This year I relocated myself and my family (four kids) to Nicaragua. Both my wife and I speak fluent spanish, but I was very surprised by how hard and how expen

This year I relocated myself and my family (four kids) to Nicaragua. Both my wife and I speak fluent spanish, but I was very surprised by how hard and how expensive it was. Some things I learned: - Finding what you need is hard. We've got to buy a hula hoop for our kid's school. We don't know exactly where to go, and wind up driving around for 3 hours to find the right thing - Small things are hard. We spend hours each month waiting in lines at banks to pay the electricity bill, the water bill, the internet bill, rent, the plumber, the reservation fee for a beach house. I miss bill pay terribly. - Culture is vastly different. Where in the US I felt like our family was well put together, here we're considered a mess since we don't have a full time maid and 2 nannies. We tell ourselves that we don't care what people think about us, but you get tired of being judged all day But on the flip side, we've been here 5 months and have already seen 4 volcanoes, numerous beaches with world-class surfing, my kids are starting to learn Spanish, and it's been a wonderful time to focus on what's really important for us. I'd recommend it, but not to anyone. You've got to be prepared for this.