| The Nicaragua Report by Christopher
Howard |
| Announcing A New eBook On EscapeArtist.com |
| Excerpted from the forward by Roger Gallo |
| After several
false starts we are finally getting our eBook Store online. We've
grown so fast in the past 24 months that we have had all we can do to handle
what we already have online, let alone consider adding new features. Finally,
through force of will we are at long last adding those new sections that
we have been working on. As mentioned in another article in this edition,
our new Yacht Broker section is finally online. ...and we have now
turned our attention to our eBook Store.
eBooks fit
particularly well on our website. Because of the unique nature of
our website our overall subject matter includes a number of subjects that
are important to us and to you, but that would not merit the cost of putting
them into a conventional hardcopy book. |
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| A hardcopy
book on how to buy real estate, move to and gain residency in Brazil wouldn't
justify the cost of printing a hardcopy book on the subject. Yes,
there is definitely an audience for such a book, but not a large enough
audience to justify the cost of conventional hardcopy printing. On
our website, such a book is in front of the right audience, and while it
costs us to produce the eBooks, the cost doesn't compare with the cost
of printing a hardcopy book on the same subject. This allows us to
keep the cost low, the subjects as esoteric as our audience, and to provide
information that you would not be able to find anywhere else on the Internet.
(...nor in your local bookstore.)
The Nicaragua Report written by Christopher
Howard is a seventy-five page report on everything you'll need to know
about moving to Nicaragua. Nicaragua currently has an excellent real estate
market and has much lower prices than Panama. In addition to low
prices, it also has excellent real estate, pristine beaches and islands
that are for sale at bargain basement prices. The report covers everything;
investing, residency, entertainment, real estate, travel, medicine, meeting
people in Nicaragua, history, future prospects, tour information and much
more. We have a Table of Contents for the Nicaragua Report in PDF which
we'll list at the end of this article. |
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| It is an excellent report and is
priced at $20. You
can order it online by clicking here -
Nicaragua is a country unlike any
other. Its simplicity of character, yesteryear charm and colonial cities
are strong and persistent invitations to linger. The urge to remain
in Nicaragua can become obsessive. I am constantly renovating 200 year
old buildings in my head every time I walk the streets of Granada.
Granada has cafes where expatriates gather and sidewalks filled with European
backpackers. It is a remembrance of finer things, a slower more protein
world and no one can look at it without a sense of physical connection.
Nicaragua doesn't have the triumphant
history of a France or an Italy, its history is in the present and we get
the sense that it feels forgotten. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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| Off the beaten track, no cruise
ships, no bus loads of German and Japanese tourists... nothing seems
to move. Nicaragua is asleep. The dusty roads pass farms, small
towns with tree lined plazas, school girls waiting for their bus, beaches
without footprints, groves of trees, men on horseback, cattle.
Nicaragua has tobacco. The
best cigar I ever smoked I smoked in Nicaragua. Nicaragua has land,
the nicest colonial buildings I've ever seen I saw in Nicaragua. Nicaragua
has opportunity. As my friend Doug Casey always says, ‘wait until they
run the tires off the car before you buy into a nation, that's when it’s
time to buy.’ It’s time to buy. (Doug owns real estate in Nicaragua.)
Nicaragua has had its share of misfortune.
The US backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, son of Anastasio Somoza
Garcia, (who was placed in power in 1933 by U.S. Marines) milked
the nation of its resources as if it was his personal property. Somoza
was replaced by well meaning, politically inept Daniel Ortega who
along with his cronies created a communist state that couldn't supply the
basic necessities to anyone other than each other. |
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| Nicaragua returned to democracy
on 25 February 1990. Things have gradually improved in Nicaragua since
then, but not in a straight ascending line and not very rapidly.
Nicaragua is the largest country
in Central America; contains the largest freshwater body in Central America,
(Lago de Nicaragua,) yet suffers from not having a shipping port
despite having 910 km (566 miles) of coastline. Nicaragua has no
railway with the exception of an ancient narrow gauge line that runs
for 6 km (3.7 miles.) The estimated average income in 2001 was $2,500.
The telephone system is inadequate, the internet connections impoverished.
There is 23% unemployment, and little investment. Nicaragua is one of the
hemisphere's poorest countries and it has a huge external debt. Despite
the fact that Nicaragua found a peaceful solution to its political turmoil,
the distribution of income still remains extremely unequal. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| I’d say its time to buy. ...and
what I’d buy, as you might have already guessed, is real estate. Nicaragua
probably cannot fall any further than its already fallen, and it has already
experimented with every existing facet of political lunacy, so the only
thing remaining is to try a rational approach. Several conversations I
had in Nicaragua with those who are attempting to bring economic growth
and stability to Nicaragua convinced me that Nicaragua is probably on a
long upward ascent. Current global economic conditions as of this
writing (May 2003) with the worldwide recession will of course hamper current
growth in Nicaragua as they do elsewhere. But these same economic conditions
will continue to make real estate in Nicaragua a bargain.
Real estate in Nicaragua can be a
bargain. As I write this I see in the EscapeArtist Real Estate Marketplace
listings for:
•a small island with a house,
fruit and coconut trees, ten minutes from Granada priced at $70,000,
•a 1,210 acre coffee farm with 120,000
coffee trees, 660 acres of hardwood trees, a hacienda, a lagoon and some
waterfalls. The price is $349,690 Negotiable.
•Compare the above with a 927 sq
ft condo in Miami for $257,000.
"Land prices [in Nicaragua]
are ridiculously inexpensive."
February 2002 issue of Conde
Nast Traveler - -
The Caribbean Property List website
shows a 274 acre working cattle ranch for $270,000 - and some quarter-acre
building lots on Lake Apoyo for $9,000. I’ve hiked around Lake Apoyo,
and it is lovely wooded country. Lief Simon and Kathleen Petticord of International
Living Magazine led me in pursuit of a pack of howler monkeys in the hills
above Lake Apoyo. We had a difficult time getting close to them as
they move from tree to tree very rapidly and with total impunity, they
are extremely interesting animals whose howl is unique and unforgettable.
Lief and Kathleen also showed me
their project at Rancho Santana on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. (See
the online resource section of this ebook for links.) The project is
near the Costa Rican border and is perfect for those seeking a country
club setting in a community of like-minded expatriates. The houses
in Rancho Santana are first class, the dining room in the club house serves
excellent food and the view of the ocean is panoramic. If you want
a ready made situation, Rancho Santana may be the place to start.
In addition to the above mention
real estate websites I have found other websites on the internet that offer
properties in Nicaragua, all of which are listed in the online resource
section for this eBook. We are going to provide an online resource
page for each eBook which will provide links to important resources, updates
and other information that will be valuable to the reader.
More than good real estate prices,
Nicaragua has much about it that is appealing as a place to live.
I also believe that there is opportunity there. I have long wanted
to buy property in Granada with a storefront. There are more tourists in
Granada than in Panama City, and the entry price for opening a business
in Nicaragua is lower than in Panama. Panama appeals more to those
who want to run an international business utilizing Panama’s beneficial
legislation for international business. Those seeking a brick and
mortar type of business might well consider Nicaragua, because of its low
entry cost and because its lack of infrastructure and services could well
spell opportunity rather than inconvenience.
Christopher Howard has done a through
job with The Nicaragua Report. There is more than enough here to
get you started, tell you where to look, understand the process of residency
and find those services that are crucial to establishing ones self in a
new nation. Howard has written several books on relocation, including one
on Cuba and one on Costa Rica. I consulted his book ‘The Golden Door
to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica’ when I was doing research on the
book version of Escape From America. I recommended the book at that
time as one of the two best resources on moving to Costa Rica. A
recommendation I’ll stand by. There are resources on the author in the
online resource section, including how to find his other books, his tour
groups to Costa Rica and Nicaragua and related topics.
When you get to Granada, and I hope
you do, I may be there watching you from some waterfront dive...
if we meet, I’ll see you for a beer or two.
The Nicaragua Report is $20.
To purchase it click on the link. |
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Article
Index ~ Nicaragua
Index ~ |
