A new Era – Well at least for us – Changes Coming and Past
It is hard to believe we have been living in Nicaragua for 15 months. The hotel has officially been open for a year and our occupancy rate slowly continues to grow. Everything in the country is word of mouth and Facebook so we have learned a lot about websites, facebook advertising, hanging banners across the highway, handing out pamphlets, attending trade shows (all in Spanish) and even joining the local Chambers of Commerce of other countries. Our Spanish continues to get a little better. At least we can communicate with our staff (usually) but holding a social conversation with someone is still a challenge.
We have learned patience…well maybe a little more…as nothing here moves even close to the speed of business in North America. This is truly a mañana culture and when someone says they will be here at 10:00am it is just as likely to be 3pm when you are rushing out the door to make another appointment.
We also continue to expand our services both for guests as well as for the local community. Based on feedback from our guests about our homemade items we make for breakfast, we have opened a small bakery “Grumpy Beetle Panadería” where people can order for pickup later in the day or week. We now sell homemade bread, scones, carrot and chocolate cake, cookies, granola and both almond and peanut butter.
Then if that was not enough work, we have also opened our breakfast restaurant “The Grumpy Beetle” to the public Thursday through Sunday. Our Grumpy Beetle Pancakes (world famous) made their debut at the beginning of July and last week were joined by the Grumpy Beetle Breakfast Sandwich.
Our VinoFlow Yoga Classes (thanks to Sabrina and Nathan for letting us steal their name) continue to be popular. We have the class once a month at the hotel and provide yoga, wine and great food.



Beach view from front sidewalk
For the last several years we have been renting a house in Pochomil, west of Managua, as a vacation property and at one point we considered developing the house into a full time B&B. But when we moved here we decided that at least for now, Managua was a better place to run a B&B. Sadly, we have now sold the beach house and that property is no longer available to our guests for rent. We have many happy memories of early mornings on the patio, late afternoon walks on the beach, boogie boarding in the waves and a few Toña on occasion. We are looking at the possibility of acting as a rental manager for other beach front vacation homes so we may end up with multiple beach house choices for our clients.
After the back yard is finished, the next item on the list is probably the addition of a new room or 2. We have space and plans for 14 rooms in total plus our own private suite. Where we end up is anyone’s guess at this moment.
Our pool should be finished late September and then some more landscaping so we will post some progress pictures over the next few weeks. Did someone say Pool Party? Absolutely…stay tuned for your invite to our first BackYard Party.
#nicaragua #elmiradorsuites #grumpybeetle #tours #tourism #managua #pochomil #expat