Vivian Pellas Hospital (or what’s commonly known as “The Metro”) is a hospital in Managua that you could compare to any US hospital. It has great facilities and that is the biggest hospital here in Nicaragua. The national hospitals are scattered throughout the departments but I would personally take my children to Metro.
There are plenty of small practices that offer great medical service. I would establish with a medical provider or a doctor here. You will find that you could have a checkup for US $20 and they are very good. I personally would not be comfortable going to the smaller hospitals in Nicaragua, however, although a lot of our friends are missionaries here and they are perfectly comfortable going to the smaller hospitals.
If lived in Granada, it would be very easy to go to Managua because it is close enough (around 40 minutes away by car) to go to Vivian Pellas. If I was in San Juan Del Sur, which is about 1.5 to 2-hour drive to Managua, I would definitely get stabilized there first and then make my way to Managua.
I have friends who are expats in San Juan Del Sur who come to Vivian Pellas for their routine checkups. If they need to go to PriceMart here in Managua, they also plan their visit so that they drop by and see their doctors at Vivian Pellas before they head back to San Juan Del Sur. If you live in Granada or Leon, you can go to Vivian Pellas on an ongoing basis since these places are within an hour’s drive to Managua.
However, Leon is a b it different as far as medical care is concerned because Leon has one of the best medical universities in Leon. A lot of people who live in Leon seek healthcare in Leon.
I wouldn’t be concerned that something bad might happen to me even if I had an emergency like a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t want to be nonchalant about it, but the reality is that if you have something life threatening, you could be located just outside Vivian Pellas or any good hospital and still pass away. In the process of moving here to Managua, I met with someone from the embassy and that was an example that they used. They asked me, considering the distance to Managua and a life-threatening situation, if I would want to be far away. I’ve had this conversation with some of the developers who are building on the Pacific Ocean. They want to put some sort of a medical facility within their own developments if they are catering to the retirees or expats. To me, it wasn’t a deciding factor to live in Managua and it is not a deciding factor to live outside of Managua.
(Missionaries from AIM, Ambassadors in Mission, on their Nicaragua trip, pictured.)
The bus service is Puerto Vallarta is very cheap. They charge 35 pesos (less than US $2) per person from the airport to Sayulita (about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta by car or bus) and if you have luggage you won’t have any trouble with that. Some of the buses in Puerto Vallarta have air-conditioning and you could get one if you’re lucky. If you’re not so lucky, you could get on an older bus but it is still comfortable even without the...
In retiring abroad, you should be more concerned about choosing a place that you truly love. There are so many different places and different ways of living, and it’s very important that before anyone makes that big decision to plunge in, he or she should explore the place a little bit. 
In Belize, it is required by law to have third-party car insurance. If you have an accident and you’re your fault, third party insurance will pay for the damage to the other guy’s property that you caused, and nothing for you. That’s why its cheap. .jpg)
First of all, when buying a house or other real estate in Portugal, you need to know what sort of property you’re looking for. Is it low maintenance? High maintenance? Do you want a garden? Do you want a bit more land? So it depends on the size of the property. If you’re looking to live in the city center or close to the city center, the properties tend to be smaller because there’s no space. There are a lot of people who want to live in the city or close to the city, so...
An emerging personal finance trend has seen retirees and people in pre-retirement making investments in foreign real estate, especially in emerging markets. The potential benefits are very enticing; these regions are seeing growth and appreciation rates that exceed those in domestic markets, and there’s built-in potential for generating income by renting the property to vacationers. Best of all, you can live there yourself during the cold-weather months and say goodbye to winter for the...
Driving south on Highway 1 from after it intersects Highway 5 is fairly uneventful, if by “uneventful” you mean "the hundreds of times when you’re confronted with the fact that even a slight miscalculation on your steering wheel will result in certain death." A half inch to the left, and you’ll crash head-on into a semi barreling towards you at 60 miles per hour. A half inch to the right, and you’ll go over the roughly 12-inch shoulder to plunge either into...