Sorry, Your PM was close enough to give me a rough idea. Thank you, by the way my name is Allan , my friend noticed my name on the site and said everyone must think you are a drunk, when in reality I rarely drink, it is just the first 2 letters of my first and last names , I will PM my email now I got your message, John, but unfortunately, you didn't give me an email address to respond so I need to "post" on the forum. Sorry about that: 1) You can bring prescription drugs and/or a prescription from your USA doc. HOWEVER, any prescription for a drug that is listed as a narcotic will not be honored in Nicaragua. My roommate did bring a narcotic cough syrup with her, in her luggage but could not get the prescription filled here in Nica without doing a LOT of tap dancing with MINSA (regulator of imports etc ... more or less). To find out which of your prescriptions can be filled in Nica, there are three places I have used for such information. Just remember ... they may use the Central American / South American version of your drug and may have to look up / cross reference your drug. For that reason, I like to use email. Need your drug's name, dosage (i.e., 20 mg), method of delivery (i.e., tablet, capsule etc) and the frequency (1x/day or 2x/day etc) If you have all that information ready, your experiences should be pretty positive. (1) Metropolitano Hospital (Pella) (Managua) Medical Tourism Manager: Arlen Perez aperez@metropolitano.com.ni cell 505-8464-0084 US phone 305-396-2351 I didn't have all of the above information when I first came. This is the courtesy of Darrell Bushnell who writes the Nica Nuggets Newsletter. (2) Family Value Farmacia (Managua) jhorney@fvalue.biz Senor Horney does speak some English and he and I have emailed back n' forth with good success. (3) Oziris Farmacia (Matagalpa) Owner/Pharmacist: Stewart Schriber A Canadian that is bi-lingual 505-8833-8637 farmaciaoziriscentral@hotmail.com That should get you started. Good Luck to You! Linda

We live in Poneloya and have for three years. We have a seven bedroom home that sits on the beach and pay $700 a month. It is a very nice house. There are other good opportunities to rent here if you don't mind paying $ 500 or more. This is for beachfront property. You are a 12 cord bus ride away from Leon which has several supermarkets, good clinics, and the people are very friendly. There are not a lot of Americans or Canadians here but a few. It is not a big tourist town (Poneloya). Most of the houses here are owned by people that use them for holidays and weekends. The streets are kept clean and it is over all a very nice little community. It does get hot but what the heck, you are living in the tropics. You're welcome! Just one person's perspective actually. Dogs: no problems with fleas or ticks but then Cuddle Bear doesn't go running through high grasses and woods. At her ripe old age of 13 yrs, she just walks with me, on leash, and is a house dog of 62 lbs. I did have a problem with parasites that our vet took care of nicely. Apparently, the vet feels that the dog should NOT drink the city tap water and we should use bottled water with the animals as well. So, no problem since. Poneloya. I really (personally) considered it because of being on the ocean and that is what I wanted. However, despite the help of a VERY nice expat couple, we couldn't find suitable housing at the time. So we moved on to the next idea. For more info re Poneloya, I would Private Message the gentleman known as Majicjack on the forum .... he and his wife have lived in Poneloya for some time. I think he could give you some "inside" knowledge.

Correction. I was informed that LiveMocha now has content that can be accessed for free by earning points on the site or access can be purchased. It used to be completely free but it was bought by RosettaStone. You can still do the lessons for free but you have to earn points by participating on the site. Here is the info from the site (I have no professional connection to any of the sites I mentioned. ) s Livemocha free? All language content and activities on Livemocha are accessible using either points (which you earn) or beans (which you buy). You can earn points by completing learning activities and helping others. The more helpful you are–rating other people’s exercises, volunteering as a language partner, etc–the more points you earn. When you earn points, you’ll hear a “cha-ching!” sound and will see more points being added to your stack in the top left corner of every page. You can redeem your points for lessons, expert reviews, and more. (To give you a head start, all members are given a large amount of points for FREE when you come to the new site.) If you don’t have time to earn the points you need to get what you want, you can always buy Beans, which will give you immediate access to anything on Livemocha. If you have a smart phone or tablet you might try DuoLingo or Spanish in a Month. Both are apps for Android or Apple. Spanish In a Month is very similar to Rosetta Stone but costs $2 instead of $200. If you have internet access but no smart phone you can join LiveMocha.com for free. It is owned by Rosetta Stone and has the same type of lessons for free plus spoken and written exercises. After you finish a lesson you can send it out to native speakers who are also members of the site. They will correct/comment on your work for free. You can also find Skype buddies to trade language practice with. Another great site is SpanishPod which has short downloadable or streamable lessons based on conversations you need to have when you live in a Spanish-speaking country. Lessons are available at all levels from no Spanish to fluent non-native speaker.

Thank you all for your comments and help. The landlord has had people with machetes clear our the huge gully beside our and our neighbor's home. They have also repaired the front door and both gates. My husband hasn't seen the snake since they cleaned out the gully. I've been in Florida since late December inventorying boxes for them to be shipped to Nicaragua. I'll be returning to Nicaragua on March 6. Our lease will not be up until December and then we may look for a different home as many of you suggested. We live in Poneloya and have never had a problem with either. I work in the jungle near Siuna and there are many of both there. I doubt if you will be working in the jungle. Best advice is try to stay out of places where the exist.

and my $0.02 worth. I'm a 50+ (ok, ok, closer to 60) single woman and traveling here now by myself. Had a couple of friends on week 2 and my kids week 3 with me. My spanish is beginner-int level. So it's somewhat of a challenge, but not scary. Again, take precautions, be aware not paranoid. http://www.iskratravel.com I can recommend this agency. They are ON-TIME and I've felt safe with several drivers that I've used. I also trusted my kids (adults) with them!