Culinary Concepts – One of the most enjoyable aspects of traveling is sampling the food in the various countries of the world. This section is meant to build off of this joy and introduce residents to the cuisine and culture of food in Nicaragua.

Community Connection – Whether at home or in Nicaragua, your quality of life is affected by the quality of life of the community around you. We believe in the power of service to transform not only the recipient of help, but also the giver. We want to facilitate resident involvement in the community at large. The purpose of this section is to introduce subscribers to community work being done in the region.

Living in Nicaragua – With its world class beaches, colonial cities, thriving coffee culture, and tropical jungle, Nicaragua is an oasis for adventure-seeking families and individuals. From weekend getaway's to week-long excursions in the rainforest; this section outlines an array of adventures to be experienced across Nicaragua.

Business Notes – This section includes topics of interest to the business minded among us. It will include information on laws that effect the business environment and investment opportunities in Nicaragua.

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Costa Dulce News: 1st House Complete!

Taken from the patio of the Costa Dulce developers' house.

Costa Dulce's developers finish their beach house

Perched just above Playa Escameca sits the first home constructed in Costa Dulce.  Built by Next Wave Construction, it is a home creatively designed to interact with the surrounding natural elements.  From the construction materials used to an architectural design that complements the geography of the homesite, the house exists as part of the pristine environment (not in spite of it).   

The 3 bedroom/2 bathroom 2,000 sqaure foot home is an open air work of art that combines the aesthetic qualities of a beach cabana with the luxury one expects in a new home.   Immediately upon entering, one feels a sense of respite from the elements while remaining intimately interactive with the surrounding nature: birds chirping, waves crashing, raindrops falling.

Built with a commitment to sustainable design

The home utilizes 5 different types of wood and stone.  The sustainably harvested precious woods came from Caribbean forests destroyed during hurricane Felix. They were transported to San Juan Del Sur where they were milled in Next Wave’s local wood working shop.  The structure and floors for the deck are Brazilian Cherry and Nispero.  The cabinets and doors are Mahogany, while the window and door frames utilize Spanish cedar.  The large ranchero style roof is supported by thick, round Eucalyptus posts. 

Next Wave used stone accents throughout the construction to enhance the aesthetic, structural, and functional qualities of the home. The sinks, countertop, and patio floors are made of numerous stones that include soapstone, flagstone, and beachstone.  The sinks for the kitchen and bathrooms are made from soapstone, while beachstone was used for retention walls, decorative bricks, and flooring.  Flagstone was used for the patio and its walls for its varied shades of tan, white, and orange.

Off-the-grid independence alongside the luxuries of modern living

The designers of the home included a number of "green" features that provide both off-the-grid independence and the comforts we expect in a modern home. The home is powered by 1.1kW's of photovoltaic solar panels installed atop the roof, which provides plenty of electicity to run the refridgerator, television, satellite, ceiling fans, stereo sound system, kitchen appliances, and of course all of the interior and exterior lighting.

Green design was incorporated in the home's water system as well. From mid November to mid May there is little rain. This lack of rain during the dry season often causes water tables to decrease below their normal level. Keeping this in mind, Next Wave incorporated several water-saving technologies that include high-efficiency faucets, showerheads, and toilets. The home's low impact design enabled conservation of many trees, which, combined with the shade they offer around the property, adds to the land's ability to capture water and refill the aquifers during the rainy season.

We look forward to the groundbreaking of the 3 homes currently in design stages, planned for lots 8, 14, and 27 in Los Altos.

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Costa Dulce News: Infrastructure Update

Taken from Ocho Senderos, the newest neighborhood in Costa Dulce.

Introducing Los Altos and Ocho Senderos

Los Altos, meaning The Heights, is the neighborhood most of you know as Phase I. With the recent release of Ocho Senderos (Phase II), we decided to give a name to the neighborhood of homesites perched at the top of Costa Dulce. Eleven homesites remain available in Los Altos.

Ocho Senderos, named for the eight paths that make up Costa Dulce's roads and trails, is situated at the base of the community. It offers the only oceanfront homesites available in the Costa Dulce community. Eighteen of the 21 homesites in Ocho Senderos are still on the market.

For current availability and pricing, please refer to Costa Dulce's website at www.costadulcenica.com or ProNica Development's Costa Dulce page at www.pronicadevelopment.com.

Building a home at Costa Dulce just got a little easier.

Costa Dulce property owners, present and future, have a lot to celebrate as the newest round of infrastructure projects come to completion.  Tyson Harris, on-site managing partner of Costa Dulce, has been hard at work building new roads, laying water pipes and tanks, and tapping wells. He is also close to bringing high speed internet to all of Costa Dulce so that residents can benefit from the freedom and power of connectivity, while enjoying the pristine settings of the southwest Nicaraguan coast. 

The electricity grid is designed and installation will begin in early December. 

A 25,000 gallon water tank has been installed and is servicing every homesite in Los Altos (Phase I) of Costa Dulce. 

Cell phone communication will be a reality by end of December, when the Spanish mobile phone provider Movistar will activate a cell-phone tower covering the entire Costa Dulce community.

Costa Dulce is plugging in

Costa Dulce has been busy at work preparing for the installation of an electricity grid for Los Altos homesites.  Groundbreaking is scheduled for early December and the work will be finished by February 1st.  If owners wish to use clean energy in place of or as a supplement to the grid service, Costa Dulce is delighted to assist with the installation of solar energy systems. 

Internet Connectivity

The power and freedom provided by the World Wide Web will soon be available to residents of Costa Dulce.  On October 1st an internet service tower was installed.  Whether it be to stay in touch with family at home or telecommute to a job, high-speed internet connectivity will allow residents to bring part of the real world to the paradise of Costa Dulce.

Getting to Costa Dulce

The Association of Southern Developers of San Juan del Sur recently completed 2 projects that greatly improve the drive from town. One was the construction of a concrete river crossing pad, called a paso vado in Spanish. This was crucial during this past rainy season and now enables vehicle traffic even during some of the heaviest downpours. The other project was the grading of the Carretera Ostional from Las Delicias neighborhood (just south of San Juan del Sur) all the way to the Yankee/Escameca area. We're proud to say we can now reach Costa Dulce in about 15-20 minutes driving from town.

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Culinary Concepts: Gallo Pinto

Gallo Pinto has two main ingredients: rice and beans; though variations of this dish abound in Nicaragua!

Gallo Pinto al estilo Nica!

Gallo Pinto (pronounced gaiyo peento) is more than just a staple of local diet--It represents a culture rich in national pride, loaded with childhood nostalgia and long standing traditions. As fried potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, and bread are part of our culinary traditions in North America and Europe, so it goes with gallo pinto in Nicaragua.

Paying tribute to the significance of gallo pinto in the region, Costa Rica held a national gallo pinto cook off in April of 2008. Enough gallo pinto was cooked to serve an astonishing 30,000 guests. The excessive amount was, no doubt, in response to their neighbor to the North serving an estimated 20,000 guests at their own celebration a year earlier. While Ticos refuse to cede the gallo pinto crown, Nicaragua may aim to serve 40,000 people this year...

We invite you to enjoy the recipe below and to experiment by adding your own gastronomic preferences to the national dish of Nicaragua.

Buen provecho!

Ingredients:

2 large onions, sliced thin
2 tbsp vegetable oil
6 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup bean cooking liquid or water
2 cup cooked red beans
1 cup cooked white rice

Directions:
Beans: Place 2 c dry red beans and 6 mashed garlic cloves in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover all of the beans. Cook 15-20 min. Do not add salt at this stage; it will toughen the beans. Rice: The key to making gallo pinto is to make firm rice, not sticky.

Heat oil in heavy pot and sauté onion until lightly golden. Add cooked beans and liquid. Stir gently and continuously over low heat for 5 minutes; the beans should remain whole, not mushed.  The idea is to evaporate most of the liquid so beans aren’t  soggy, but slightly crisp.  Add cooked rice and continue to stir for about 10 minutes. Taste and add some salt or squeeze a fresh lime as desired.

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Business Notes: Telecommuting from Paradise

Telecommuting is gaining ground thanks to powerful web-based tools that allow you to work everywhere.

Trends in telecommuting

New web-based technology is shattering old paradigms of communication and workflow. This quiet revolution is redefining the way we are able to work, communicate, and enjoy life in the 21st century. These technologies, by continually improving the efficiency of our businesses, are creating a highly mobile workforce that is throwing out the desk and rolodex in exchange for the beach and waves. Telecommuting is now a viable option for professionals wherever they find themselves, even the pristine beaches of southwest Nicaragua.

Telecommuting is irrefutably becoming a preference among independent professionals, though entire businesses are beginning to catch up. The number of telecommuters in the U.S. grew by 23% between 1990 and 2000, nearly twice the growth rate experienced by the labor market as a whole. Certain technology service companies in India are formed strictly to satisfy demand on the other side of the world in America. They are able to do this thanks to a high-speed internet connection capable of passing large amounts of data across the planet in seconds, effectively eliminating the traditional barriers of distance and time zone.

Today an estimated 4.5 million people telecommute everyday in the U.S. alone. AT&T, concerned about productivity outside the office, did a study and found that 72% of workers are more productive working from home than their counterparts in the corporate office. J.D. Edwards found that their telecommuters were 20-25% more productive when working outside the office.

Powerful web-based tools make working from paradise a reality

Although this trend could not be possible without the widespread availability of high-speed internet, connectivity is only part of the equation. Powerful web-based tools like Skype enable anyone with a laptop, internet connection, and Skype account to make phone calls to anywhere in the world, while sitting in a cafe in Paris or relaxing on the beaches of the Yucatan. Often these web-based tools are inexpensive and sometimes free. Google now offers document managment software similar in function to the traditional Microsoft Office business suite, called Google Docs. You can even save your Google document or spreadsheet as a PDF, without the need for an expensive program.

From online project management software (BaseCamp) that allows multiple party collaboration, to the file storage capacity of Gmail, Flikr, and Pbase, it's getting easier to do business from anywhere with access to the internet. Gmail's file storage drive can now be mapped as a hard drive on your local computer so you can use the 8Gb for anything you'd like, and have access to it wherever you are. For a longer list of these web-based tools, check out this blog post at designvitality.com.

These tools have been integral in the forming of our consulting services company, ProNica Development, and our decision to run the company out of beautiful San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, despite the fact that most of our clients live outside the country. We're constantly recommending these new, highly efficient technologies to our clients in order to maximize profits and increase productivity for very little cost. After all, these powerful secrets are what allow us to have our cake and eat it too. Speaking of having our cake, I think it's time for a morning surf session at Costa Dulce!

Perhaps it's time you ask yourself...What am I still doing in the office??

-contribution from Nathan Beck and Mark Sullivan of ProNica Development

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Community Connection: Orphans Visit C.D.!

Inmovis is one of the 30 children from the NPH orphanage that descended on Playa Escameca in July

A special day for all - Thanks to everyone who helped!

On July 12th thirty kids between 2 and 8 years old from NPH (Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos) orphanage in San Jorge (40 minutes east of San Juan) along with their 'tias' and several volunteers descended on Playa Escameca at Costa Dulce for a day of fun in the sun. For everyone lucky enough to participate in this special experience (tourists, residents and us at Costa Dulce) this was truly a remarkable day. 

Upon arrival, the speechless kids and adults were awed by the raw beauty of their surroundings.  The silence did not last long and the beach was soon awash with relentless energy, excitement and joy of children discovering something new.  The day was filled with a variety of activities that the kids were able to take part in, some planned and others not; they played soccer and frisby, rolled and slid down sandy hills, timidly played in the waves (a few of the kids got on surf boards) and curiously learned about all the different sea creatures. 

They also got to break open a beach piñata filled with caramels. Later, to the surprise of everyone, a yoga session led by the gifted yogini Tara Blackburn engrossed 100% of their attention (for about 5 minutes!)  In the end, smiles and laughter dominated the day.

The eager generosity of local sanjuaneños was prevalent once again in their support of the outing. Food and drink were donated by several restaurants including Pizzeria San Juan, Jerry's Pizza, La Frigata Pizzeria, Iguana Bar, and Club Sunset. Help also came from onsite volunteers and the 25 participants of the charity poker tourney at Big Wave Dave's.

Costa Dulce is currently soliciting donations for the Playa Escameca Holiday Drive, to benefit local children in the community with sports equipment. Please contact Tyson Harris to donate.

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