The Corn Islands excursion

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I´m writing today from the gritty city of Managua. It’s my second day in a row here and most people who have been here would ask me why. I don’t really know why either, but I’m very comfortable. I’ve been reading, watching TV and wandering around a bit. I do plan on leaving tomorrow for León. One of Nic´s colonial cities. The liberal Sandinista one. When I wrote last entry I was on my way to Corn Islands. They were absolutely beautiful, and yes, expensive and time consuming to get to. Big corn lays 70k or about 45 miles of the Caribbean coast. Little corn is 7k further east. My journey there and back was full of Miscommunications and missed boats. There are flights from Managua but I couldn’t justify paying $180. I have a lot more time than money. So that’s what I spent. It was about what I expected going there. I spent two hours on a skiff getting to Bluefields. But the skiff was late and the ferry had already left. I luckily was able to catch a skiff to the ferries next stop, and catch it there. Otherwise it would have been a wasted journey to Bluefields. There are only two days that ferries go to the islands a week. And they only return one day a week, which is Sunday. This was Thursday. So I got to Big Corn late that afternoon. It’s the more bustling of the two islands. I felt a little uneasy, because I’d heard so many warnings about the islands, from both travelers and locals. They’re known for their surplus of criminals and lack of law enforcement. In fact I’m pretty sure I caught the owner of the room I was staying in trying to rob me. It’s also a major stop on the cocaine trade route because of its remoteness and closeness to Colombia’s Isla San Andres. So you get a lot of the criminal type out there trying to make a quick buck. Another interesting thing is that dumped cocaine often washes up on shore in large quantities. Some of the locals have made a fortune because of this. I spent one night on Big Corn and the other two on little corn. Little corn is exactly what I had in mind. Little island, no motorized vehicles, beautiful beaches surrounded by coral reefs. I finally got some use out of the snorkel set I bought back in Panama. I really like the locals out there. Aside from the thieves. They’re mainly blacks who speak an unintelligible dialect with each other, but can speak English or Spanish easily. The dialect is mostly from English, but has a lot of Spanish in it as well. The journey back was fouled because Nicaragua decided to change time for day light savings. I’ll spare you and myself the boring details of how the trip went, because it was very boring. It started at 1pm on Sunday from little corn and ended at 6am on Tuesday in Managua. I luckily was with a friend I met on Little Corn, so it could have been a lot more boring. Here´s some pics.

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Photos

Sunken boats
Big Corn

Nice beach right in front of my cabin
Little Corn

Jumping into the warm clear waters of Laguna De Apoyo
From last entry

Comments

[CC]

wow!!
Ooopss!! got too excited there. I'm going to Nicaragua in July and i've always wanted to go to the Corn Islands....reading your entry was interesting and please be careful of any dodgy people over there yeah? anyways, thanks for the entry because they're giving me an insight and of what to expect and to look out for.

[anonymous]

which hotel
Can you please share where you stayed and the circumstance about the hotel owner (perhaps) trying to rob you?

[Jenni]

Yeah, I took a plane from Managua to the Big Corn, about $100, and then ferried it to Bluefields. Wanted to save myself a 20hr bumpy busride, but still wanted to experience the 5hr ferry. (Never again will I complain about our ferries at home)