Internet cafés exist throughout the nation, and even in smaller towns you’ll find several cybers (pronounced SEE-bear), run off a wimpy ADSL connection and a pirated copy of Windows XP (the authors have yet to find a computer whose keyboard is configured properly in any of these village cybers). Prices start at about $1 per hour and go as high as $15 an hour in some hotel business centers.

Furthermore, free Wi-Fi connections are spreading like the plague across Nicaraguan restaurants, hotels, and cafés. Note that these free networks are often riddled with security threats, so use them to check your email, not your bank account.

If you are staying a significant time in Nicaragua and need a connection in your home or business, visit a Claro or Movistar kiosk to inquire about cell phone dongles that let you access the Internet the way you’d make a cell phone call, with the same coverage. For landlines, IBW Communications (from Hospital Monte España, one block north, one block east, tel. 505/2278-6328, www.ibw.com.ni) offers dial-up access starting at about $10 per month.