We researched Granada before our trip, of course, and considered ourselves forewarned about some potential problems. Some of those problems never occurred, but others popped up that we weren't prepared for. Here's what surprised us during our trip to Nicaragua:
Mosquitos... Or the lack thereof.
We read a LOT of warnings about mosquitos in Granada, specifically that we'd get eaten alive unless we slathered ourselves with serious bug repellent daily. This was one of my biggest concerns in terms of daily comfort here. Two weeks into our trip, we've gotten a couple bites each - less than I'd typically get sitting on our porch at home - but have not needed to use bug spray. (We'll bring it on our upcoming excursions out of the city, but I don't anticipate needing it otherwise.) Considering that we're staying in a hacienda-style house with an open center where basically all living spaces other than our bedrooms and bathrooms are open to the outdoors, we're especially surprised that mosquitos haven't been a problem. But maybe that's due to...
Geckos, Bats, and Slugs - Oh My!
We hadn't really thought about the fact that an open house means we're open to animals. We see little geckos running around the walls all the time, both at home and in restaurants. Bats fly over the pool and sometimes through the (exterior) halls at night. After rain especially, we often see slugs slowly making their way across the floor back to the garden in the morning. Birds have not been a problem - the house has several bird-repelling noise machines. The geckos are pretty cute, and we're glad to have them if they help eat any mosquitos like the bats do. I can't say I'm quite as excited about the bats though. I do like that all these animals mean that Bill's daily morning routine includes sweeping up tiny animal poop.
Rainy Season Is Not So Rainy
Summer is rainy season here, as it was last summer when we were in Guatemala. During that trip, we found that rainy season generally meant that most of the day was nice, then we'd have a short late afternoon shower. We were hoping to see the same here, and the weather forecasts we saw beforehand generally reflected that, with ~70% chance of rain most days. During our trip so far, however, we haven't had much rain. Mostly all sunny days, a few with short afternoon showers, and one day with multiple downpours. I would be happy with a bit more rain, actually, to cool off. The daily highs here are ~90, but with lows of ~79 and high humidity, it is HOT. We forgot how hot those temperatures feel.
We have had two days where it poured, with massive thunderstorms. They didn't last too long and cooled us down quite a bit, but the loud thunder freaked Zadie out.
Speaking of Humidity...
How to get (let's say) dewy-looking skin: Live in a place with 1000% humidity and exist for 2 minutes. Bam - "dewy."
Electricity Costs Are High
If only we could use more A/C to help with that heat! Most of the house is open though shady, so there's not much to be done other than frequent dips in the pool to cool off. We also knew that electricity was expensive here, enough so that our Airbnb actually charges extra if we use more than is covered by a given percentage of the rent. What I did not expect was how high, exactly. There are signs in every room asking you to turn off all lights/fans/air conditioners when you're not in the room - a good reminder and deterrent from wasting electricity. A much bigger deterrent is the literal cost though. After our first week of diligently keeping all lights off during the day, only using A/C when sleeping and only cooling to 75, keeping fans off and appliances unplugged when not in use, we checked our meter. If the per kW cost is actually as high as they warned us, we used $200 in the first week alone!! 😱 We set the A/C even higher and figured out how to set the timer so it only runs from bedtime to ~2 a.m. Hopefully that will keep the costs down for the rest of the month. [Post-trip edit: With the A/C adjustments for me and Bill, and keeping the girls' A/C on all night, we ended the trip without having to pay any surcharge.]
Money Problems
We'd read that US dollars are accepted most places here, but figured that local currency would be preferred and that we'd hit up ATMs like we usually do when traveling vs. bringing lots of US$ with us. We also knew that credit cards would be accepted only in some restaurants, and we'd have to rely on cash more than usual. Surprisingly, a lot more restaurants accept credit than we expected, and grocery stores and convenience stores do too. Other than one night where we had to scramble together a mix of US$ and Nica cordobas to cover a restaurant bill when their internet was out and they couldn't run our card, I've been happy that we can use cards a lot of the time.
What we didn't expect was that our biggest charges such as tours and our Spanish classes would accept only cash. We also did not realize that after a bank merger, our checking account now charges a LOT more than it used to for foreign ATM withdrawals. In our worst case so far, $100 in USD cost us an extra $12 in fees, which was especially annoying because we needed $200 and the ATM would only allow us to take $100 at a time, so we paid $24 in fees that day - $8 from the bank here and a surprise $16 from our home bank. If there's one thing that would make this trip easier right now, it would be tour companies accepting credit cards. We could book through online aggregators like Viator, but the cost is multiples of the locally quoted prices. For example, the volcano tour we're doing tonight cost $94 for the 4 of us. We could have booked the same tour on Viator for $280-320. ATM fees aren't looking so bad now.
I'll research new options when I get home to figure out how we can minimize these fees on future trips. Please let me know if you have any recommendations for good debit cards to use overseas!
The Water Is OK
In Guatemala, the guidance was clear - don't drink the water. As in Mexico, no teeth brushing, no ice, no unfiltered water at restaurants, smoothies only with milk, be wary of salads or uncooked veggies at restaurants, etc. Here, we found mixed guidance before our trip. Outside the city is probably different, but in Granada, the tap water is treated and safe. Bill jumped in first and decided to brush his teeth with the water, and once we saw he was fine, the rest of us did the same. We have a water cooler for our drinking water, but not having to be ultra-cautious with water for washing produce, getting ice from our fridge, etc. is great.
Bathrooms
Like much of the world, the pipes in Nicaragua don't allow you to flush toilet paper. Our Airbnb bathroom has a bidet, however, and surprise, I love bidets and upon returning to the US will immediately begin shopping for bidet toilet seats for home. Zadie tried it one day and spent the next 10 minutes singing a new song she titled, "The Best Poop of the Century." 😆
Grocery Prices are Wacky
It's not surprising that the prices on imported foods at the gringo supermarket are high, but they are higher than I expected. The cereal aisle had a double box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the low, low price of $22.45. A single can of La Croix is $2, as is a single bag of microwave popcorn. Jif peanut butter is $7 and Nutella is $9-10. On the flip side, local produce is (of course) cheap. Mangoes, cucumbers, and passion fruits are 15-20 cents. We still need to check out the prices for avocados at the market - we've seen carts with many different types of avocados. Walmart owns 3 of the 4 big grocery stores in town (another surprise), run under different names, so we've seen a lot of Great Value brand products.
Our Spanish Lessons Are Working!
My Spanish classes were essentially 10 hours of one-on-one conversation. I was also able to talk to kids in the public library, vendors in the square, and the girls' Spanish teacher who we invited over with her family to swim. If you had asked me when I started Spanish classes two years ago at Wake Tech if that would be possible, I would have laughed. ¡Gracias, Audra!
On the flip side, I am having a lot of trouble understanding our housekeeper, who unfortunately is the one person we interact with the most!
Food
Mexican food is really popular here, especially burritos and quesadillas. Basically every restaurant, no matter what type of food they serve, also serves these, so I was surprised that veggie burritos would be my default backup plan if there weren't other veggie options (though there usually are). Smoothies can be found everywhere too, at any time of day.
Still, Zadie complained one day that she didn't like her quesadilla. Initially we thought she was just being picky, but turned out that the cheese was very different, almost like a salty feta with a slight funk to it. The pizza cheese is different too, a little wetter and more gooey than our mozzarella at home. Bill was also surprised one day that the slice of cheese served with his traditional breakfast was as big as two stacked cell phones!
Friendly People
Ruth noted that the friendly people surprised her. We discussed this with the kids at the English language school, that it would be unusual in the US, for example, for your taxi driver to be waving and saying hi to everyone they pass on the street. :) When we stopped in the library, all the kids there were super friendly and wanted to talk to us and read with us. I've seen one pottery vendor in the square so many times now that our conversations are almost like the catch-up conversations you have with co-workers in the morning.
For Zadie, the people are overly friendly. She has gotten a lot of comments (various Spanish versions of "so cute!"), smiles, and pats on the head from older women, and she's over it. "They don't even ask if it's OK!"
We also had a several minute conversation one morning with a woman who wanted to learn a little English, and who told Ruth she had beautiful eyes (I agree 😊).
The expat group has been friendly too, and welcomed us with open arms when we crashed their weekly Friday happy hour.
Roads
In the areas of the country we've visited, the roads have been surprisingly good! Much nicer than pothole-ridden Michigan, and I think they've got NC beat as well. The expats we met said that the roads have gotten much better over the last twenty years.
Reliable Internet and Electricity
Likewise, the expats said the electricity infrastructure has gotten a lot better over the years. When one woman first arrived twenty years ago, the power supply was so limited that there were planned shutoffs for several hours each morning. During our trip so far, we lost power for a few hours one day, but other than that, the electricity and internet have been completely reliable. We were worried about Bill's ability to work remotely, but never had to use our backup plans (co-working space, cell hotspot on local data plan) because our home internet was fine. We brought our Amazon Fire Stick and have had no problems streaming either.
Barbie Merch Knows No Bounds
Barbie está aquà en Nicaragua. There are no movie theaters in Granada, but Barbie t-shirts, hats, etc. are everywhere. Theaters in the capital, Managua, are playing the movie now in Spanish and English.
Health & Safety
We'd read enough before coming here to not be worried, but I think our families would be surprised at how safe Granada feels. We've been told not to wander in certain areas late at night (not a problem with my early bedtime!), and have been warned - as when traveling basically anywhere - about pickpockets during crowded festivals or parades. The only safety concerns I've had here are making sure Zadie is careful not to step out into traffic (same as home except the cars are smaller and driving more slowly here), and wishing all the cars had seatbelts in the backseat (not that we're in cars often, but seatbelts are rare). Health-wise, no tummy issues for anyone so far, knock wood.
What else?
With a bit more than a week left here in Nicaragua, I'm sure we'll have more surprises, especially given that we still have a trip to the lake and a volcano hike planned. Stay tuned...