The rooms were small but clean and the staff was friendly and helpful. San Juan del Sur is popular with tourists, retirees and snow birds. As usual, the retirees are making the price of real estate rise rapidly. We were told that about 300 foreigners owned property there. One complex consisting of 500 units is designed to appeal to retired expats. There were beaches, bars, and not much else to do. We checked into going Sport fishing, one of my all-time favorite things. A 23 center console boat was $500 for half a day. As you may know, most center console boats offer little shade and don't have any way to escape the hot sun, so we passed on that.  Later in the evening we happened to meet some expats who invited us to join them at a beach bar. It seems that every Thursday night from 7 to 9 p.m. these people get together for Swing Dancing. Sort of Lawrence Welk-type music, but they seemed to have a good time.

The two other properties were new townhouses (3 bed, 3 bath) and the construction was some of the worst I have ever seen in all my travels.

Roy is a construction engineer and he said This construction is pitifull. The price was insane - $175,000 for each. After we pointed out just a few of the construction flaws to the realtor, he did not want to show us any other properties.

The traffic in Managua was bad, but was nothing compared to Tegucigalpa! Driving is a nightmare there and trying to cross the street was downright scary! We got the impression that they were actually aiming at us. They lay on their horns if you try to cross, but no way will they slow down. Horns are blowing continuously and the resultant noise is even worse than Panama City! 

We had plans to visit the Bay Islands but after talking to some people in the hotel who were from there, we decided to give it a pass. They recounted several stories about going without power for days at a time and the infrastructure damage that resulted from Hurricane Mitch still hasn't been completely repaired. We learned that one American recently bought a 1.5 acre lot for $300,000. That's all - just the lot, no electric, water, sewer, etc.

It did have an ocean view. One man from Louisiana who has owned a small (8 room) hotel on Utola for 18 years said he pays 35 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity and if his hotel is rented he pays over $1,000 a month for electricity. On Roatan it's about 30 cents per kilowatt hour.

He said he would go elsewhere, but he owns about 65 acres there and is waiting for the island to become more developed. Phone service is sometimes nonexistent, same with internet.

Most people have generators, but gas/diesel fuel is over $3.00 a gallon. Considering these drawbacks, we both decided that we wouldnt want to give up what comforts we have on Isla Margarita to live there, and as an investment opportunity we thought the Bay Islands were already overpriced. 

The bottom line is we actually have an extremely good life here on Margarita. The infrastructure is very good and we see efforts to improve even more. The roads are good all over the island and we have the cheapest energy in all of the Americas, and the cheapest gasoline and diesel at about 10 cents a gallon.

Drivers are more courteous here and the traffic is manageable. Liquor is inexpensive here. A bottle of decent Rum is $2.50 and beer is about 23 cents a bottle. Excellent shopping malls and food stores, real estate prices are still reasonable, no volcanoes, no hurricanes, and the most beautiful women in the world. I call it the Land of Milk & Honeys. 

We got back to the island just in time to see World Championship Windsurfing Contest at Playa El Yaque. The top windsurfers/kite surfers from all over the world and their ardent female fans in dental floss bikinis were there to cheer for their favorites.