europefun

We just got back from Nicaragua and feel we need to write this to warn those who are non white on how they will be treated in Nicaragua. Throughout our trip we found them to be the most unfriendly, rude and unlikeable people (not to mention extremely racist). We have traveled to most of Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala to name a few but our experience with Nicaraguans made us very wary on how they treat those who are not whites. We found it outrageous and we think it is only fair that you are warned before you go there. We personally saw people at the hotel (a big fat hotel in Granada) be downright rude to a person of Asian descent and serve whites with a smile and avoid the Asians, a black family sit in a restaurant and get bypassed by the owner who then went on to take orders from whites (this was specially disgusting as we saw the father there with 3 young teens and they were not served at all and they finally just got up and left), security at the airport only checking non whites/giving them the complete run down and going over their personal belongings one by one, our cab driver telling us that they do not want Chinese there at all..the list goes on. At the airport you will be singled out for checks -the lame excuse is "random" but there is nothing random about it. We observed them pulling people who were not white and checking them thoroughly (Managua). When we mentioned this to the tour operators they denied it (their business depends on tourism) but even our experience was the same. Countries we found that were amazingly friendly are Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico (go to Oxaca and Merida-wonderful places, great people-kind and helpful), El Salvador (keep away from San Salvador, the rest is gorgeous with great people).

MikeElPortonVerde

Greetings europefun:

I saw your same post (and responded there too) on another Nicaragua travel forum, so here goes:

I'm sorry to hear this but not too surprised. There definitely is a thing like "white privilege" here in Nicaragua as I've experienced it. My spouse is from the Caribbean side and she has experienced different treatment by Nicaraguans on this side, so she's experienced the other side of the situation. While the mix of peoples in Nicaragua is quite diverse, look at things like advertisements for new housing developments or something and you'll find the models used are typically very light-skinned.

We've hosted quite a few families and couples with diverse backgrounds and I think they really enjoy their visit in part because our family here at the farm is multi-cultural.

However, I think a related problem is that there is quite a bit of different treatment of Nicaraguans in expat-owned hotels and restaurants too, so let's put it this way, there is plenty of opportunity to be more inclusive all-around.

Cheers, Mike @ El Portón Verde, Managua