Blogs

Amy and Darrell Bushnell

http://www.nicaragua-guide.com/1/post/2013/01/nica-news-from-us-embassy....

I cant find it in the US website but didn't look too hard.

http://ajae.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/07/ajae.aas139.full is the full study which may be blocked later behind a paywall.

http://blog.oup.com/2013/01/what-happens-when-walmart-comes-to-nicaragua... is the synopsis.

Basically, there's a modest gain in income for farmers near Managua who can get goods to market easily. Farmers who have no experience selling to supermarkets prior to Walmart coming in seem to benefit from NGO help in getting set up.

Currently, there's one Walmart store for every 75,000 Nicaraguans compared to the US's one per 69,0000 people.

This comes from an anthropology site I follow and may be of interest to some of you who aren't sure that the way things are done in the US is the best.

http://savageminds.org/2013/01/17/all-it-takes-is-a-passport/

I'm somewhat amused since her last expat living was on Roatan (and she had Honduran legal residency) and her politics range by the issue (which generally means that someone had thought about a few things and didn't just buy a whole party line), but she's generally a bit more to the right than I am.

She was the one who said that her preferences for a social life were to hang out with the rich locals and keep the other expats at arm's length (in my own social life, I seem to hang out with people more or less like me, whatever their national origins).

On Sunday I was stopped on the road between Rivas and Tola and asked to show evidence of my Driver's License Insurance. Not car insurance, Drivers License insurance! Sure enough La Ley 431 Article 47 Paragraph # 2(e) lists "Seguro de Licenscia" as a requirement for extranjeros (I've a Cedula but guess that didn't matter).

I'm told you do not need the insurance ($15 a year) if you use a US license. Others have said this law only applies to commercial licenses. In any event, the local police are using this section to extort bribes. Beware of new scam.

Am I the only one who has been asked to show license insurance when stopped? Today, between Rivas and Tola, Officer Badge Number 10512 showed me La Ley 431, Article 47, Paragraph 2 (e) which says extranjeros mush show "Seguro de Licensia." I'm a Permanent Resident here but I guess that doesn't mean I'm not still a foreigner. Is this a new scam or what?

I visited El Malecon and have posted pictures of the place. It does look interesting and has a chance of succeeding with anyone who wants to visit lake Apanas and experience the area. They have built 3 concession stands to sell food and drinks. They also built a bathhouse and observation tower. The beach looks like it is not to steep and they are able to launch boats from it. The owner plans to have boats and guides for hire to take guest to the 5 islands in the area or just to spend time fishing. He also said you could hire a boat as a water taxi.

My 3G modem tests were pretty awful and I was lucky if I got close to the speed I'd subscribed to. Here's the recent progress on the 4G modem front with a faster line speed subscription at the same price:

11/23/2012 4:36 PM GMT 0.71 Mb/s 0.32 Mb/s 211 ms San Jose ~ 200 mi

Compared with three tonight:

1/18/2013 3:31 AM GMT 1.64 Mb/s 0.35 Mb/s 186 ms Tegucigalpa ~ 150 mi

1/18/2013 3:35 AM GMT 2.25 Mb/s 0.35 Mb/s 216 ms Managua < 50 mi

1/18/2013 3:41 AM GMT 2.50 Mb/s 0.32 Mb/s 187 ms Tegucigalpa ~ 150 mi

I removed my IP addresses.

Claro texts me: "Hoy solo en ... Supermercados LA COLONIA TRIPLICAS tus recargas de C$20 o mas" OK, but there's no LA COLONIA in León, jodido. We have La Union (& Pali + Maxi-Pali) & Salman supermarkets. Now many customers buy their cell phone usage minutes at the check-out registers, after passing groceries over bloody laser-readers & scales. It's aggrevating waiting in line while the clerk dials up the codes on the store's cell phone and writes down the transaction on a sheet.

It's unofficial but four of the taxi federations are in talks with Managua City Council to begin a pilot program to each introduce 250 meters (1,000 in total) to their fleet of taxis in the nation's capital starting in the second quarter of the year. Meters will be calibrated to account for fuel, time and mileage and on a sample trip, it was 15 Córdobas more than they would have charged normally.

Gas Natural say they are still negotiating but the Adviser for Economic Affairs to the Presidency, Bayardo Arce, says they sold its entire shares.

TSK are rumored to be the buyer (http://www.tsk.es/).

Arce said whoever bought the shares should "look how to give a better quality of service to the people"...

The state retains 16% of its equity interest in Disnorte Dissur.

Without wishing to contradict Arce, a Union Fenosa source would only say that "there is a negotiation process, but they have not sold the shares and not reached an agreement".

I thought I'd talked about this earlier, but I get people asking me to talk to them about Jinotega from time to time. The short list for me were Matagalpa, Esteli, and Jinotega for the mountains and the weather. The other requirement was that the place would have enough expats that I would be able to have an English speaking social life without having to get along with all of them, and not so many that I would not be pushed to learn Spanish. Jinotega has been about right for the some expats but not too many.

http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2013/01/13/seccion-domingo/130559-malecon-apa...

Well, more like SBall's back yard but that headline was weaker.

Jinotega Ecotourism soon to open a door in the "City of Mists".

The community of Sisle, located 22 kilometers north of Jinotega will premier the Apanás Lake Boardwalk (Malecon). The project will be operational no later than Easter (which starts on March 24), according to Oscar González Casco the local Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (Intur) Delegate in Jinotega.

http://www.dgi.gob.ni/documentos/Comunicado_01-2013.doc.pdf

Rentas de actividades económicas/Income from economic activity

Operaciones con paraísos fiscales - Pay 17%

I read that as any work/business with income paid to you here by another country that is tax free in that country (paraísos fiscales) is 17% here.

Then there is the "Other economic activities" @15%

We need the Tiffer version of a Tax Lawyer on here.

http://www.heritage.org/index/country/nicaragua

Nicaragua is 110 of 177 countries, three down from the previous report.

In Latin America, Nicaragua is ranked 21 of 29 countries and its overall score is below the world average.