Vlog 5 October 2023 | Answering one viewer question today. In which city is it best to live if you want cheap living while remaining very safe?
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11 Comments
A issue you have not mentioned… noise…… I lived in town. On a hill close to the ocean about 1200'.
The noise from town would echo up the hill. San Juan del sur can get loud. A interesting phenomena is created when 2 rock band set up next to each other.and blaze 2 different songs at the same time. Living out of town is appreciated. Bosques Del Mar. playa Marsella/Maderas area rules.
I urge immigrants to learn what the history of noise is in the community interested in..
Young Nica's love to make loud sound. Fire crackers are particularly popular.
Great video! Matagalpa is very interesting to me. My only worry is the infrastructure. I have to do a lot of Skype meetings for my job. I have a couple questions if you have the time to answer… 1) Is the internet speed and reliability in Matagalpa going to be as good as Leon? 2) Should I expect more power outages in Matagalpa compared to Leon?
A wealth of information. Was wondering if you would consider doing some content showcasing the cigar producing reqions of the country.
I live in Managua and rent a 2 bedroom, 2 bath furnished house in a gated "compound" with 5 homes. Very safe. 24 hour guard/caretaker/gardener onsite. Rent is $350 per month, water included. Electricity is usually about $15 per month, internet $32. Everything is within walking distance. I can assure you these gems are pretty easy to find. Don't let the size of Managua intimidate you.
Managua does tend to be an acquired taste. Managua has some decent lower cost neighborhoods, and is a bit cheaper than Jinotega for what you get in middle class/lower middle class neighborhoods. A lot of people who would rent an apartment other places will probably be renting a small house instead. Leon is less expensive than either from what I've read. Granada works for some people. Caterina might be worth looking at. Don't drink and walk late at night. You have to go to Managua for French embassy cultural event, anything at the Rubin Dario theater, consistent live music, art galleries, and more complex computer gear, and larger bookstores (Hispamer).
Boaco has so few tourists that sitting around in a park talking English won't draw beggars. The white wing doves are as fat as pigeons and hang out begging for scraps in the park canteen. Boaco has had some expats. You're going to rent a house or half house, not an apartment. The thing that keeps retirees away is the stairs. It's about an hour from Managua by bus. Lots and lots of taxis for those who don't want to take the stairs. The mountains would be a bus or car ride away to get into them. I haven't been to Juigalpa.
Jinotega is at 1,000 meters. Most tourists do Matagalpa to Esteli and back to Managua, with around a tenth of the tourists go through to see Selva Negra and go on to Jinotega. Esteli had women disappearing from the street at sunset when I visited in 2010. Jinotega — free air-conditioning. Not all that cheap to rent.
Make a list of "must have" and see if you can buy them locally or in a near by city. I keep tropical fish and Jinotega has vets with mixed pet store thing, fish food, filters, etc. I also keep local orchids and a few other tropical plants. If you need tennis courts, see if those are available. Computer stores have replacement external hard drives if I need one of those. I can buy miso at La Colonia. There isn't a major camera store in all of Nicaragua. Gear will come down by friends on airplanes or by importing through B&H Photo or Adorama in New York, or you fly to Miami for really major purchases and buy at one of the photo supply places that advertises that it's near the airport and has Spanish-speaking clerks as well as English. You can bring in one personal camera with lenses, one computer, and clothes, sporting equipment (duty free). I suspect you could bring in two camera bodies with gear without a hassle, too, since I've seen that done.
Fly fishing — trout maybe at Selva Negra, but most freshwater fly fishing will be for large tetras and cichlids. Tarpon in Rio San Juan. The cichlids are very tasty. I've never had one of the tetras to eat, but the local name for them tends to be sardinas.
People do play board games beyond any of the more modern ones.
Teenaged boys at parties used to have fist fights over whether Jinotega was better than Matagalpa or not. Or so I was told.
Jinotega doesn't have apartments in the US sense at this point. Some people rent rooms in houses. Older houses have been broken up into smaller houses — and those have been what I've rented. You'll have a front door and perhaps a back patio (back yard) or central patio (courtyard). Some townhouses near the police station did come with refrigerators and stoves and were called either furnished or semi-furnished.
Also, if you need a particular medicine, make sure you can buy it here. The medical tourism director at one hospital lied to a Lupus patient about the availability of one of her meds. I've heard Daniel goes to Cuba for his Lupus treatment (may or may not be true, of course). Go to a large pharmacy in Managua and ask for it (get the full names for it from your prescribing doctor before coming here). No hay, things get complicated.
What do you need to have to be comfortably yourself? Can you find it here and how easily?
Foreign residents can be more problematic than one realizes. Esteli had a pedophile who was on the FBI's most wanted list. Granada had a gringo who murdered his Nicaraguan wife and what he believed was her lesbian lover. Jinotega had a another problem gringo who murdered his younger Nicaraguan interpreter who may have been leaving him for a woman. Matagalpa has some characters, though not felony level bad as far as I know. Remember, their wallet may not have been stolen yesterday. Anyone from the US who claims he's never met a bad expat is the bad expat.
Matagalpa's big problem is water. With fish, I can have emergency water changes.
Hi who I can communicated with you?
Hey brother thanks for the video I appreciate you.
Why do you think the Airbnb listings in Nicaragua are so expensive?
Lots of good info, but about crime. How is property crime; I see alot of barbed wire, tall walls and bars on windows. I've heard that, unless you're in a gated community, that you never leave your car parked in the street overnight.
Great video, Scott ! We have lived in Matagalpa since February, and have enjoyed it. We are slow traveling in search of our favorite retirement city (Mexico to Argentina). We find it to be VERY affordable, with friendly people. At our current age (55 and 61) the big con for us is the heat. Yep, it is cooler but even now daytime temps have been 85-87ish with feels like temps around 90. We do run air con some but still our electric bill is usually about $130/month. That said, as the years go by and we get older, who knows, maybe we will want a warmer city in 10-15 years. Our next stop is Xela, Guatemala, which is about 20 degrees cooler, and we will be there in February ! Hope this email finds you well !
Hows the internet speed in nicaragua ?