by Linus Trouser

There exists a pervasive belief, a sort of blanket perception in many parts of the world, of Nicaragua and Central America as a whole as a vaguely sinister and dangerous place. In fact, for centuries, from the middle ages on, all things Iberian have been portrayed with an evil tinge.

The stereotype of the foppish but always cruel Spaniard of old carries on from Errol Flynn’s “Captain Blood” to “Zorro” to Johnny Depp’s nemesis in “Pirates of the Carribean.”  When was the last time you saw an English-language movie with a Spanish hero?

Historians trace this perception to two bipolar stories handed down from the past, accepted in the modern conscience but not exactly true- the Black Legend/White Legend. The Black Legend is the blood soaked story of Spanish conquest of Latin America, rife with slaughter and enslavement on a massive scale. The White Legend is the mirror image, the Spanish justification for their actions. It holds that not only did the conquerors introduce advanced culture and religion, but put an end to the human sacrifice and cannibalism central to native cultures in the Americas. The irony is that the cursory image created by the combination of the twin legends is that of sanguinary mayhem.

by Rebecca Love & Mike Sabine

John-Marc and Janice Gallagher lived in Tamarindo, Costa Rica where they ran a successful real estate management business.  After five years running the business, they decided to sell up and come to Nicaragua.  Business in Tamarindo had become too much like life in the United States, something they had moved down here to get away from.  They set up Granada Property Services (GPS) two years ago.

I asked them exactly what the business involves.  The demand comes from people who buy properties here, but do not want to live here full-time.  Often, people remodel their homes here, and so renting the properties out is a great way of maximizing their investment. “Maintaining and renting properties is an excellent advantage when it comes to selling a house, as the buyer can see that it has been well-maintained and is turnkey ready,” said John-Marc.  The owner will state when they would like to use the house, and the rest of the time, the house is available for rent.  Every time GPS find a tenant for the house, the owner is informed.

by Charly McDougal

The endless stories of people making big money quickly buying and selling real estate in Nicaragua are almost becoming the stuff of legend. The stories evolved because so many of them were essentially true. It’s getting more difficult, but those days are not over. If that’s what you’re looking for, you might want to skip condominiums and other multi unit developments.

But if you are looking for the easiest purchase process of a vacation, secondary or retirement home, multi unit projects are the answer. Called the “turnkey solution,” because with many projects all the buyer has to do besides sign a check is turn the key in the door lock after they step off the plane. Many offer shared amenities such as pools and gardens that would be cost prohibitive for a single home owner to afford.

The common thread in the new wave of condo/townhouse/villa is common design, common management, ready to move in with immediate income potential. The developer builds, sells, maintains and fixes fees No searching for lots, no title worries, no code inspectors or construction headaches. Building standards- structural, plumbing, electrical etc.- are to North American standards.  Packages are available to furnish the unit with everything household need, from furniture to DVD players and spoons and pillowcases. 

by Mike Sabine

Granada-native Luis Garay is a noted artist who been called the best young Latin American illustrator working today. He has won two international awards and is featured in “Under the Spell of the Moon,” a compilation book of the world’s best children’s book illustrators. Garay, age 39, has also written three books, The Kite, Pedrito’s Day and The Long Road. His stark, realistic style portrays the realities of growing up in Central America. They are tales of the everyday lives of children in Nicaragua, poignant but hopeful. Unlike much of children’s literature, his work contains no fantasy.

 “I call my style social realism. I wanted kids in North America to know what life was like here. North American kids always think they’re lacking something,” Garay said.  “What was I supposed to write about and paint? Snowmen? I went to my roots, what I know. My instincts told me what to do.” Garay gets the inspiration for his stories “by going into the streets, observing and photographing the lives of children around Nicaragua,”

by Rebecca Love

The majority of tourists to Nicaragua visit the main hotspots of Granada, San Juan del Sur, León and Managua. These are relatively affluent areas of Nicaragua; it can sometimes be difficult to understand how Nicaragua is one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations.  As a translator with a VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity) group of doctors and volunteers in the Rivas department of Nicaragua in January, I came to witness some of the human consequences of poverty.

Hordes of people arrive for examinations (wearing their best clothes) after having walked for several hours in extreme heat. They will likely have crossed various rivers and will often have to wait for several hours.  They wait extremely patiently, are nothing but courteous and polite, are very grateful. The looks of wonder on their faces when they can suddenly see again after maybe years of partial blindness make all the hard work totally worthwhile.

by Carlito Rockola

I’ll get right on it!

I was fishing on the beautiful Rio San Juan at the mouth of the Rio Bartolo enjoying my first success of the trip. The Rio Bartolo Nature Reserves’ park office also sits at the river mouth. As I played and landed a nice, fat snook the park ranger came out on the dock and began yelling animatedly and waving us over.

After releasing the fish, we went over to see what he wanted. “Where’s your license? You need a license to fish the Rio San Juan,” he explained. “You can’t fish without one.”  “Since when”,  I asked my guide, I never heard of this, we fished before without one. “It’s a new law, to pay the rangers’ salaries” Agustin Llanes, my guide and owner of Monte Cristo Resort explained.