Masaya and Los Pueblos are best known for their artesian works (ceramic, wood, leather and wicker goods) and for their unique foods, so the area can be visited at any time of year or in any weather. The rainy season might send you scurrying for cover or hopping across flooded streets, but unlike more rural areas, the wet has little effect on travel conditions, beyond limiting jaunts in the soggy countryside. While there are no bad times to visit, you would do well to try to stop in the area during one of the numerous festivals patronales when towns celebrate the celestial figures that watch over them. A few of the many festivals are listed here: Catarina celebrates San Silvestre Papa between Dec. 31 and Jan. 1; Diriomo sees the Virgin de la Candelaria off on her trip to Los Jirones between Feb. 2 and 8; Masatepe has the biggest horse parade (and with several hundred hipicas, that’s saying quite a bit) forty days after Semana Santa in honor of Domingo de Trinidad; Diria fetes San Pedro starting on June 17; Niquinohomo dances and parades for Santa Ana on July 26.
Some important dates in Masaya are: March 16 when La Virgen de la Asuncion blesses the waters of the lake; August 15, the day Maria Magdelena goes on tour in Monimbo; September 30, which kicks off eight days of festivities in honor of San Jeronimo; and the dance of the little devils on the last Sunday of November.