Nicaragua Trip – Impressions

Given the lull in our construction, we decided to go to Nicaragua. On Wednesday evening, my wife and I took a flight to Managua, Nicaragua.

Upon arrival at 11pm, we judiciously sidestepped the large, expensive hotels and found a nice little seven room hotel in a converted house – immaculately clean with wonderfully decorated rooms, wireless internet (which, for some reason, I couldn’t connect to) and a nice breakfast.

Assessments made here are purely mine and based on only limited observations; I do not claim that any of these assessments are thoroughly researched and not without factual error. Other people are entitled to there own and different observations and assessments.

We used a driver to show us around Managua and I thought San Jose was a dump! San Jose is not exactly paradise but Managua – Wow!!!

Managua covers a huge area, relatively low density, many vacant lots and just undeveloped areas, single story buildings û most all of which are in various stages of disrepair. The city is so strung out, you need a car to go anywhere; there is no city center, no focus, just an assemblage of buildings with connecting roadways.

There are a few people along the streets and moderate traffic but nothing like the concentration of people and cars that exist in San Jose. The lake on which it borders is a cesspool, you can’t get close to it for the smell.

Most cities bordering oceans or large lakes take pride in their waterfronts and that is where development often begins. Not so in Managua. It’s not likely to happen here for generations.

In the evening, I asked the driver to take us to a restaurant area where young locals would be. I wanted to see what it was like and felt they represented the future of the country. While there, I asked the driver where they made their money I was told (rightly or wrongly) that most were probably the sons and daughters of the government officials living on daddy’s (the government’s) expense account.

That being the case, they don’t create any wealth, but merely spend the efforts of others. I was further told that if there were an incident, eg. a car accident involving one of these people, they wouldn’t be charged – not that much different than in many countries but in a place where there is such a fine line between existence and starvation (forget insurance) it is a sad commentary.

After one day we decided there wasn’t much more to stay for in Managua so moved on to Granada.

Granada is an old city which has renovated it’s old Spanish colonial core buildings. Over the years, I’d read about it and decided to take this time to view it. It’s nice; they are trying to make it a tourist destination and to some limited extent, they are being successful. They are continuing to fix up the city with some new renovation work on many of the old colonial buildings, street improvements, but nothing on a large or coordinated scale.

There is no appearance of any master plan. The Spanish style architecture with traditional ornamental facades and architecture are nicely redone. Here there are horse drawn carriages for the tourists, some interesting tourist shops, internet cafes serving food and drinks as well as coffee, traditional fare, pizza (where hasn’t pizza gotten to in the world?) there were no MacDonalds or Burger Kings that we noticed.

There is a very large lake, someone said to be the size of Rhode Island in the U.S. It looks polluted to me but not the cesspool that was the lake near Managua…

There are 14 Catholic churches in this city – why so many? The sidewalks in Granada are much better than in San Jose – but then that is not much of a basis for comparison.

We stayed in the Colony Hotel. I had read about it over a number of years and was disappointed and felt it was highly over rated. There are a lot of other hotels there ranging in price from $35 (and less) to the Colony at $75.

We saw numerous expatriate drop-outs who seem to have opted for a different lifestyle. None appear to be overly successful financially. Who knows if their lifestyle expectations are being met. We didn’t speak with any.

Regardless, they add variety and interest for tourists – pizza, Italian, French cuisine, bistros and coffee houses, etc.

Generally, however, Nicaragua is so very, very poor. It’s so sad to see the effects of troubled politics and military intervention and I don’t think all the trouble is behind them. People with any money have left the country and others are not investing there because there is no confidence in the future. No investment, no jobs, no hope, no future doesn’t sound like a country that is ready for me.

Most buildings are in need of repair, many, in need of major repair; we never did see a “supermarket”or anything other than small, traditional grocery stores and fruit stalls – certainly nothing like we have in Costa Rica – Very limited; we never saw a movie theater, parks and public areas do exist but are in disrepair. There were very, very basic “homes”mostly without paint and one can only guess at interiors and water, etc.

There were far fewer and older cars than in Costa Rica and Nicaragua is HOT! We became sloths sucking back the beers, siestas, and late night dinners (so as to fit in).

Having said that, Nicaragua has a certain Central American cultural charm that is lacking in Costa Rica. Here, there is the vestige of an indigenous culture – there are artifacts, bowls, pottery, paintings, etc – which I associate with Central America. Women carry baskets filled with various things on their heads. Home made corn brooms sold door to door.

We saw a traditional dance competition of young people in the park, many of the people have indigenous Indian features. There are horse drawn working carts, more bicycles than in Costa Rica often times taking their wife on the crossbars someplace. Buses are filled to capacity and rarely does one see a pickup truck without passengers in the back.

I saw ReMax and Century 21 offices. I’ve looked over their advertised “listings”and did not see any bargains. I had been told property was cheap in Nicaragua; while I didn’t due an exhaustive study of it, nothing jumped out at me as being “cheap”in fact, I found it surprisingly expensive.

I saw rental ads on bulletin boards as well and found the asking price relatively expensive. I recognize that these marketing efforts were directed at the gringo and expat market as in Costa Rica and probably don’t represent the best values, so it may not be a fair bases from which to make an assessment.

In fact, the cost of living for an expat appeared more expensive than we had been lead to believe, guess I’m just cheap, cheap, cheap. But we just did not find that much value. However, in my assessment, one has to accept a lot of tradeoffs in Nicaragua; not so where we live in Costa Rica..

While we saw some new commercial developments, I did not see one housing development. In fact, I don’t remember seeing one new house being built anywhere in the country. I don’t know the economic demographics of this country, but there doesn’t appear to be much of a middle class.

In addition, there does not appear to be much of a banking system. According to our driver, Banex, a Panamanian based bank which is financing a lot of construction in Costa Rica, pulled up stakes and left because they couldn’t trust the government.

If there isn’t a banking system, then investment capital is harder to attract and the concept of “mortgages”is non-existent. In Costa Rica, when the banking system developed to a point where mortgages became available in an orderly way, house construction started to boom.

Given that the wealthy continue to control the money and there is no alternative to attract capital for construction, it’s unlikely that a construction boom is going to happen…

If that’s the case, I have to ask: Why should foreigners invest in Nicaragua? My sister tells me that there have been many articles in American publications on Nicaragua as the up and coming place. I have also read some of these in “International Living” and other places. I have to disagree.

ONLY, if one had risk capital and a 20+ year time horizon and perhaps limited expectations, then perhaps but I’ll still stick with Costa Rica. We arrived Sunday night having been gone for four nights and five days. Compared to Nicaragua, being back home in Costa Rica feels great!

Brian Timmons is a Canadian citizen living in Costa Rica and developing a beautiful, small real estate project in Santa Ana, which is about 20 minutes West of San Jose.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.