FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Vice Blog

DOING BUSINESS IN NICARAGUA

Nicaragua has been hit with the beautiful nature stick. There's (almost) untouched beaches, jungle, around twenty volcanoes (some active), weird lakes, mountains, and a good bunch of Noah's finest and wildest animals. It's a success bound to happen, as my friend Nicolaj told me. When he does something, he likes to go all in. He's had his fingers in IT, fashion (still is) and this real estate project in Central America, including Nicaragua. I guess he's what you'd call an entrepreneur. From what I've heard and know he's not a mean business type who clear cuts land and displaces people for profit. He's a good man, the kind of guy that you would want by your side at a casino. I'm sure he can even count cards and shit like that. Navigating in the Nicaraguan business world is no smooth sail though, so here's what he had to say about his exotic adventure.

Advertisement

Vice: How did you get the idea to go to Nicaragua?
Nicolaj: It was a friend of mine that worked for McKinsey that got the idea. He had his second slipped disc as a 28-year-old and decided he'd had enough. He then started surfing around the world. He started out in Portugal and somehow ended up in Nicaragua, where there still is some super untouched surfing. At some point he wrote me and some other friends that there was some really good real estate and development opportunities. He asked if we were interested in scraping some money together for a project. He would then buy some land and build some condos. We said OK, and that's how it all roughly started. When did you go there for the first time?
In 2003. My friend had been there for a year at that point. Was it hard to find the right people and get started?

It's a funny balance. When you go to an underdeveloped country as a gringo or "chele" as they say there, you'll be surprised how easy it is to get a high-level network, because you're white and have money of some kind. Before you know it you're talking to ministers, patrons, and family heads that own most of the city [in this case, Managua]. On the other hand, you find out pretty fast that it's extremely important to lay low, because there's a flip side to exposing yourself with well-connected people. When the balance of power changes at some point, which it does, you're exposed as a friend of theirs, which means you're going down. Alternatively, if you act too rich you can be sure that people will try to bribe a judge to reverse a deed and take your land from you or file some far-fetched lawsuit against you. Suddenly, you'll have a bunch of Indians living on your land and claiming it as their native right. It's all a big scam, but it's a tough fight because they come off as the People and you're the Filthy Capitalist. In the end it's most likely some other entrepreneur who wants your land that pays them. So it's relatively easy to kick-start your network, but you need to make some wise decisions along the way.

Advertisement

It's a pity for Nicaragua. They have a democratically-elected president and there are no reports of fraud–they just elected a president who doesn't match an American point of view, because it's the old communist leader that they reelected. In addition, he has close relations to Venezuela's Hugo Chaves and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. You're not going to sell any condos to Americans as long as those guys visit. It's doesn't matter that you can sell them a condo on a bountiful beach with a perfect surf break next to a golf course. SIGURD KONGSHOEJ LARSEN