by Mitch Sanders

Ever daydream of throwing off the nine-to-five rat race yolk, finding an exotic, sunny clime, and opening a bar or restaurant where the palm trees sway and the snow never falls? Listen to the story of someone who did.

“The first six months were a nightmare. We had tiles falling off the roof onto cars in the street, we had to get permission to do everything-even to put trim around the doors. It took six months to get our cargo containers through customs when it should have taken two,“ said Ellen and Marco Snoek, a Dutch couple from near Amsterdam.

What could have been done to prevent the nightmare? “Nothing.”  Would they do it all over again? “Absolutely.”

by Mike Sabine

This could stir international controversy, but it is apparently provable that Cuba has imported Nicaraguan tobacco to make its internationally famous cigars. Cuba’s reputation as the cigar capital of the planet is being challenged by its neighbor to the west and it all started with the most famous of Latin stogie chompers, Fidel Castro.

When the Spanish first arrived in Nicaragua, the native people were already puffing away on rolled tobacco leaves, the potent wild chilcagria plant. But the birth of the fine Nicaraguan cigar would originate with the exodus of Cubans during the revolution of the early 1960’s. Men such as Sixto Plasencia and Jose Orlando Padron came to Nicaragua with tobacco seeds in their pocket seeking fertile volcanic soil and ideal climatic conditions.

by Nick Marlin

When is the last time you paid US$100 for a pair of work pants? Maybe that’s what you would pay if they were made in the US. Most of us choose a pair of work pants based on price; the majority of our purchasing decisions must be based on price. Otherwise there would be thousands of retail outlets called Expenso-Mart, Elega-Mart, SociallyawareMart or EnviroMart but instead we have Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and PriceSmart.

 Between the Waves interviews a North American apparel company operating in Nicaragua called ROCEDES. They supply working pants at a cost acceptable to US consumers and provide much needed employment in a country that has little.

 An Interview with ProNicarauga’s Executive Director, Juan Carlos Pereira

Q. What is ProNicaragua and who is funding it? 

A. ProNicaragua is the new investment promotion agency of Nicaragua created to serve the needs of investors looking for opportunities in Nicaragua. We are a public-private institution operating under the Presidential Commission on Investment Promotion and have received financial and other support from the President’s Office, the Nicaraguan Private Sector, UNDP, World Bank, MIGA, INCAE, and Harvard University.

We are actively participating in direct marketing campaigns abroad in an effort to bring more investment to Nicaragua. We advocate for the foreign investor and can assist potential investors navigate through their next foreign investment decision.

ProNicaragua offers services, free of charge, to qualified investors. Customized Site Visits can be organized for 2, 3, or 4 days so investors can see for themselves why Nicaragua could be an ideal off-shore platform for growth.

by Mary Charles Robinson

Walking along the street in the frontier town of San Carlos, slightly intimidated by all the attention, I heard someone speak to me in English. She came from behind and was eager to show off her English and said “what are you doing here?” She didn’t really wait for the answer and proceeded to talk the entire length of the street.

It was a moment I didn’t want to forget. She told me how she had lived in California for three years and had been too scared to speak much English. Now she regretted it. In her less than perfect English, she said, “no matter your fears, you have to speak to learn it.” My motto from there on was ‘have no fear, just speak.’

by Alex Edgerton
One thing many first time visitors to Nicaragua take home with them, as well as great memories and a suntan, is a taste for the national spirit, Flor de Caña rum and of couple of bottles.

The country’s premier alcoholic product is making a splash in glasses all over the planet as rum sippers from Miami to Manila get a taste for the smoothness that Nicaraguans have long cherished. In fact, many connoisseurs rate the rum superior to many more well-known brands that usually occupy the top shelves of fashionable bars and clubs around the globe.

Perhaps the best known and most loved product is the seven-year-old Gran Reserva dark rum, a mellow and rewarding drink best served neat or on the rocks. But Flor de Caña is not just about Gran Reserva.

by Mike Sabine
The story often told of the discovery of coffee is that of an Arabian goat herder who saw his flock dancing joyously around a bush with brightly colored berries. Upon ingesting them himself and experiencing the stimulating effects, he began to dance as well. From this fanciful beginning, coffee has grown to be the second most valuable commodity traded today, after petroleum.

With some 400 billion cups consumed every year, it is the world’s most popular beverage. The latest forecast for this years’ yield predicts exports from Nicaragua (mostly to Europe) will be in excess of 200 million dollars, making it the nation’s number one export.
(more…)

by Jack Potter
Betting is in the blood in Nicaragua. Gambling opportunities abound here. At a baseball stadium, for example, fans in the stands will bet on games, innings, and even the outcome of the next pitch thrown.
For those wanting to bet at county fairs, there is a cornucopia of contraptions such as the Casa chica/grande Nicaraguan 18-space roulette, spinning wheels clicking around to bills pinned on with clothes pegs, and blocks of wood threaded with strings that have a prize or not at the end. Sometimes a monkey pulls the string or a parakeet pecks up a card from a box.
There’s always cards with different games, like desmoche with its flexible rules, while the red/black moon/halfmoon two-dice toss offers opportunities to bet on other people’s bets.

by Pat Werner
When Nicaragua and I were much younger, I worked for a time in the old customs building at the Las Mercedes International Airport (now Managua International) on the north highway. I knew an old National Guard colonel and made some extra money working with him getting items out of customs. During the days of Somoza Debayle in the early 1970s, Nicaragua’s economy was red hot and the customs office was quite busy.

One day, I noticed a wooden box sitting in a corner and one of the customs workers asked me to lift it up. It was only about was one foot high, one foot wide, and about two feet long. Try as I might, I could not budge that box off the cement floor. For a moment, I thought someone was trying to fool me and had bolted it to the floor. The old colonel, I supposed, had played a trick on me by having one of the workers ask me to move the box. Laughing, he came up to me and with a hammer, opened up the wooden box. It was full of gold ingots, not shiny bright like brass, but more the color of butter, radiating out the warmth of the metal in a gentle yellow. That was my introduction to Nicaraguan gold.
(more…)