Chapter 11NicaraguaReady for Prime Time
IT WAS A TIME OF CHANGE IN NICARAGUA. Daniel Ortega, once the leader of the Sandinista rebels and a former president of the country, had won the presidency yet again in a free and fair election in the fall of 2006. The world was holding its breath to see what would happen—especially including more than a few expats in the real estate business in Nicaragua.
Having moved into our rented condo in the Pacific coast town of San Juan del Sur on the very day of Ortega’s inauguration on January 10, 2007, we were among those who were waiting and watching. It didn’t take long to realize that there were no earth-shattering changes in store for Nicaragua . . . life went on under Ortega much as it had under the three presidents who followed him when he left office in 1990.
For us, the six months we spent exploring Nicaragua from our base in San Juan del Sur are implanted in our memories as one of the most relaxed and enjoyable periods of our time living overseas. And that’s despite the fact that Nicaragua at that time was still a very poor country with significant infrastructure challenges: terrible roads, frequent power outages, and slow Internet speeds. But regardless of the poverty, ...
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