My friends Philine, Jon, Melissa and myself all went to Little Corn Island. Little Corn Island (we'll call it LC for short) is about 3 kilometers off the Caribbean coast of Big Corn Island, which is about 10 kilometers off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. To get to this itsy bitsy island was quite the adventure, had it been in the states, it would take approximately 3 hours, maybe, but in Costa Rica and Nicaragua its so much more of a "treat". Really, it is part of the allure.
We left my apartment at about 0800 (pronounced, Oh 800) hours. Its about a 2.5 hour drive to the boarder, which might I say, is quite the enjoyable place. Picture 5 tour buses pulling up and unloading passengers to go through customs, this is the line you have to wait in. You have 20 dirty cheating men in your face asking if you want to change your money to the Cordoba (Nicaraguan currency). They're cheating, because all the calculators are rigged, so if you don't know, then you could loose some money in the transaction. Then you get up to customs, they don't do anything, just stamp your passport, no questions, nada. I think the guy in front of me had a picture of a 4 year old, Asian girl, he got through. Then you have to walk along a dirt path, where they make you wait again and stamp your passport. Don't know what they're doing, cause the stamp looks exactly like the last one to me. Look, I'm just following the 4 year old, Asian girl (45 year old Tico).
FINALLY, its approximately 1200 hours (is that how you say it?) and we've made it! Across the boarder. We grab a cab. This is fun, cause there are 4 of us, not including the driver, who looked a bit like a Latin Elvis (we'll just call him Elvis), so we are 5 people in a tiny little car. The AC is broken, thank goodness the windows "work" at least 2.5 of them do. Its HOT needless to say! Its okay though, the airport is only 2 hours away. Elvis was really funny. At one point Jon asked Elvis if he would like a SIP of water from the water bottle. Elvis takes the water bottle and squeezes it as hard as he can, fills his mouth with water and has it running down his chin and onto his shirt. The four of us (minus Elvis) were laughing hysterically, because we couldn't believe he did that. Then Elvis started laughing, who knows why, cause we were laughing at him. I'll stop here, because I think you had to be there. Just about 30 minutes before we arrive, Elvis began praying, because Jon told him, if he didn't get us there in time for our flight, he wouldn't get paid. So he started praying. We got there with an hour to spare.
Nothing interesting about the flight, only that the airplane was an old thing (you'll see pictures).
We arrive on Big Corn Island at about 1600 hours. You then need to take a boat over to LC. It was quick and painless. We've made it. At 1700 hours (9 hours after we left little Tamarindo) we arrive at the dock, little did we know this was more or less the main attraction. We unloaded our stuff and went to find a room. There are no roads, only one long concrete path and little dirt paths branching off of it. It was charming. Everyone has a wheelbarrow. This is how you bring your goods from the dock to your house. The shops have 3 bottles of water, 2 bags of Cheetos, 4 packs of gum, 6 rolls of toilet paper, and good luck looking for anything beyond that, oh and Flor de Cana, which is the Nicaraguan rum. Very tasty. Little did we know that some people speak Spanish, some speak English, some speak both, and some, well you don't know what they're saying (Creole). And you cannot bank on having electricity. If you're lucky. The place we stayed was running on a diesel generator. We payed $75/night. Imagine what the general population has?! Its certainly a "country" of its own, I guess the population of 400 has found a way to make it work here and wouldn't know any different. We found our place, unpacked and enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.
Here are some pictures from the trip. Enjoy! I'll explain as we go along.
The airplane that flew us in from Managua to Big Corn Island.
Relaxing on a tiny little private beach.
This is the beach we were on.
Phil, Phil's baby (bump), and me.
Our own little private beach.
Here is our cabina. Notice the shower, with all the water you want as long as you don't go over 6 minutes. Which is a good thing, considering we only had 4 people. That was all sarcasm, had you not noticed!
The view from our cabina!
Makes you feel like you were there huh?! Doesn't it, doesn't it?!
The following are just pretty pictures from our walk around the island.
Just taking advantage of a little wind. Yes, electricity.
Monkeying around! Hahahahahaha!
This grass was pillowy. It looks as though it would be hard underneath, but you sit down and just sink.
This is walking back through the middle of the island. This is what most of the paths look like.
For some reason, we only saw three monkeys the whole trip. They were all on leashes. To give you an idea, we see wild monkeys pretty much outside of our back door in Tamarindo.
Kids playing baseball.
The dock I was telling you about.
A pretty house.
It was quite the sunrise!!!!! Breathtaking!
It was an amazing trip. I recommend it to anyone!
