We are presently sitting on the porch of a rather quaint and tiny two bedroom casita, nestled between many other locally owned and inhabited casitas. They are all rather ramshackle, Heath Robinsonesque affairs, cobbled together and hickledy. Corrugated iron roofs held down with random bricks and stones. Balconies shaded from the sun, one on top of the other in a favela kind of setting. It’s not what we would call clever urban design, but it is charming nonetheless and functions quite well. The community is welcoming. Everybody greets you with a smile and makes you feel at home. They must be used to foreigners coming to stay at the AirB&B down the road, and accept us as welcome guests.
It is noisy. But noisy because this is them living. There were a few negative comments on the web site about the noise of kids, chickens, dogs and bells from salesmen of all kinds, water, ice cream, mangoes, milk, whatever you want passes by the gate. But you can’t come to a place like this and expect the western sensibilities we are used to. Quiet and consideration are not on the radar here. Ever since we crossed into Mexico things changed. Everything was a bit noisier, people made whatever noise they wanted whenever they fancied. At the beginning I kind of got agitated by the lack of respect. But as time has progressed we have become accustomed to the late night mariachi and the sounds of people just living their lives without a care. It has actually become quite pleasant. Right now I can hear the kids opposite complaining about their daily chores, the radio is blaring out just down the road. The odd chicken is flustering itself about nothing, and someone is banging a bucket for some unknown reason. He has stopped now. Nope, he started again. I didn’t even notice you see. Before It would have started to annoy me. Back in London the sound of the neighbour downstairs shouting down her phone, or banging her hoover insulted me. But I am British, and my annoyance would never be known, just a silent hatred of someone I didn’t even know. That’s changed. But they do seem to like yappy chihuahua’s here!
We stayed in a beautiful place just north of here after the island of Ometepe. Actually slept in a VW microbus, non functioning and now just a double bed space with a fan and a building around it in the middle of the jungle. Insects everywhere, monkeys overhead and Quetzal birds all around. It was a beautiful place set up by some Germans around 12 years ago. Hostal Clandestino. They bought the land, developed it and have made a very good life for themselves and their four kids here. It was quite inspiring to hear their story. And gave us serious food for thought. Nicaragua has many benefits over Costa Rica. Mainly the lower price of land and labour, but also the laid back and local feel. Costa Rica has a huge amount of foreign owned pads, over priced and over subscribed. Here you can buy a lot more for your money and the processes seem a lot more straight forward too. Legal and bureaucratic paperwork sound a lot easier to manage. But we have also discussed Mexico as an option. There are so many options at our disposal we are a little bewildered but we will have time on our hands to come to some conclusions some time.
I can’t personally sell Nicaragua highly enough. It is beautiful, simple, cheap and welcoming. I have loved everybody I have met, foreign or Nicaraguan. The scenery is to die for. The ocean is like emersing yourself in a warm bath but just cool enough to be refreshing after the intense heat of the beach. It has a great climate, hot and humid mostly but if you go higher it gets cooler. All in all a great option if you want a great but cheap holiday. We may come back to explore more after Costa, after all we have to do the border run every 3 months to renew our visas so we will be back for sure. What an amazing country it is.
