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Although our stay on mainland Nicaragua was absurdly brief, I felt a trip to the corn islands was good for several reasons. First, I felt our vacation needed an injection of relaxation. We were regularly getting up at 4am (or earlier!) to catch buses to the next destination. Inevitably our backpacks would end up spewing all of our clothes, camera gear, wet stuff, etc all over the room. Packing and repacking this everyday can be a bit of a grind (I know, poor me). Sooo, I thought 3 days in the same lazy place sounded excellent. And the 2nd reason, SCUBA! I needed to feel better about hauling my heavy scuba gear around these countries.
A short flight later, and we land in the calm oasis of Big Corn Island. The airport is little more than a room next to a concrete slab. One of the cabbies casually suggests us to stay at his lodge. We ask a few questions and decide to go for it. It is pretty much paradise on a remote part of the island. We have a balcony view over one of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen for something like 10 dollars a night.
There are virtually no other tourists on the island...mostly locals wandering around going about their business. I wonder how any of these restaurants and businesses can stay open with such sparse interest. I suppose a few customers a day can sustain the simple island life.
As we are getting acquinted with our temporary heaven, we take notice of one of the primary ways of getting around the island....Golf CArts!! We pay the small fee and now we have wheels! Needless to say, it is endless amounts of fun cruising around paradise with our fairly rugged vehicle. It can go down trails, cruise the beach and handle the paved roads to restaurants and pubs. Although we had a map, we usually opted for the more adventurous route of swirving onto trails that seemed the coolest. Sometimes we would pass by small jungle living quarters and wave to the smiling locals. One of the homes had a group of kids and parents throwing rocks at a tree. We pulled over to see what all the action was about. They are trying to knock down some delicious fruit from a tall tree. They welcome us to try our aim with them. Although
we had a few close throws, they were clearly the champions of this match. Further down the trail we arrive at a massive home situated on a magnificent peninsula. A man with a shotgun heartily greats us and gives us a few driving tips. It turns out shotguns are no big deal in Latin AMerica. Anyplace worth anything has a private guard toting this massive weapon. We thought this area was appropriate for an impromptu wheel barrel race. Me and Carrie DOMinated the the Dave Katie team by almost half the length of the entire coarse. I have some hilarious video footage of this.
As it got darker, we had to flick on our carts headlights. Sometimes we would be leasurely cruising down the coast, enjoying the crash of the waves...when suddenly a growling barking dog would come blasting out of the dark forest. They would full on chase us as we eeked out every last drop of speed from our getaway cart. Lucky for us, these dogs were not truly interested in catching us and were content to just run behind and bark. One of the most bizarre sites happened as we rounded the corner of one of
the least populated parts of the island. In the distance we hear the bOOm BOOM booM of dance music. We pull up to a seemingly abandoned dance hut with only 2 unassuming women behind a small bar. We take this oppportunity to Dance HArd in this most bizzare of dance clubs. We end the night in a club that is 100% locals. We are the only white people there. The flavor is overwhelmingly reggae. I can´t help but feel some of my nerdness come out with so many smooth moving dred lock friends bobbing and weaving around me. The social ettiquette is clearly something that takes a bit of time to learn. But being awkwardly out of place is yet another great reason to travel. Overall, this day was rated as Fun Galore.
Lucky for us, the fun does not seem to ever stop. The next day we booked a full day of diving out on BLowing Rock. This is a small rock outcropping a good hour boat ride off the island. I am bonus excited about this dive trip as it is my first opportunity to use my underwater video case for my video camera. It is a
fairly large and elaborate contraption that I was honestly a bit intimidated to use. I knew I would be ok in these tropical waters because there was virtually no current, the water was warm and the underwater visibility very good. This all makes for a comfortable dive and great conditions to capture the wonderful colors and creature of the ocean. The dives are wonderful and I am filled with creative joy while using my camera. One of the coolest parts of underwater videography is that you don´t need cranes, dollies or other fancy equipment to get interesting angles....you just use your body and fly over the reef, or swim upside down and shoot directly into the sun beams casting from the surface, or any other creative aqua cinematography manuever you can conjure.
Our final day we decided to take a short boat ride over to Little Corn Island. I didn´t think it was possible, but this place is even MORE chill than Big Corn. There are no cars or carts of any kind. Only people relaxing in all directions. We meet up with an enthusiatic french women who is running the only dive shop on the island. The diving
is simarly spectacular. My 2nd dive was spent carefully exploring a set of underwater caves. This was without a doubt one of my favorite dives ever. The feeling of exploring a long lost magical kingdom was constant. Every hole we emerged from revealed even more intricate structures and delicate coral. This is one of those things that the video will not do it justice (let alone my handful of after thought photos). I finally also realized why I love diving. I love seeing so many interconnected layers of detail and complexity. You can spend your dive whizzing past the beauty and have a breathtaking experience. You can also spend an entire dive staring at 2 foot of reef and discover an entirely different world of beauty. And then considering how the macro and micro interact sends my happy thoughts through the roof.
After our island adventure, we hightailed it to El Salvador. We did an excellent horse ride around some of the ruins and bombshelters of a recent cival war. Our tour guide was intense and explained his countries history with great pride. This authentic history lesson was capped off with him letting us run the horses down a
swirving dirt path. I felt like a cowboy in a movie.
Onward to Guatamala!
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bird
non-member comment
nice
who knew islands made of corn were such a slice of heaven. reggae is all in your hips... work it. can't wait to see all your underwater pics.