Retire for Less Goes to Nicaragua

After 24 days traveling in Nicaragua, we’re back home in Costa Rica.

Why Nicaragua, you might ask?

1. First, they are Costa Rica’s neighbor to the north and it’s inexpensive to travel there.
2. Second, it is a country that developed very differently from Costa Rica and we wanted to get to know it’s history, culture, and people.
3. And third, it is popping up as a popular expat destination and we wanted to investigate.

Are we planning to move to Nicaragua and leave Costa Rica?? No. We love our lives in Costa Rica and have no plans to leave here. But at the same time, never say never. One of the reasons we have always rented is it gives us the freedom to move should we decide to do so — to another part of Costa Rica or even to another country in Latin Amerca, like Nicaragua, Panama, or Ecuador.

So, for our Nicaraguan adventure, we started out with six days in Matagalpa at a hostel, then continued on to Estelí. We chose those two towns because both Matagalpa and Estelí are in the northern highlands of Nicaragua, with weather similar to our town of San Ramón in Costa Rica, though with less rain. We took private Spanish lessons at Spanish School Nicaragua in Estelí for just under two weeks, and then ended our trip with a glorious four days in Granada.

So, can you “retire for less” in Nicaragua? The answer is absolutely yes! Take a look at our October cost of living expenses below to get an initial idea of what things cost. We’ll be writing more about this in the near future, so stay tuned!

And in the meantime, here are a few photos from our trip: