Jason Puracal speaks after release from Nicaraguan prison

The thought of his wife and 5-year-old son born with Down syndrome is what helped Jason Puracal endure two years in a crowded, bug-infested Nicaraguan prison serving a drug sentence that was later withdrawn when he won an appeal.

Before last week’s appeals victory, Puracal was an American serving a 22-year sentence in a Nicaragua maximum-security prison on money-laundering and drug charges that stemmed from a November 2010 arrest at his beachfront real estate office in the surfing town of San Juan del Sur, near the border with Costa Rica.

Prosecutors charged that he used his business as a front for money laundering, selling farms on behalf of suspected drug traffickers. A judge convicted him of all charges in August 2011.

Puracal tells the Associated Press he was assaulted more than once in prison and was hospitalized for poor nutrition. He lost nearly 30 pounds.

“I was robbed several times,” he said, adding inmates would often steal his food.

Conditions were harsh, but he endured them hoping to eventually go back to his son, Jabu, and his Nicaraguan wife, Scarleth Flores, who he met in 2006.

Puracal spoke publicly on Monday for the first time since being released from a Nicaraguan prison last week. He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper there were days when he lost hope.

“I don’t think it has really hit me yet,” Puracal told AC360 Monday night. “The first thing I did when I got out was a hot shower. I took three hot showers in the first six hours, and I still felt dirty.”

Puracal thanked his sister, Janis, for saving his life.

Janis Puracal, a Seattle-based attorney, dedicated countless hours to securing her brother’s freedom. She appeared on the program alongside her brother.

“My world has been chaotic for these two years and we have exhausted every resource that we have, but to watch him yesterday with his son, I know I would go back and do it all again from the start,” she said.

The Tacoma man says the case against him isn’t closed yet. Nicaraguan authorities say they are studying the ruling by a three-judge panel announced last Wednesday before revealing if they will appeal with the Central American nation’s Supreme Court. Attorney Fabbrith Gomez could not be reached to speak about what’s next for Puracal’s defense.

Puracal said the U.S. government had to negotiate with the country’s immigration authorities to let him exit the country on a long holiday weekend, instead of waiting until Monday.

He left the prison Thursday afternoon hunched down in the back seat of a car being driven by his lawyer. They spent the night at a hotel in Managua, the capital, guarded by the country’s immigration police. Puracal and his attorney drove to Honduras the next night and then flew from Tegucigalpa to New York on Sunday.

“I am just so happy to be able to breathe some fresh air. Even New York fresh air,” he said.

Puracal’s family flew to New York to meet him Sunday night after he arrived from Tegucigalpa.

Despite living nearly two tough years, Puracal says he wouldn’t change his decision of moving to Nicaragua.

Ten years ago, he traveled there in a Peace Corps mission and taught farmers about vegetable gardening. After ending his stint in 2004, he decided to stay and made San Juan del Sur his home, living in a three-bedroom house overlooking the bay. He started selling homes and then obtained a Re/Max franchise with three other Americans.

On Nov. 11, 2012, masked police officers with AK-47s raided his office and arrested him. First, he shared a cell with between nine and 12 inmates who fought among them and prison guards, he says. Puracal says the cell was infested with insects and at times there wasn’t enough drinking water for inmates, which caused constant stomach pains.

After human rights groups and congressmen complained about the conditions, he was moved to solitary confinement.

The University of Washington graduate has plans to go back to school to study sustainable urban development.

“I am just focused in being with my family and moving forward” he said. “I am not really interested in looking at the past. I am interested in looking at the future.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.