Little Corn: Day 2

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Sitting on our little deck typing early this morning & just happened to look up & through a wide gap between two palm trees where something very large just jumped out of the ocean. I don't have a clue what it was but it looked like a stingray. Is that possible? It was pretty far out in the ocean but I saw it in the air. I wonder what it was. Unless there's some sort of rectangular looking fish out there too....

Up early for breakfast. Walked to The Shack. Not the best food (I think we have just been spoiled with amazing cooks along the way & a decent cook is apparent) & super slow (as we will learn all food is on this island but that's because what you order is made right then & there for you, so it's really fresh). We scarfed it down to get to dive shop on time. We got to the dive shop & checked our gear & received our dive plan before we got on the boat. The dive boats they use are very small fishing boats converted to be used as dive boats. There isn't much room to move around so they do the dive plan at the shop with either a hand drawn map of the dive site or a just drawn map of the dive site on a white board. It's a really helpful tool.

We're diving with Dive Little Corn. Our first dive is at Blowing Rock. It's the furthest dive site from Little Corn. It's actually off the southwest end of Big Corn. So we were on the boat for about an hour to get out there. The site is a large reef surrounded by sandy bottom. The reef is 60-70ft tall poking out of water where we anchored the boat. While descending I saw a big Nurse Shark swimming away from us & we saw another RN Shark later, just chilling on the sandy floor. We saw our first reef shark just after entering the water & several more during the dive. We saw a huge school of black durgeon & overall very big fish here. Big barracuda, huge blue parrotfish & a 4ft kingfish. All so big & healthy & abundant. It's very obvious overfishing is not happening here. There are huge huge Snapper everywhere & just an amazing amount of life. They all seem to live into late adulthood in these waters. The reef & rock formations were really beautiful underwater. You could see the churning of the water at the surface where the waves hit the rocks that poke out. It's like this huge thick pillar of reef out in the middle of the ocean where all kinds of fish come to snack. I love the way that the sharks swim. They are so graceful & still a bit scary underwater. Their eyes seem so smart & knowledgeable & unafraid. I am definitely reminded that I am a visitor in their world.

Our surface interval was on boat & there were a lot of large waves. Somehow I have become a person who gets seasick. I'm not sure why but it didn't used to happen. Although I will say that I wasn't feeling great from the getgo this morning & breakfast was not sitting well. But finally I was able to fall asleep on a tiny seat on the boat & make it through the 1 hour interval without any problems.

Second dive, also at Blowing Rock again but in a different direction along the reef. We saw the biggest Queen Angelfish ever, & our first Rainbow & Midnight Parrotfish, probably 2 feet long each & fatties! We saw 3 more reef sharks & loads of big schools of fish including a half dozen barracuda swimming together. There was definitely a current pulling us along the amazing rock formation & we heard dolphins in the distance. I actually had my first mini-puke underwater on this dive. My stomach was in an uproar & I thought I was going to burp but there was more to it. I was amazed with myself because I have heard stories about people throwing up under water but I thought if it happened to me I would freak out & not do well. But, what can you do when you're 40 feet underwater? No time to freak out & lose your head. I just continued on with my dive.

Back to town on the long boat ride. After rinsing off our gear we headed out to find food! We ate a delicious fried chicken at comedor "Cool Spot." There was a group of locals there drinking beer & laughing & talking. We only understood about 40% of what they were saying even though it was all in Creole & English. We've decided that Cool Spot makes the best Tostones. They were perfect.

We walked back to Casa Iguana, our 10 minute walk from town, with only about 2 hours to rest before our night dive. We were talked into doing the night dive tonight because the weather is supposed to be perfect & ideal for the the best night dive spot, only reachable with perfect weather. Sold! So we read & relaxed & napped a bit before heading back to the dive shop. We got our dive plan from our DM Simon & we just love the whiteboard map drawings to paint a picture for your memory when underwater.

The boat ride out to the site was amazing. The sea was so flat & calm, like a day on a windless lake. We watched the sunset on the boat while driving to the dive site. It was truly breathtaking & the perfect way to get you in a great mood for a dive! We sat on the boat & waited for darkness to settle over us then we got into the water. This dive was the most amazing dive we have done. It is probably my favorite dive so far. Primarily because of something called Bioluminescence which is indescribable. At one point in the dive I looked back behind me, probably making sure there wasn't some big hungry fish or shark following me & I saw my first bioluminescence. It was like the water behind me had turned into the most amazing starlit sky that kept creating new stars right in front of me. I didn't really even understand what I was looking at & it was difficult for my mind to make sense of it. Soon after I noticed the underwater stars we stopped & sat on a sandy spot & turned off our lights. That was when we saw the amazingest bioluminescence. It reminded me of the tree scene in Avatar, with the strands of lights. The longer we sat still the more the lights would surround us. They would appear right in front of my face & form little strands of light starting at the top & dropping down in a string of tiny lights. We sat there for a good 5 minutes just watching the show. I wanted to clap & jump around. It was the most amazing thing I have ever been lucky enough to see. I felt like a little kid in complete awe. When we turned on our lights & swam away I kept looking back at it... So beautiful. Then we swam in the dark for a minute to watch it grow around us while swimming. Incredible!! I still get excited about it just thinking about it. Eventually we swam on & continued with the dive. We saw two Green Turtles. One early on & one late in the dive who was just sitting on the ground staring at us. He was huge! Probably a good 2.5-3 feet across. He was so pretty & just looked up at us with his big, wise eyes. Toward the end of the dive, when it was really really dark, we were swimming along the sandy bottom with the reef on my left & Geoff on my right when all of the sudden I saw something out of my peripheral vision to my left. I assumed it was Geoff who is known to move around a lot & change side on me quickly. So, I turn my light towards him only to shine the light straight into the face of a Nurse Shark within a hands reach next to me, swimming along with me as if we're dive buddies!!! I literally screamed outloud because she surprised the crap out of me & then Geoff looked over & saw her give me a funny look & swim away with another littler Nurse Shark following behind her!! Whoa!! Apparently they are super curious & are known to follow people around on night dives. Glad I learned this info after the dive! The funniest thing about it all is that when I screamed the shark literally gave me a look like "what is your problem crazy lady, I'm just minding my own business here." It was a moment I will never forget. We also saw lots of big red shrimp that weren't scary at all....

Back on the boat all of us were super amped up!! All of us so excited! Simon said it was the best bioluminesence he had seen in a very long time. Lucky us! The conditions were just too perfect for it, no wind leading to super flat seas. We all just talked & talked & our smiles were huge. That was an amazing dive!! Yippeee!!!

At Casa Iguana we made a celebratory drink, yummy California drink & rum for me, rum on the rocks for Geoff. I know it sounds weird, rum on the rocks, but the Nica rum that is aged for 7-12 years is really really smooth. We showered & headed back out to town after chatting for some time with Jason, a 6th grade teacher from San Diego who shared all kinds of travel stories with us & who gave us tips for Columbia. Sadly, our slow moving selves found that just about everything was closed up for the evening except for Bridggette's. According to an artice she had framed on the wall she has one of the original restaurants on the island. We ordered grilled fish to share. The good stuff takes forever to get to you but it's fresh! We're thinking that Bridggette is a contender for best tostones. Guess we'll have to keep trying them to be sure...

Our walk back to Casa Iguana was very interesting because we forgot our headlamp. It was pitch black on the walking path in parts but especially once we got onto Casa Iguana's private little sandy path. We could not see a thing. Geoff was walking with his arms out to his sides so he could feel the line of palms trees on both sides of the path to make sure we didn't end up off the path. We had to make a couple decisions when the path would obviously veer. I actually had better directional memory than Geoff for once. It was sooo funny. We were cracking up the whole way because we had no idea if we would really make it back. We got off course a couple times but finally came upon the lights of C.I. & were very very happy!

Once we finally made it we were very ready for bed. We are pooped out from 3 dives today but loved every second of it! Plus it's so easy to fall asleep with the sound of the sea & the breeze blowing in our window on us. Love the Caribbean. So so much!

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Photos

"Blowing Rock"
The site of our first two dives in Nicaragua.

The Carribean was glass calm.
We probably should have been wakeboarding.