Why Nicaragua

So, why Nicaragua? I’ve been asked this question many times, even more times than I was asked why Kentucky J

Well, after we realized that our money would go further somewhere else, and we'd be able to realize our dreams better, a search began. Chuck had already gotten a remote job, so he was free to work anywhere with an internet connection.  I wanted warmth (tropical that is) and we wanted to start a small hotel business by the ocean. So, here we go: find affordable beach land in tropical climate with a country that is cheaper and easier to operate in.

Our gaze hit the Dominican Republic first. Cheap living in the Caribbean. After spending hours and hours reading about it, talking online to locals, we decided that it wasn’t for us. The crime rate meant that we’d live in constant fear, and being such a small island, there wasn’t much undeveloped beach land left for purchasing at a decent cost.

So, South of the border we go. Mexico was totally out of the question, because of the drug wars and general unrest going on. International Living Magazine started touting Ecuador as the best place to retire, because of its climate and affordable living. For the next months, we concentrated our efforts on Ecuador, and were planning a trip there too. 

Eventually  I realized that even tho Ecuador was ON the equator, the weather was pretty cool most of the year, due to Humboldt current and something or other. And the residency was going to be made more difficult to get. So, where to next? We started going back north, and came across Nicaragua. Why hadn’t we thought about it before?  We did, but I just can’t remember why we chose not to explore that option earlier...

We sure wanted to now. So, reading upon everything we could find about Nicaragua, we finally came to the conclusion that maybe this was it after all. The climate is nice and warm (tropical heat), there are still beach lots available for a decent price, living is cheap, residency is easy and the government encourages tourism-related business. And the old Iran-Contra / Civil War was laid to rest decades ago.

So, early November, we packed our bags and took a 2-hour flight from Miami to Managua in Nicaragua. We spent about a couple of weeks in the country, seeing the sights, meeting the people and getting to know the land as much as we could. 

People were poor, but they still seemed to be happy, and very friendly.

Food was cheap and good, beaches and the ocean wonderful. 

As for services… I’m sure we got gringoed (taken advantage of for being foreigners) a lot of times, but oh well, that’s part of being a gringo. The worst case of gringoed tho, was from another gringo, who has a surf shop in a small coastal tourist town. The shorts we bought from him were outrageously priced; for the same price we could’ve bought 6 pairs of shorts from the local Mercado (market).  Well, the gringo shorts were super-duper-space-quality-construction-everlasting  material, of course. So we shouldn’t feel bad about it... 

He didn't lead us on or anything; the worst part of being gringoed is that it's because of your own stupidity. You should've known better...

Anyway, when we came back home to Kentucky, we decided it was  time to start selling our things, list the house and move to Nicaragua to begin our new life and start a new adventure.