The concept is radical and fascinating. For those of us who have already explored voluntary simplicity, the theme of the book is right on target. The authors explain in fair detail how you could (if you chose to), move to Nicaragua and live on a shoestring budget. Some of their tips are really mind-blowing, but make a lot of sense. Then they explain how you could choose to live at a higher level if that's what you really want.

They are clearly very familiar with everyday life in Nicaragua. Not at that golf course inside the gated gringo community, but out in real Nicaragua. The stories, pictures, and details were all very informative.

Downsides of the book? There are a few typos and awkward sentences, but it wasn't nearly as bad as an earlier reviewer implied. Because the authors are most familiar with one particular area (Esteli), and because they are unwilling to pretend to be experts where they are not, there is a shortage of information about other regions. Very forgivable, as many/most of the hints and tips in the book would be valuable throughout the country...or in other developing countries, for that matter. Ecuador, for example.

There is an appearance of "the N-word" early on, apparently taken from a forum posting by one of their readers. That put a very bad taste in my mouth, but the rest of the book was free of such nonsense. Hopefully they will edit that out of future editions, not (just) to be PC, but because the way it is used doesn't even make sense.

This is the second book on Nicaragua that I have read so far, and it's by far the best (I have not yet read the other Nicaragua book offered by lulu). I came away inspired. Hey, maybe this simple living thing really is what I want. Maybe Nicaragua would be the right place to try. Maybe I really could do this.

Highly recommended, if you find the concept at all appealing.

I like this book a lot, and I respect the author, who was president of Specialized System Consultants (SSC) and publisher of Linux Journal magazine. I'll break this up into positive and negative sections and try not to sound stupid.

First, the bad stuff. This book needs an editor. Editing, formatting and design don't improve a bad book but the lack of them hurts a good book, and this is a good one. "Living Like a Nica" is a good first draft, one you would hand off to a friend for a sanity check, but not a final version. This is odd given Mr. Hughes's publishing background.

Punctuation is inconsistent and sometimes bizarre, a kind of thing I've seen before from those writing on Unix or Linux platforms.

Photographs and maps are low resolution. Poor to the point of uselessness. Considering that the book is a PDF-only work that can be radically magnified onscreen, higher resolution graphics are a must. The maps really suffer since enlargement just breaks them into pixels and blocks of color instead of unfolding them into more and more detail. "Which blobs are the roads again?"

There is repetition an editor would have caught. Take the desk story that appears on pages 14 and 40 (and I believe is mentioned again somewhere toward the end of the book).

Page 14: "I now have an L-shaped desk that is eight feet on each side, has seven drawers with locks on three and a keyboard drawer. Made to my specifications out of laurel. It cost about $225."

Page 40: "...the desk in my office. It is L-shaped and about three meters on each side. It has seven drawers, three with locks, and a keyboard drawer. It was custom made from laurel for about $225."

OK, now the good side. This really is is good. It's a story of one man who set off to explore another kind of life, and who chose to live among, like and with his new neighbors.

The writing style is comfortable and open, conversational and easy, and that is good. I think the book could be better if Mr. Hughes's wife had made a higher profile contribution. No doubt her explicit thoughts about life in her native country would add richness.

Mr. Hughes provides many examples of actual life in Nicaragua, and the book covers much you wouldn't ordinarily find. Like how to deal with a neighbor whose chicken your dog has just eaten. Or what it's like to be a self-proclaimed Taoist in a traditional Catholic society. The book also offers practical advice in many areas.

Two really nice things, though. First, a discussion of skills you might need vs. skills you might already have, and what to do with them. And second, how to live well close to the ground, on little money and without fuss.

"I see Nicaragua as the land of opportunity--much like the US was 50 years ago," he said in a Linux Journal article in May, 2007. "It is hard for someone paying $2000/mo rent to imagine living on $200/mo but is is possible. And it is possible to live well here for $500/mo."

"If a Nicaraguan could live on $600/year and I paid more than that for car insurance then they must know something I don't. I figured it out. I moved to Esteli Nicaragua over three years ago. It is a big little town in the mountains in northern Nicaragua. It offered a good compromise between the 'city conveniences' I need (basically regular mail service and decent Internet connectivity) and being three minutes from the country. It also is a relatively inexpensive place to live and has decent weather year round."

That about sums it up. I like it.

I've been considering retiring somewhere in Latin America the last few years. I lost a chunk of what was to be my retirement $s the same time everyone else did here in the states. I still want to retire but have concluded Arizona is no longer financially in my short term reach. I had assumed Costa Rica was going to be my ultimate destination now but after reading this book I'm going to put Nicaragua in to the running. Planning a trip to visit in June and am hoping to contact the author for some more advice. Anyhow just wanted to say good book. I enjoyed it and got a lot from it.