As my travels moved on from San Juan del Sur to some of the interior towns of the country, I met some beautiful sites: the volcanic lake at Catarina near Masaya, the views of both Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific from the highway to Managua and absolute perfect weather everyday. Temperatures in the winter average a high of 75-80 degrees in the daytime to the low 60’s at night.
One Issue I Ran Into
However I did encounter another problem which I somewhat anticipated but the reality of it really impacted the quality of my stay: the internet service.
Although the service had been weak at my first resort, I was surprised to find a strong signal at the Playa Hermosa resort I spent the day at. When I moved on to an Airbnb rental in one of the interior towns halfway between San Juan del Sur and Managua, I encountered very slow internet service, even when connected to WiFi almost everywhere. This seriously dented the quality of my experience as I was not able to incorporate media into my posts or share videos and photos with family and friends as easily. Calls to the US became difficult as well if I was trying to video chat. This got me thinking how the experience for many people could be vastly improved when visiting.
The state of internet speed in Latin America is behind the world median in general. With only Uruguay having a speed that I would call somewhat respectable. The site fastemetrics provides a map of internet speeds globally.
Source: Fastmetrics.com
Additionally the site mylatinlife.com provides an overview of the 8 fastest internet speeds in Latin America.
Source: mylatinlife.com
Unfortunately, Nicaragua comes in at 2.8 Mbps. For reference, the US measures 14.2 Mbps. Although the data is a bit dated, the state of service has not changed dramatically since then.
Many Asian countries lead the lists of the fastest internet speeds worldwide. Even those countries in Asia that tend to lag behind their peers like Vietnam or Thailand, still seem to have speeds that exceed those of many Latin American countries. Many of these Asian countries have been attracting what are called digital nomads, western expats that decide to do freelance work or run an online business from abroad. It’s a booming population of the younger generation and my impression was that countries like Nicaragua, with advantages like proximity to the US, a language easier to learn for many westerners, and a low cost of living were missing out on this market due to the abysmal quality of their internet service.
An Opportunity for the Bold
I have yet to see a country or a government actively upgrade its service and market to this population. There are many spillover affects to be had by having a young, entrepreneurial and relatively rich population set itself up in the country. For one, such people usually demand improvements for the areas they occupy such as in public services, infrastructure and housing. Growth is spurred by expats and locals who set up other, less tech oriented local businesses to meet these demands. So far what I have seen in Nicaragua in terms of expat businesses are the more traditional physical types such as convenience stores, juice bars and yoga studios. An influx of freelance and creative workers could add further diversification and a potential mini boom to the area as the snowball affect takes hold as the word gets around. If I were advising any of the local governments that wanted to promote tourism or further diversification of their economies, internet infrastructure and targeted marketing to the internet generation would be my focus.
On the Positive Side of Things
On the other hand, as some local people who worked or were indirectly connected to tourism pointed out, the lack of tourists made other things much faster and cheaper. The service at the resorts was prompt and probably half the price of what I would have paid a year ago.
My AirBnb rental in the town of Jinotepe was spacious and the manager of the home was very helpful bringing me more than enough bottled water for my entire stay. With 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, laundry,air conditioning, in a gated community with 24 hour security and priced at $75 a night, I found the home to be a great value. The view from the backyard is pictured below.
In addition, I did not hear many stories of much petty crime or street crime. The only warnings I got were to not drive alone at night, the police had been known to pull people over and demand bribes.
The Political Wait and See
Although everyone I met was eager to see the tourists and the economy return to normal, they also agreed there was a political cloud hanging over the country that was yet to be resolved.
I received some first hand insight from this when I got to sit down with a university student, the son of a friend, who had been attending the local university studying industrial engineering. Let’s call him Javier.
The protests that produced the “Tranque” last year started with university students, who were demanding a return to democracy and an end to what they saw as the illegitimate continued rule of Daniel Ortega. However as Javier noted, some lawless elements started to take hold of the revolt and it started to spin out of the student’s control. As tension started to grow, Javier heard that the school security was being infiltrated by state police who were taking the roll call lists of the school and recording the names of many for future interrogation and detention.
When the barricades went up, Javier found himself cutoff from his home and had to take refuge in a church. After some time, he decided to see if he could make a run for it to get home without being caught up in the melee. Luckily he ran into a sympathetic taxi driver who had been navigating the only open streets and got him out of danger and home.
After the barricades were broken down, many of his former classmates fled to Costa Rica to where he said the state police had covertly followed them. While there, many had gathered in parks and slept there while looking for pick up jobs to survive. He recently had heard that undercover Nicaraguan state police were disguising themselves as people needing seasonal work and then kidnapping the students when they showed up. They were then whisked off to Nicaragua for a date unknown.
With elections due next year, many were in a wait and see attitude and expect that there may be further turbulence around that time. However Nicaragua is not Venezuela, the economy is shrinking but not like Venezuela’s. The currency has remained relatively stable against the dollar and there is no big natural resource to draw in foreign powers. Pressure from the US, which imposed sanctions on certain government officials for human rights abuses after the “Tranque” episode, may produce a dialogue with the opposition.
Meanwhile life trumbles along for regular people. A lot of possibility remains in the country and if it can overcome its political issues, is poised for a period of fast growth and new possibilities. In that sense, for both those there and watching the country, all are in a state of wait and see.
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