What are the best and worst things about living and retiring in Managua, Nicaragua?

The best things about living in Nicaragua are the warm friendly people, fresh organic foods, and the beauty of the beaches and cloud forests.  The worst thing is the parking attendants who have never driven a car instructing you how to park.

 

(Cloud forest in Mombacho, Nicaragua, pictured.)

The best things about living in Nicaragua are the warm friendly people, fresh organic foods, and the beauty of the beaches and cloud forests.  The worst thing is the parking attendants who have never driven a car instructing you how to park.

 

(Cloud forest in Mombacho, Nicaragua, pictured.)

The worst thing about living and retiring here in Managua is that everything is slow. The government is slow, and the culture is still is reactive, as opposed to proactive. This means that, until we have a problem, that is the only time we seek for the solution and most of the time, the solution comes very slowly. If, for example, your cable connection is down and you call the cable company, they’ll tell you that they will send someone out to fix it in a couple of days,...

The worst thing about living and retiring here in Managua is that everything is slow. The government is slow, and the culture is still is reactive, as opposed to proactive. This means that, until we have a problem, that is the only time we seek for the solution and most of the time, the solution comes very slowly. If, for example, your cable connection is down and you call the cable company, they’ll tell you that they will send someone out to fix it in a couple of days, instead of sending someone immediately. So if you are coming from one of the most advanced countries in the world, you will be frustrated coming into one of the least advanced countries in America.

 

If you are retiring here in Managua, then you shouldn’t care too much about the slow pace of life here because you would have been tired of the fast paced life in the US. If you have patience, you will have a great time here in the area of Managua and in country of Nicaragua as a whole.  That is the worst things that can happen to you here; you can get frustrated about how slow life is here, but other than that, everything is great.

 

The best thing about retiring here is that you will have a lot of time to enjoy life. In Nicaragua, time is only relative to what you want to do. Time goes by and you will enjoy it more. If you want to go to Costa Rica, it is only an hour and a half away. If you want to go to Honduras, it is only two hours away from Managua. The infrastructure here will impress you. Our highways are new. If you compare them to the highways in Mexico, Honduras, or El Salvador, compared to our highways, theirs look like there has been a war.  

 

What I personally enjoy the most here in Nicaragua is that I can spend and enjoy a lot of time with family and friends without spending a lot of money. It is very cheap to go to places or even stay at hotels. Hotels here cost only US $40 to $60. I work 6 days a week, but I don’t feel burnt out because there is no reason for me to get tired because money is just relative. I can always go to either the supermarket where it is a bit expensive or I can go to the open-air market where everything is cheap. Out here in Nicaragua, if you have a budget of $1,500 a month, you will live like a king.