Where to Avoid When Visiting Nicaragua for Relocation 🇳🇮

[@travisphilmleesr3567]

One of the best videos YET! Great job!

[@MauricioTejada-kd6nk]

Thank you Scott for the information about Nicaragua. About Wall Street I like to tell you, this area it’s completely different now than how used to be.

[@giovanniugarte2949]

You were thorough in explaining life in Nicaragua and it's greatly appreciated. Your points of view go along the fine line and that makes it an honest and believable description of Nicaragua and its way of life. Thank you very much. FSLN

[@cynthiaferns8263]

Thank you for doing your show. You have taught my husband and I a lot. We are thinking about Leon.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I'm glad to be of service :) Thanks for being a part of the community!

[@GPosner8]

Great video and superb way of describing the difference between the cultural zones and the autonomous zones.

[@dubNoFunkinSoul]

Our move to Nicaragua begins in November. We have 2 weeks in SJDS then plan to head north, maybe around Leon/coast area to see what it's like, then maybe further north and see what we like the most. This video is on the money! SJDS is great, but definitely loses it's Nicaraguaness quickly, especially with the elevated costs associated with tourist,/enclaves. Part of me is nervous to be homeless for a month while we find our base and travel around, but still very excited to make the move

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Just think of living in a hotel in Nicaragua as likely cheaper and more flexible than being "not homeless" somewhere else ;) Hopefully we see you up in Leon!

[@dubNoFunkinSoul]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog Indeed! Maybe one day I can buy you and your team a beer to say thank you for all the advice and content!

[@jamesmcgowan5933]

Thank you Scott. Interesting talk about common sense.

[@Brent-ox8lk]

A timely vid series since I've nailed down my time for a first short visit in November. About ten days focusing just 0n Leon with day trips to Las Penitas, maybe a small town or two within the Leon departamento. I think you mentioned Poco a Poco hostel as being okay? I corresponded with them a bit and they seem helpful. I must say, I'll be interested to see how I'm received/perceived as an older person at a hostel. I'm a little concerned about it honestly. We'll see how it goes. lol Thanks as always!

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

It's super common here since 1) Poco a Poco is a relaxed non-party hostel and 2) Nicaraguans stay in hostels. It's just what they do.

[@nihil6128]

My wife and I spent most of our trip in Managua and never met another American or European except for our one tourist indulgence of a volcano hike in Leon. We took city buses (they're 9 cents!) and tried to frequent the same eateries. Years ago I visited a cousin who was telecommuting from Rancho Santana and felt like I learned almost nothing about the country except from chats with my taxi drivers 😂

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I imagine asking people in Rancho Santana about Nicaragua results in a lot of blank stares and people amazed to find out that there is something out there, lol.

[@dkurtz1162]

So funny that you mentioned living on Wall Street. When I first moved to NYC I lived on the corner of Wall and Water, it was DEAD at night. Only Delmonico's was open, and South Street Seaport was just getting started. Had to go "uptown" to Chinatown or lower east side to do grocery shopping and laundry, lol. I hear there's more options now but still pretty sparse

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

wow, what a place to live. I used to eat at a bakery at that corner!

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

My office was 111 Wall, 10th floor east side (literally, my personal office was the east half of the 10th floor.) I had something like a 50ft wide unobstructed view of Brooklyn since we sat directly on the river.

[@dkurtz1162]

We had a loft above an Irish pub on the NE corner of Wall and Water, 122 Water, next to a Yip's chinese restaurant. It's now Hotel Indigo and the Yip's has been torn down and made into a Holiday Inn Express, lol

[@1stLukecifer]

Reaffirming points well taken. (I chuckle every time I hear your polite distain for hippies: I’m born of that era and hold some of their values). While looking at AirB&Bs to sample different regions before ultimately picking Highland life, I found many appealing locations (remote cottage outside Nagarote, a removed cabin outside Masatepe, for example). While those are great vacation locations; they don’t have easy access to the buses, groceries, restaurants, or other prime infrastructure. I’m booked for 1st month in a Managua hotel (get pensionado residency started; police report, health inspection, research attorneys, Primary Care Specialists). Booked my 2 week “vacation” in a 2/2 house in Granada thereafter (never been; but at least want to confirm my desire to not stay). Looking for a Leon location mid April for a month before heading up to Matagalpa. Real easy to fall into tourist mode by shopping with your eyes and not your brain.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Sadly here, the hippie communities have a reputation for being dangerous drug dealers in some areas, and just being a blight that preys on the poorest locals on the other - it's super common to see hippies making the same products that very poor Nicaragua artists make and selling them side by side in the local markets trying to illegally make money by selling their souvenirs to tourists when they don't have the right to do so and every sale is a local Nicaraguan not able to feed his family that day. If you see hippies in NIcaragua, the one common factor is just that they are thieves. There doesn't seem to be any other commonality, maybe the lack of bathing. But no deep seated values like supposedly hippie communities are supposed to have. Sometimes they are just begging, but that ALSO is a blight on the population and makes it harder for actually destitute nicaraguans to get assistance, too. It's very sad, but "hippie" in the Nicaraguan sense basically equates to expat predators that target the most vulnerable Nicaraguans :(

[@1stLukecifer]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog “where do you hide you money from hippies?” “Under the soap, lol”. I remember the Trustsfarians (rich kids following the Grateful Dead), selling $10 Grilled Cheese sandwiches: these guys were business majors, perpetual students, and ended up ruining many a corporation. Not this guy: bald on top ever since my Army Anthrax shots & now that I’m retired, my beard ain’t being cut, so natural locs. I still listen to the Dead, but Grunge & Industrial were the tunes we played on stage. Post-Punk Musical Mutt.

[@kevinadams9468]

You have your head on right. my brother. I'll be there in a few weeks, two out of ten days for 'sight-seeing; and eight days for 'homework'. Taking notes on everything and anything! Been talking to locals (Hotels, dentists, whatever) on WhatsApp if I have questions, and everyone has been great.... I encourage people to reach out and just ask.

[@dkurtz1162]

I still hold some of the original ethos of hippies near and dear, the antiestablishment sentiment, the disdain of capitalism ala Abby Hoffman, etc. But those types of movements have historically been either squashed or perverted into the exact opposite of their origins. Hippies became cool, the music that came out of it was revolutionary but became pop culture and lost it's sting. Similar things happened with rap, which was very socially conscious but has been subverted into what it is now. I remember in the early 90's on the lower east side when punk started to become "cool" there'd be all these rich kids from NJ, Long Island and Westchester hanging out with perfectly coifed mohawks and just the right look begging on the street and hanging out around Tompkins Square Park. The establishment works overtime to shut down any attempt to undermine it and co-opt it to their own end. I remember the feeling of disbelief and discouragement that I felt when I saw William Burroughs on an Apple ad, it was like a gut punch. Anyway, love the original hippies, rappers and punk rockers and all the other movements that have tried to move us off this path to destruction, but sad that the outcome has been so diminished.

[@jamietennyson8529]

Hi, Scott. Great show as usual. Give me lots to think about. Oh, and by the way, it is Jamie and Lisa. We will be spending 2 months in San Juan. Hoping it will be a good match. Based on the fact we like to be around. Lots of stuff going on. You gave me a lot to think about. We are going to try to bye. And cook our own food as much as possible. And try to keep track of everything we spend. What are your thoughts on this being that you are the smartest person I know

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Especially in SJDS, cooking at home makes a big difference. Up here in Leon, not nearly as much. Since restaurants and street food are so cheap. But in SJDS most restaurants are quite pricey and so cooking at home matters a lot more.

[@christopherhouse7937]

84* degrees Fahrenheit isn’t all to hot. If it was mid to upper 90’s for weeks or months on end, that wouldn’t be enjoyable! 🥵☀️

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

84 isn't bad, but if you come from somewhere that has been cold, it seems pretty warm. We do spend a lot of time in the 90s. Not mid to upper, but lower to mid. It can be a bit. But once you adjust, it really isn't so bad. But the first time, it'll scare you.

[@Eclectic8]

Question: (Great video, BTW. Though must be a little daunting to see people so often mislead themselves in this way.) Scott: Do you see rooms for rent much? E.G. A family renting out an extra room in their house? Or do any extra rooms just generally go to extended family?

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Rooms for rent exist, for sure. But "see them much", no. Nicaraguans know how to find them. Mostly they are for students. Renting a room isn't very common. But if you go on AirBnB, you will find some.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

It's definitely a bit daunting the amount of advice we give and how little people do any research or think take advantage of the information that is out there. It's tough because we provide so much, and people seem to so often just ignore it all.

[@Eclectic8]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog Thanks. Guess people easily revert back to certain paradigms/ways of thinking about being abroad. Myself, I'll just be glad to (finally) get down there, i.e. to start making my own mistakes, err ...discoveries.

[@Guillermo-ym5yn]

Oh. The sun is back!

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

This was recorded a month ago before I went to Argentina :)

[@Lesseodollboy]

It's kinda ironic how Ometepe is an small island in a lake, yet everything feels an hour away, lol

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I swear that they either need [Practical] a series of little electric carts that do a circuit spaced out 15 minutes. OR [Impactical] a tram system that goes around the island.

[@Lesseodollboy]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog that would be really cool and worth it, the problem it's the money, so maybe in 15 years🥲

[@dkurtz1162]

Maybe after we clean up Leon as discussed last night, we can figure out how to go clean up ometepe and make it super uncomfortable for the dirty hippies to be such a blight, lol

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Woot woot! lol

[@douglassolomon5888]

Hey! I'm an orginal dirty hippy (at age 72.) BEWARE MY BLIGHT!!!

[@DaleGamburg]

How many times do I have to tell you, there are no hippies here or really anywhere.ive been here for two years I've met one hippie and he's 40 . You have new age capitalist gypsies here. $350 for a two day Ayahuasca ceremony is hardly held by hippies. Just as I s aid. New age capitalists fleeing the oppression of the USA. And to your friend I'd more worried about cleaning up wall street .