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Published: November 14th 2011
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The idyllic palm-fringed Corn Islands are located over 70 kilometres off the eastern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. It’s a couple of full days hard yakka to travel overland, or the easier option is to fly in as we did, from Managua with a quick stop in Bluefields. After about five minutes of arriving on Little Corn Island we met one of the islands’ more notorious locals, Ennis (though he is called Dennis by nearly every foreigner he encounters, and has now taken to introducing himself as such). Our first encounter was a pleasant one, as he flashed his golden toothed smile and wooed us with his Caribbean charm. Dave’s jandal/thong had blown out and Dennis arrived on the scene, fished around in some bushes, pulled out a nail and rock and promptly repaired it.
We later learned of his shady reputation and past indiscretions, but we had already warmed to him so when he invited us to a beach BBQ he was preparing, we were sold. The night of the BBQ we sat around a bonfire on the beach with 15 others and sipped rum from fresh coconuts as he prepared the local fish and coconut curry dish named ‘Rundown’.
The taste was amazing considering it was all cooked in one pot and prepared using seawater, and the company was awesome too – Joey kept us entertained with some guitar folk tunes.
Little Corn is small (1.6km sq), has no cars and no real roads, the main street consists of a narrow paved footpath. There are two very different sides to the island. The western side has a more local flavour and is where most of the houses are, and has grocery shops, school, dive shops, and bars and restaurants, while the eastern side has uninhabited stretches of white sand beaches and rustic beach ‘resorts’. Walking around the island we found ourselves alone on sandy beaches, sheltered by coconut palms as turquoise waves lapped at the shore. In other parts we met fisherman and encountered local kids digging for crabs to use as fishing bait.
We stayed on the south-eastern tip of the island at Casa Iguana, and met a load of great people there who were also diving with Dive Little Corn including Kiwi Emma, Dutch Trini and Sophie, Swiss Antonia, Scottish Iain and Sarah and their machete-welding American friend Terry. Together we enjoyed some great cave
diving and several sumptuous meals, too many happy hour Toñas. At Ennis’ BBQ we had met Colombian/British Susy and Sean at Dennis’ BBQ, and warmed to them immediately. They were staying on the other side of the island in a hostel that had a kitchen and offered to cook us dinner in turn for some sous-chef/dishwasher duties. We took them up on their kind offers and were spoiled with great company and delicious food, and learnt how to make smashed plaintains topped with guacamole (a recipe that will be returning to Melbourne with us!).
Simple island life and lack of cable TV proved to be a challenge when we wanted to watch the Rugby World cup games, but with a bit of help from mum, we managed to watch the games via Skype. (Thanks mum!). For NZ vs Aussie, Dave was outnumbered,, but showed his support for NZ in the final. Despite three days of bad weather (a tropical depression that looked like it might morph into a hurricane) the weather was prefect and we changed our return flights twice, delaying our departure from paradise before returning to mainland Nicaragua.
Managua was the scene of central American traffic
accident #2. A truck grazed the side of our taxi, but we got off lightly with no major damage but the left hand doors were mashed shut. From here we chicken-bused south to
Granada. Granada wasn’t quite the colonial gem that LP had talked it up to be with “restored colonial glories … the sun-dappled colours of it’s adobe buildings making the streets an absolute joy to stroll”. Parque central and the pedestrianized Calle la Calzada lined with bars and restaurants was the tourist hearts, but the local commercial heart was the Mercado municipal, streets flanked with stalls that spilled off the pavement and reminded us more of Indian street life.
Along with Michelle and Skye we took a boat trip out to
Las Isletas, 350 islands that were formed when Volcan Mombacho erupted.
Volcan Mombacho overlooks Granada, Lake Apoyo, and Las Isletas and is accessed via a steep ride in an ex-army truck. At the summit we walked around through the cloud forest and saw howler monkeys, racoons and took in the breathtaking view.
We met up with our English friend Mike in the town of
Masaya famed for it’s artesan market, but in reality it was
just more of the same tourist tack. Mike was tripping around in a borrowed diplomatic car and together we drove up to visit the smoldering
Volcan Masaya. Since the volcano is active visitors are advised to park facing out should they need to make a hasty escape in the event of an eruption.
Isla de Ometepe is an island in the middle of a lake out of which two massive volcanoes Concepcion (1610m) and Maderas (1394m) rise to meet the clouds. We hired a motorcycle and explored the muddy rocky roads at the base of Maderas to the waterfall at San Ramon. The waterfall involved a scramble up through the riverbed, traversing the river at many points to reach the impressive falls. Though the beaches were flooded we managed to check out some of the local petroglyphs on Maderas.
San Juan del Sur is a popular beach surrounded by cliffs, and close to some great surf breaks. We met up with Deb and Wade and enjoyed a night on the town in the company of too much Flor de Caña. The next day we walked up to the cliff-top Jesus statue (minus one giant finger), having lost Wade
to a hangover, but picking up Mike at a bar along the way. After a couple of days here we took Mike off on his first chicken bus adventure into Costa Rica …
There are over 70 photos, (we couldn’t narrow down the selection any further!), so be sure to scroll through. x S+D
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sharon osborne
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luv ya, miss ya, wish I was there!!!!
hola lovelies - sending email to you..