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Falling In Love With Granada All Over Again

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Nov 08, 2008
in Retirement/Living
0
Recommendations for travel in Granada, Nicaragua

The old district in Granada has a special charm that is undeniable.

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Falling In Love With Granada All Over Again

 

“The honesty and realism of your information shines through. I am looking forward to continuing reading your offerings for a long time.”
— Carol C., United States

I’m back in Nicaragua for the first time in more than three years. I didn’t choose to stay away so long. Circumstances and schedules kept me absent. The truth is, Nicaragua is one of the places I daydream about regularly…one of the countries I feel most connected to…and one of the spots where Lief and I intend, ultimately, way down the road in our retirement years, to settle.

Meantime, I get back as often as I can.

Returning to a place you love after an unavoidable hiatus, you resent the changes since you were there last…and you delight in all the things that are just the same.

After 24 hours on the ground in Nicaragua, I can tell you, with relief, that this is still the place I remember. There are changes, sure, but not so many that you can’t ignore them if you’re so inclined.

This is the end of the rainy season in this country, which started late this year and seems to be going out with a bang. The rains have been falling heavy and daily for the past few weeks. The rivers are running high, and the dirt roads are sometimes impassable.

I can’t help but draw comparisons between this place and the place I left early yesterday morning, Panama City.

Granada, Nicaragua, from where I write, and Panama City, Panama, couldn’t be more different, and I’ve been trying to put my finger on, exactly, why that is. Finally, the gentleman who was kind enough to collect me in Managua last night and deliver me to my host here in Granada for these two nights articulated the difference for me.

“Panama City is booming,” I was explaining after he’d asked how I was enjoying life in my new home town.

“There’s so much energy and activity…so many people and so much money flowing through that place right now, thanks, largely, to the Panama Canal expansion work, which began this year.

“Panama City is in your face. Downtown is noisy, dirty, frenzied, and completely alive. This is an exciting time in the history of Panama, and I’m enjoying the chance to witness it from the inside.

“Nicaragua, on the other hand,” I began…

“Is swinging contentedly in its hammock,” my new friend completed the thought for me.

And he got it just right. While Panama is busy remaking itself, retooling for a decade of further and continued growth, development, and expansion…Nicaragua is happy to sit back and enjoy the sunshine.

There are no big road works projects under way in Nicaragua right now…though, certainly, some of the roads could use improving.

And the Nicaraguans you pass as you travel around their country…they’re herding their cattle, tending their sugar cane, rocking slowly in their big wicker chairs…

They seem in no hurry to get anywhere or to do anything in particular, and, watching them, you begin to wonder why you are.

The price of oil…the price of gold…the dollar/euro exchange rate…the closing figure for the Dow…these things all seem far away and unimportant when you wander the roads of this beautiful and right now dazzlingly green country.

Don’t these people know the world is ending…that global markets are collapsing? If they are aware, they’re unaffected. And, again, spending time among them, you can’t help but wonder if they don’t know something you don’t.

I’ve got much to tell you about what I’ve seen so far…but I’m already late for my first appointment this morning. I’ll fill you in, don’t worry, on everything, when I’m back in Panama City and have more time.

Meantime, on the drive into Granada last night, my Marketing Director Harry, in Nicaragua for the first time, wondered: “What’s the demographic of the foreigners living here now?”

“The folks who’ve chosen Nicaragua for their overseas retirement or new life abroad are adventurers,” I replied. “They’re out-of-the-box thinkers. Nicaragua isn’t an obvious choice for someone whose primary objective is to play it safe. This country is still rugged and delightfully unpolished.”

“I think I like it better here than in Panama,” Harry responded. “There’s something romantic about this place…I can’t explain it…”

I sensed it on my first visit, too. There’s something poetic in the Nicaraguan way of life. Infatuating.

The people of this little country have lived through troubled times. But they’re not bitter or calloused. They’re warm and welcoming. Big-hearted and quick with a smile.

They’re also strong and resilient…able to take the ups and downs of day-to-day living in their stride.

In Panama City, your pulse quickens. Your heart races. You feel like you’d better get up and get moving. Do something…build something…

Here in Granada, you want to settle back and settle in. Your mind wants to slow down, and your heart wants to savor.

“I wish we could stay longer,” Harry commented this morning over breakfast. “I could imagine staying on here…”

We’ll plan a more extended visit soon. Being here again has reminded me why I fell in love with this country in the first place, more than 15 years ago.

Right now, though, unfortunately, Harry and I have a full schedule. We’ve got to resist the urge to slow down. We must push ahead…to the Laguna d’Apoyo…to the coast…then back to Managua…

More tomorrow.

Kathleen Peddicord

 

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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