Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of the life & writings of Benjamin Franklin

One day tourism is booming, my local neighborhood friends are buying taxis, expanding hotels, and competing for wealthier tourists who have recently discovered Nicaragua. Literally, the next day tourism is dead, taxis are repossessed, hotels close, and my friends are struggling to make sense of it all.

People ask us all the time if we will return to Nicaragua. Now that Ron is cancer free (after a long, dark winter of treatment), we think we know the answer, but life altering changes happened so quickly that we don’t trust visions of our future anymore.

I still harbor anger toward the government of Nicaragua. Ron tells me that I have to be careful what I say and write because we have property and a house in Nicaragua. We all know that pent up anger is not good! Therefore, I catch myself directing and projecting my anger toward those expats with vested interests, like businesses in Nicaragua, who say that Nicaragua is safe and everything has returned to normal, while blaming me for their suffering because I post factual articles about Nicaragua’s ongoing crisis.

For me, safety is not the issue. Crime is more rampant because unemployment is high. So, tourists do need to exercise caution when traveling in Nicaragua. I have been reading on the expat forums about more scams and robberies. This one just this week on Ometepe.
But for me, the issue of returning is a moral issue. I cannot support a government that tortures and kills its people for speaking out against human right’s violations.

Believe me when I say I understand their fears and stresses, although I am still bewildered by some expats’ reactions to my posts. Compound our fear with choosing to leave our home AND a diagnosis of cancer. I get it. We have been vested in Nicaragua for 16 years. We are legal residents. We took the time and effort and found it important to learn Spanish, become legal residents, and fulfill dreams. Nicaragua presented an opportunity for us to become culturally immersed in a small all Spanish speaking community. We jumped…and flew!

Our little beach-front home in 2003 before remodeling, and the day we left Nicaragua in July 2018.

Since 2003, we have generously supported our Nicaraguan friends both monetarily and emotionally. In return, the people of Nicaragua have given us their kindness, their time, and their knowledge. Generally speaking, we would trust our Nicaraguan friends over expats in a time of crisis. Throughout our lives on Ometepe Island and Nicaragua, whenever we were lost or confused, our Nicaraguan friends were the first to lend us a helping hand.

This is an old post about our goddaughter’s sixth birthday party in 2005. It explains our love for our Nicaraguan friends perfectly. The Birthday Party

Therefore, in making a decision to return to Nicaragua to live, there are many factors to consider. I have listed them in order of priority.

1.Freedom of Speech, Repression, and Human Right’s Violations

Returning to Nicaragua is a moral issue for me. We didn’t live in a gringo bubble or gated compound. We were immersed in a small rural neighborhood, surrounded by farmers, a local tourism organization, and the local elementary school where I house my children’s library.

Ometepe was under heavy police presence during the height of the unrest, and though things have cooled down, the Ometepinos are still under constant watch.

Tourists feel uncomfortable at Ojo de Agua. Photo taken in July, 2019.

I chat daily with my local friends. They are afraid to say anything or even wear a blue and white t-shirt for fear of being put on a “list” as a terrorist. Over 500 Nicaraguans have given their lives to protest human right’s violations. 60,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country. Until the country stabilizes, until Ortega is tried and convicted, until the basic human rights of the Nicaraguan people are restored and they can speak and protest freely and openly without fear, until I can speak freely about a repressive government, I cannot morally return to Nicaragua to live.

2. Economy

I fear Nicaragua is headed for a severe depression. My friends tell me how expensive things have become like food and utilities. Their taxis, cars, and rental bikes have been repossessed by the banks because they can’t afford to make the payments. Banks are closing and on Ometepe Island, there are no more ATMs on the Maderas side of the island. Sending money is becoming more difficult. Now, I must not send over $500 to our goddaughter or librarian for fear of them being questioned, harassed or audited by the government.

a recent post by a foreign expat in Nicaragua

3. Convenience

Not everything is crisis related. Truthfully, our time on Ometepe Island was coming to a close before the crisis. We couldn’t decide whether to sell our place or travel more often, so we decided to travel 6 months of the year, and prepare our place for sale in 2018.
Gypsytoes or Stickytoes

Who wouldn’t want to buy our place located very close to Punta Jesus Maria.

But, before we could sell, Nicaragua exploded in a political crisis. We tell ourselves everyday, how lucky we are not to have burned any bridges. We still had a mortgage-free house in the states and returning was not dependent on selling our house and property. I wonder if that is why some Nicaraguan expats are angry with me and in denial that there is a problem in Nicaragua? They cannot leave…they burned their bridges…they are stuck in Nicaragua with no options.

But, I digress. Conveniences. The older we get, the more challenges we face with the lack of conveniences. The quirkiness became old. We were ready for reliable utilities, more transportation options, a library, and free shipping from Amazon.

4. Stimulation

One of my most popular posts is Pros and Cons of Living on an Island.

Ometepe from above.

It still holds true today. Social life with others was limited. We wanted to go to a library and read, or audit classes at a university. We had the seven year itch of “been there…done that”. It was time to move on.

5. Medical Care

This is the biggie! Ron found a lump in his neck in November 2017. In May of 2018, he had it biopsied in Nicaragua. When the results were in, we couldn’t get back to the mainland because of political violence in Rivas, so our friend called the doctor for the results. Fortunately, or so we thought, it was benign. The doctor diagnosed it as a pleomorphic adenoma and said it should be removed soon because it could become cancerous.

We couldn’t travel to Managua for an operation, again because the roads were blocked and the doctors were fleeing Nicaragua because they were deemed terrorists if they helped any protesters. So, we decided to leave Nicaragua and return to the states to have the lumps removed and wait to see what happened in Nicaragua.

Medical care in Nicaragua was always difficult for us because we had to travel to Managua to see a doctor we trusted and who had the proper equipment. Now, with the violence, the doctors we really liked fled Nicaragua to Costa Rica. They still haven’t returned and I doubt that medical care is like it was pre-crisis. I am not sure how many doctors remain and how good can they be if they refuse to help the opposition?

Now we have Medicare in the states and when Ron’s neck tumors were diagnosed as throat cancer, we traveled 10 minutes away from our house to excellent medical facilities where Ron was admitted into a clinical trial for mucositus during radiation (and he was the only patient the doctors had ever seen who experienced no sores or throat pain from the radiation), and he received excellent treatment and was cancer-free in two months.

6. Climate

Climate change is wrecking havoc with Nicaragua. We have noticed many traumatic weather events in Nicaragua. Fires, floods, landslides, droughts, intolerable heat seem to be more prevalent. The aquatic mites, called chayules, swarm more often around the lake. The wet season is not predictable like it used to be. Farmers have a hard time deciding when to plant and harvest their crops. There are more insect infestations and molds on the coffee plants and blights on the bananas. It must be very hard to be a farmer with climate change.

Presently, there is an epidemic of Dengue in Nicaragua. When we tell people we had Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya, they wonder why we lived in Nicaragua as long as we did. Chikungunya still hits us with bouts of arthritic pain, three years later. Mosquito borne diseases are practically unavoidable in Nicaragua. Let’s hope the vaccine for Dengue is approved soon!

Check out my post, You Know You Have Chikungunya When…

So, if you were wondering if we will return to Nicaragua to live…the answer is probably no. It is time for us to move forward with our lives. We are going to travel more, laugh more, and live with more gusto and compassion.

We’ve accomplished our dreams in Nicaragua. I have no regrets. Now, we are free to roam the world and return to our home in the states whenever we get tired of traveling.

It took me a year to overcome my identity crisis. I am no longer Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua, so my next post will be my last one for this blog. It has been a great run! Thank you all for your support and love.

Stay tuned for Part II: How you can help the people in Nicaragua. And there are many ways to help without actually visiting the country, if you feel the way I do.

Also, stay tuned for my new blog… My Teeth Dropped Off the Charles Bridge~Tales of Travelers Beyond 60.

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Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua

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Part I: Will We Return to Nicaragua to Live?