You're more likely to get faster and more reliable internet in Panama than any other Central American country. No matter who you go with, it can vary day to day and neighborhood to neighborhood. Claro, in particular, is used to providing bad service but their employees are well trained to blow you off. I`d go cable in a big city rather than 3g in the boonies. Again, service can vary from neighborhoof to neighborhood,as can the power failures.

JGitaldez, I have land on the other side of the Nature Refuge from you, a little south of Astillero up on the hill overlooking Punta Conejo. . . I'm curious, how much did you pay per square foot? did you contract an established group of builders that work for another extranjero or did you simply assemble a group of your own? . . . I was going to start construction this winter - Oct-Dec, but I was just going to hire a group that is already established in the Rancho Sentana/ Guasacate area (run by gringos) and I was worried about getting ripped off and not getting the steep discount on labor that I know is readily accessible. . . If you want to email me in private to discuss numbers my email is michaelweb710@gmail.com about building class A housing , I built one in a beachfront lot in Huehuete here in Carazo and it was a 7 month deal with local labor and good security , the project came out under budget by 34 percent. It was a 5 br 3 bath two stories,,,,still the nicest in the area.

Thanks Tim! I think I can explain why some people can transfer large sums of money to their account or cash using their ATM/debit card, but others can't. A couple years ago when I was looking for ways to transfer money, I talked with the manager at the Esteli BAC. I was told that I could take $400 at a time from the ATM for however many dollars the fee was or at the counter I could take (I think it was) $2500 for the same fee. I tried getting $2000 at the counter. The teller smiled and took my ATM card to a back room. When she came back, she said it would not work. The card worked fine in the ATM. I talked with the manager again and she seemed puzzled. She had a meeting with the teller and a couple other people and came back with a believable story. There are several networks for transferring money. Their machine to transfer large sums of money only works with the VISA network. The ATM machine works with all the networks. My ATM card does NOT use the VISA network, it uses the Cirrus/Star/Accel/ the exchange network.

volunteering at the animal rescue please let us know about the program please let us know about the program

Did the Silverado have a camper shell? There are some weird Gotchas! you have to watch out for. Anything that looks like an automobile or SUV will be treated like one. I've heard many horror stories about Managua aduana, everyone seems to have items stolen..... If you miss noting something on the itemized list, it will just disappear. Food packages broken open and partial contents missing . . . Just out of curiosity, what did you pay to ship your Silverado by container? And what was the total import cost after it got there? A vehicle that gets 20 MPG will cost just under $900 to get into Nicaragua, with gas, tolls in Mexico, and car permits for Guatemala and Honduras. If anyone wants to see my registration for the 1992 Ford F250 4WD diesel I imported last January, just PM me with an email and I'll send you a copy of the registration, and a pic of the truck loaded. The truck was loaded above the cab, with one of those hitch carriers behind, also loaded. The total import cost of my goods was less than $200. The two processes happen simultaneously: Customs decides what is taxable (clothes, food, personal articles, books,, come in free). They make two piles, dutiable and non-dutiable, and then make a list of your declared values for the taxable pile. There is a caja there, so you pay right on the spot, no need to find a bank. If they need more than a day to complete the paperwork, they will give you back the non-dutiable portion, and they have a secure fenced in area where you will stash your dutiable portion. If you stuff is not in bins (the only way to go), then you will need to remember a tarp to cover it all. While the goods are being assessed, the customs agent is gathering and verifying info about your vehicle. The chassis number is a biggie, sometimes hard to find. Once he finds that info, he accesses the Aduana server, inputs the info, and waits for the paperwork with a unique identifying number assigned. The day I was there the server was taking two hours to return the documents. It varies. Import took 2 days at El Espino, taxes were $700 and change, I remember $125 for the customs agent,, and various other fees put it right at $1000 total. If we had started VERY early in the morning, we MIGHT have made it in one day -but probably not. The total fees, with insurance, to get it registered were about $100. The process is simple, but time consuming, with a lot of stops. You only need the vehicle present at one point, the mechanical inspection, the VIN is verified there. There are people who will do it for $100 or less, you see them standing in line at Transito carrying over-the-shoulder bags for the (numerous) documents. Coincidentally, I just received my 2003 Silverado 2500 from Customs yesterday. However, I had it shipped in November 2014(took 2 monts to get out of Nica Customs) and my wife tells me that our broker says the law changed December 2014 and we would not have been permitted to bring it as of December. I guess you need to verify. This is all the info I have.