Since living in Nicaragua, we found it necessary to move to Masaya to get the ball rolling on our business.  We looked all over the town for the perfect place for us to be as productive as possible and ironically we ended up living in a Hotel. Hotel Central is in the heart of the city. It’s owned by a local family who we have grown very close to–whenever we come back, they make it feel like home.

The room we decided to call home is a small orange room fully furnished with a bed, brown leather couch, a very necessary fan, and a small table with a TV on top. Our bathroom is just across the main hallway where we have a shower, toilet and sink.

All of the other rooms have their own private bathrooms, so this one is like our own just outside of our room. The water in the shower is of course only cold, but it’s always refreshing in the day because Masaya is HOT!

The house has the fastest WiFi we’ve both experienced in Nica, so our little orange room is our most productive spot. We may not have a lot of room, but we’ve got everything we need. That’s the beautiful thing about living in Nicaragua, you learn to be happy with only the things you need.

Whenever we look for places to live here in Nicaragua, we always try to find a nice spot that is centrally located in town and owned by a local family. We love living with local families because not only do they become great friends and help out our Spanish big time, they also allow us both to be fully immersed into the Nica culture.

The family we live with has helped us with the best/cheapest places to eat, has given us an insider’s view of life in Masaya and have all accepted us as part of their family. It’s fun living with them because there are 2 brothers and 1 sister our same age! They all speak a bit of English as they have family living in the States who they’ve been visiting since they were little. They teach us their native language and we help them with our native language, it’s a fun balance.

They’re all very smart, well-educated and successful–there’s a fun young energy when we hang out together. We often all hang out in the main living room area or outside on the patio that looks out over the city.

We’re right in the heart of Masaya, across the street from our favorite Chinese food restaurant, a few blocks down from our favorite breakfast spot that we visit daily and a couple of blocks up from Central Park (where Pali & the Post Office is). Being so centrally located allows us to go on those crazy journeys and adventures to find our supplier and handmade products all over the city.

We are also a short walk to the main highway which is very convenient for us when we need to travel because every bus going north toward Managua or south from it passes this highway (you can get to pretty much everywhere from here: to MetroCentro, Granada, San Juan del Sur, Laguna de Apoyo and more!).

The family also has a very cool large floppy eared dog named Poncho who sometimes acts as our early alarm clock with his loud barking. Hotel Central is by far the best deal in town, which is nice on our tight entrepreneurial budget.

However, our favorite parts about it is the awesome family atmosphere and the location. This is where we launched our business and where we are able to be the most productive in the heart of this artisan city. And for that, we’ll always have a special place in our heart for out little orange room.