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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.  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.)

Expats In Granada To Order The Nicaragua Report - Click 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.  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.
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International Living Office In Granada

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.  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.

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. 

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. 
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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.

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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 below.
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