 m) with "la Bujona" waterfall.

The town of San Rafael del Norte located about 20 minutes north of Jinotega City, was General Sandino's Headquarters against US Marine's forced occupation of Nicaragua in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

San Rafael has a really nice neoclassical parrish church across the leafy Main Square, and a small museum dedicated to Sandino and his wife, Blanca Aráuz.