Retiring to Nicaragua? Anyone have "boots on the ground" info about this?

[Marvel2017]

I've read a lot about the country, just wondered if anyone has actual experience of the cost of living and experience there? Thanks!

[nancyjnelson]

I spent two years in Managua several years back.  The water was clean, the food was inexpensive, the average person was very friendly.  Power outages were frequent, there is a wide gulf between the haves and have-nots.

Go there and live for a year before you make any permanent decisions.  Buying property is fraught with minefields - during the war the Sandinistas expropriated property from folks who fled and - at least nominally - divided it up and gave it to landless peasants. After the war the former property owners returned and are going through court (a long and painful process - years and years and years) to get it returned; if your property is returned to the original owner, you are out of luck.  Additionally, in many cases the peasants found that their names were not on the titles to the property that they had been given and where they were living and farming - the high-ranking military had put their own names on the titles instead.  These military officials had no qualms about selling the property out from under the peasants and, as you might imagine, there was some violence as the peasants resisted moving from land they had been told was theirs.  That said, town/city property is more likely to have good titles than rural property and is safer to purchase.  I would advise against buying anything at all on the east coast, where overlapping indigenous claims muddy the already murky property ownership issue.

Fluent Spanish will make your life a whole lot easier.

 

 

[Marvel2017]

Thanks, we were looking at either Leon or Granada most likely. I have a little Spanish language background,as well as my wife and 4 YO is in a bilingual school for Spanish (she'll learn the language faster than my wife or I haha), so we plan on working towards fluency immediately. Thank for the insight! I've heard the healthcare in Managua is relatively on par with the U.S. and planned on self-insuring (no insurance) because I've read online the prices are significantly less than U.S....unless there is a policy I can buy. We have no pre-existing health issues.

[J Boogie]

I lived there for a year or so and my wife + her parents are from there.  She was raised in Miami though.

The other comments are good, I'd just like to add a few things.

Ortega is still in power.  To me this is a dealbreaker.  I'd visit plenty but I wouldn't put down roots of any kind.  Nicaragua is safe, warm, and welcoming, but you have a dictator who has amended his constitution to hold power indefinitely.  They indoctrinate and intimidate to maintain support.  Ortega is not friendly toward the US at all. I wouldn't feel safe if any legal issue arose, ie some thug in a uniform tells you that all your shit now belongs to him.  It's unlikely yes but it can happen and has happened to a friend of mine (a Nicaraguan).

I've had two friends that died in car accidents there.  I've had one friend that died because of complications from an appendectomy.  All in their early 30s.

I still love the place and have plenty of friends there, but it's not a place to put down roots in my mind.  I would caution against raising a 4 yo daughter there when you have much safer places with much better opportunities for her as she grows.  Leon and Granada are both safe and beautiful but I think Costa Rica, Panama, and Argentina all might be better options.

[nancyjnelson]

I also would not count on medical care in Nicaragua being equivalent to that in the U.S.  I speak from experience on which I'd rather not elaborate.

Do you and your wife plan to have any more kids?  Don't have them (or even get pregnant) in Nicaragua.  Abortion is illegal in Nicaragua, but in a highly draconian way.  If, for example, your wife is pregnant with what turns out to be an ectopic pregnancy, begins massively hemmorhaging and is bleeding to death, doctors will let her die in her hospital bed because they will face legal consequences if they harm the (already doomed) fetus.  Some doctors won't treat a pregnant woman for anything, for fear they might inadvertently harm the unborn child.  https://sites.dartmouth.edu/corley_lacs20_fa16/2016/11/10/health-care-consequences-of-nicaraguas-abortion-ban/

Schooling is hit and miss.  The American Nicaraguan School is touted as the premier school in Nicaragua.  Supposedly the language of learning is English.  In reality, the Nicaraguan elite get their kids accepted into ANS whether or not they speak English and the class becomes bilingual or even mostly Spanish.  Maybe not a problem if you want your kid to learn Spanish, but it does impact the skills the kids develop.  One of the kids from the American Embassy attended ANS for three years (preschool, kindergarten and first grade).  When her father was transferred back to the U.S. and she started second grade in the Washington, DC area, they discovered the child had never learned how to read (even though she had received good grades in Nicaragua).  Another problem (maybe the major one) is again associated with the local rich kids.  If your parents are from a prominent family, you can act with impunity.  This means that the rich kids can bully other students, mouth off, and disrupt class with no repercussions.  One teacher failed a student when he failed to complete any of the assignments during the entire year.  That teacher then had to flee the country when the father of the student issued an extremely credible death threat.  Of course the experience changes from year to year and even from grade to grade.  Some people had good experiences.  A couple of embassy families were so frustrated they withdrew their kids from ANS and home-schooled them instead.

I would vote for Granada over Leon.  I would vote for Panama, Costa Rica or Argentina over Nicaragua.


 

[Laserjet3051]

A good friend of mine, who was raised and grew up in Nicaragua, risked his and his young daughters life swimming across the Rio Grande into Texas in the dead of night to escape Nicaragua, swearing that he would never, ever, return.

[powskier]

Almost bought some beachfront property in a remote part of Southern Nicaragua about 10 years ago. Great people, cheap living, good surfing. That said it is clear there is more poverty than anything else there, and plenty of gated communities for gringos.
Live there for  short term before making your decisions.
I have also had 2 different friends be the victims of 2 different attacks, to be fair this could be the case anywhere in the world but I only know 10 people who have spent any time there.

[Marvel2017]

Hmm...any thoughts on Colombia? I see many cities in that country popping up on The Earth Awaits website for LCOL. Crime seems high but I grew up in Memphis so it would probably be less than I'm used to, main concern would be kidnappings. Thanks.

[frugalmom]

I had a work friend years ago who had married a woman from Nicaragua.  He had worked for Dole for many years and was more than comfortable living in Nicaragua.  That was until his wife became ill.  They came back to the USA for medical care.  The children were born and raised in Nicaragua where they lived well. In USA they rented a moderate apartment.  The children had a horrible transition, the wife was critically ill fighting cancer, and he was working like crazy trying to pay for everything. 

I asked him if he would go back.  He was originally from MN.  Despite all of the problems they were having in USA he had zero plans to return to Nicaragua ever.  I know that after they left their house was essentially looted and "taken" by the government.  I never did ask all the details. 

He was a regular guy mid-level management of a banana plantation.  Not political.  The wife taught school.