Bicycles have been a big part of our lives for years. We met each other ridings bicycles in Fayetteville, NC. Separately and together we've spent thousands of hours training, riding, and racing bicycles. Mary won the internationally famous Race Across America (RAAM) as well as the World Ultra Marathon Cycling title one year. I focused primarily on cyclocross and mountain bike racing and was the NC and VA cross country state champion once and the SC champion two years in a row.
Even when we retired, we opened four bike shops and led weekly community bike rides. Five years later when we sold our bike shops and tried to retire again in Oriental, NC, at the request of many of our neighbors, we opened a part-time bicycle repair business that we operate to this day.
As we've aged we've slowly dialed back the riding from every spare moment to now sadly very little. That is partly because it has become very dangerous to ride on the roads, but mostly because we have replaced that activity with other forms of recreation. Still we love riding bikes. Any kind of bikes.
When we came to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, we did not bring bikes with us but instead we decided we'd buy some when we got here. In the US, we both have expensive bikes with electronic shifting and carbon fiber frames. Here, we didn't want anything high-dollar and that's good because it would be nearly impossible to find them.
Instead we wanted the "typical" Nicaragua bicycle. You're probably thinking, "What's that?" In Nicaragua, bicycles are used for transportation, not recreation. The streets are filled with bikes, trikes, motorcycles, trucks, cars, buses, and even horse-drawn carts. It is rare to see a bike locked up and that is because they are inexpensive. So after searching for a month on Facebook and Encuentro 24 (like Craigslist in the US) we finally gave up and just bought new bikes.
We drove to nearby Rivas where there was a bike dealer in the local mercado (much like a famer's market in the US only it runs for several square blocks). After the normal friendly haggling, we paid nearly full retail price but we did save the "gringo premium", meaning we didn't pay the extra that most non-locals are routinely charged.
Because Mary's new bike had a better seat and nicer wheels, it cost a whopping $126! Mine cost only $122! Both came with seven speeds and are decent bikes. Quality-wise, these are probably one step up from the typical Walmart or Dick's Sporting Goods bikes. The equivalent bikes in the US would probably cost 3-4 times as much.
Of course, we also love the bicycle taxis and delivery trikes we see every day so I had to buy one of those. We bought one that was about worn out and we have fixed it up to "Nicaragua perfect". We love it and when you come to visit us here in San Juan del Sur, we'll be happy to ride you to dinner on our own private tricycle cab.