krista4, that sounds incredibly appealing to me.  I think I would love to live in a place like that...but maybe only half the year.    

   I'd miss "civilization" (American luxury) too much to not be here at least during the late spring/summer/early fall.Very happy for you, and hope you keep posting update.  I for one will be living vicariously through you and Mr. K.   
		 
		
	 
Well, there is satellite TV and you can even get the NFL Sunday Ticket.   

   There is also wireless internet most everywhere.  You can buy almost anything you want at one of the large markets in Granada, but most people also go to Managua every few weeks to stock up at a place that is similar to a Costco.  There you can get the better electronics (there is a Radio Shack in Granada) as well as stuff like decent linens and towels.  It is also the only place to get kitty litter.   

   Granada is thankfully free of American fast-food chains at this point but does have a chicken chain called "Tip Top", though I hear it's actually pretty good.  What you would probably miss most about "civilization", in addition to the A/C, is the pace at which you can get things done.  Everything hear moves realllly slowly, which is nice in a way but can be a challenge for us Type A people.  

Early, it's a very good question about a restaurant.  Our original intention was to try to open a place that could be appealing to both Nicas and tourists alike.  The more time we spend here the more I wonder if that is possible.  Granada, and Nicaragua in general, is still increasing rapidly in tourism every year, but the tourists tastes are of course quite different than what a typical Nicaraguan is looking for.  We tend to eat Nicaraguan food most of the time and then bust out for a pizza once or twice (there are three very good pizza joints we've found so far).  But most of the tourists tend to stick to the places where they can eat something familiar--there is a place called Kathy's Waffle House that I understand always has a wait.  So we will have to figure out whether we can appeal to the $$ (tourists) while still providing affordable meals that a Nicaraguan would like as well.  We'll start small in any case.YSR, maybe you should try a second honeymoon here!
		
 
		
	 
If people there are truly that.poor and the food that good, I'd think you could find a quality local cook to help with the local dishes.  Maybe do something in a sit down Humanzee menu inside, with a patio/walk-up window type of setup featuring more local cuisine.

First thought I had reading your post.  Well, second after, "you guys suck."
		
 
		
	 
This is an excellent idea.  One thing we've now discovered is that no one makes good pasta here, which the ex-pats miss.  OH is ridiculously good at pasta and sauces.  We will see--the plan would be to live here a few months and scope out opportunities, not to jump into anything too quickly.Rudi, no we did not bring the cats; just learned about the kitty litter as we were talking to someone who said his girlfriend (Nica) had not even heard of kitty litter before.  She also did not know there were time zones--he was going out of town and mentioned the time change, and he had to get on the computer to show her and prove that time zones existed!  Apparently Nicaragua tried to institute daily savings time before, too, but everyone just refused to do it, claiming that only God can change the time.Our dinner party last night went well, despite a few challenges like a stove where the burners would not get hot enough to boil water--as OH said it was like trying to cook over a series of Bic lighters--which is a problem when you're serving homemade pasta.  I thought OH was going to die, as he had worked on the ravioli, filling, and sauce for hours, but then Julio said he could fix the stove.  Next thing I knew he had taken it all apart and was asking me if I had anything sharp like a safety pin--luckily I had had a shirt dry-cleaned before coming here and had the pin they had put the tag on with.  We all stood around watching and I was absolutely sure that Julio was going to cause an explosion leading to burning down this lovely house, but somehow he got it done and WA-LA!  There was much rejoicing and a huge amount of eating and drinking all night.  Rodolfo also brought his girlfriend who knows maybe 10 words of English, so the dinner consisted of us, two Nica men with pretty good English, two Nica women with no English, and a Canadian ex-pat.  Somehow we managed to communicate even when translations weren't being done, and I haven't laughed so much in ages!  Nicas might not have a lot but know how to live well.  A few words about Nica women...I do not think they are generally as beautiful as in many other countries such as Colombia or Spain, but each one that I have met who is the girlfriend of an ex-pat or a successful Nicaraguan is extremely gorgeous.  They are thin but very curvacious as well.   Of course there are quite a lot of old Americans and others who come here just to snag a young Nica woman, and the women are very up for that generally as it is a good way to get their families taken care of.  If you marry (or not marry, as after a year together people start calling you married even if it's not official) a Nica you are supposed to take care of their whole family financially as well.  As to our house...as it turns out (and I knew this), we did not sign the Spanish-language document that makes the sale contract binding, so legally the seller owes us the entire deposit back.  My understanding is that in these situations people will work out a compromise, where for instance I let him keep 10%.  We made a generous offer and I am waiting to hear back.  In the meantime we have found another house that we are going to buy.  It is smaller than the other but the layout makes sense and it does not need as many changes.  It is also cheaper though we all like it much better.  Something I find very amusing about Granada, and Nicaragua in general, is that there are no addresses as we would think of them in the States.  I asked the seller of the new house what street we were on and he didn't even know the name.  Instead, our address in Granada will be "Xalteva Church, 1-1/2 blocks north".  Our friend Rodolfo lives at "Xalteva Church, 3 blocks south and 10 meters from the lake".  We've heard of another whose address is "100 meters south of where the small tree used to be".  There are a lot of addresses that include where something used to be.  I don't know what happens when the generation who knew where that thing was dies off.When you buy a house in Nicaragua, you do NOT want to change the electricity or water to your name.  If they find out that a gringo has bought the house, suddenly your electric and water bills will increase dramatically.  The house we will buy still has them in the name of the owner two sales ago, who is now dead.  We are hiring someone to clean the house (everyone has this here) but I'm told we should sign something that says she is part-time.  Workers in Nicaragua, though they make little money, have very beneficial rights since it is a semi-socialist country (I say "semi-" in that Daniel Ortega calls himself a socialist but has spent his time as president amassing a gigantic personal fortune).  They get two weeks paid vacation a year, plus a month of additional salary that is paid in December.  And it is virtually impossible to fire someone after you have hired them.  The system is set up to protect the workers.  If our person is part-time, which she will be, we will not owe this and can get rid of her if she doesn't perform well.  We still want to pay a more-than-average wage, of course, but I'd mostly like the benefit of being able to hire and fire based on performance.  Much like marrying someone here, when you hire them you also find yourself taking on many additional responsibilities for their families.We're going out for some dinner now - Nica steak again I think!  It is so delicious and cheap.  One day we might tire of it, but it will be a while.