My Nicaragua Story: Corn Island

Spring Break is a great thing for teachers. We get a lovely week off of school to refresh and re-energize before the last two months of school.

When you live in a foreign country, this means you have time to explore different parts of the country that you normally wouldn't have time to visit.

When you live in Nicaragua, it means that vacation is probably not the correct terminology to use for traveling on Spring Break. Adventure might be a more appropriate term.

So we set out on an adventure.

I have no clue what happened at the airport. We got there early, everyone cut us in line, and two planes headed for Big Corn Island left without us. After being stuck in a small room with really awful Ke$ha videos playing on the t.v., and nothing to do but take ridiculous photos with our overly large boarding passes, they let us load a small plane that brought to our minds many Hatchet references.

The small plane made me a little nervous, but I obviously survived or I wouldn't be typing this out. We had a good view of the Nica countryside and a great incoming view of Big Corn Island.

I suspect that you have no idea what the Corn Islands are, so I will stop to explain. There are two islands, Little Corn and Big Corn. The islands are part of Nicaragua and are about 40 miles off the east coast of the country. Big Corn is four square miles and Little Corn is only one square mile. The people are descendants of the original Moskito people, British landowners, and slaves. The British had control of the island for many years and European pirates used it as a stopping place. You can hear an interesting mix of Creole English, Spanish, and Moskito languages. It has what I imagine to be the typical island feel: very relaxed people, dress, and rules. Surprisingly, many of the houses were run down and abandoned. Restaurants advertised food they didn't have. Grocery stores were nonexistent. In terms of beauty, the beaches were the islands' gems. White sand, blowing palm trees, clear water, and coral reef were everywhere.

Back to the adventures.

Adventure #1: Snorkeling

You know those cool Discovery Channel shows were you get to see shipwrecks and sunken treasures underwater? That's what happened. It was my first time snorkeling, so I would have thought anything was cool, but really, this was great. Stop #1 had sunken cannons and a huge anchor from a pirate ship. Stop #2 had a whole sunken ship. I could see the captain's steering wheel and the stern poking up almost to the surface of the water. It was a big ship, and a lot to explore.

Adventure #2 Scuba Diving

Most of the time to scuba dive you need to take about three days worth of classes and have to get certified before you even strap on the gear. However, this is Nica where the rules are made up, so we were able to bypass some of the technicalities. Instead of a three day ordeal, we took a brief discovery scuba course which was some advice on breathing techniques and how to deal with air pressure changes. As we suited up, I got a nice little kids sized suit that made me feel like I should be in the next Incredibles movie.

We strapped weights around our waists, hitched up tanks of air to our backs, and fastened the goggles and flippers. We looked like professionals and felt like amateurs as we waded out into the shallow water for a test run. Practicing breathing underwater was next. I was trying to pretend I was the Little Mermaid or Poseidon or someone equally awesome, but mostly I felt like I was not good at breathing underwater. Let's be honest. I was very nervous. I had spent a lot of time that week debating if I wanted to scuba or not. In the end, I decided it might be a once in a life time experience and I should take it while I could. That did not make me any less nervous as I was in the water. However, as we practiced some safety moves and sat underwater, I felt better. The instructor said I was doing a good job not freaking out. Yes! I wasn't freaking out!

The instructor deemed us ready to dive. We loaded up the gear and headed out to sea. The water was CHOPPY. The instructor said if it was any worse she wouldn't let us dive. I asked her how long we would be underwater for. Thirty minutes she told me. I thought that sounded like a long time to not take a normal breath, but it was too late to back out. We went in. We went down.We started swimming.... and I started freaking out. Breathe in, breathe out. It was supposed to be simple. I tried calming down, but I was over thinking things. My first instinct was to get the instructor's attention and tell her I was done. Finished. Want to get out of the water PRONTO! I tried to distract myself with the beautiful surroundings. That wasn't too hard to do. Coral reef! Fish! Sea creatures! Once I stopped thinking about breathing, I enjoyed myself. It was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Adventure #3 Traveling around the Island

Taxis were our number one mode of transportation on the island. It was cheap and there were plenty of taxis around. There were five of us, and taxis only have four spots, so we quickly worked out a system. Two girls squished in front, the other three squished in back. Now, squishing in a taxi is normal behavior in Nica and many other cities around the world, so this was no big deal. The big deal was this:

It is not everyday a four year old gets to drive around five people squished in a taxi. He was very good at honking at people in the road.

The island was small enough that we thought renting bikes would be fun. It was fun until my bike got a flat tire. Why do I always get flat tires?

Walking was obviously the cheapest way to get around. However, we soon realized that crabs have a lot of rights on the island. So we crab walked whenever possible.

Adventure #4 Little Corn Island

We ditched the boys one day and took a ferry to Little Corn Island. The ferry turned out to be a motor boat. The ride was speedy, but very wet. We arrived on the island more or less in one piece and were handed a map. In the center of the map was a big lighthouse.

We had read about the lighthouse previously, and knew that was where we wanted to go. Supposedly you could see a beautiful view of the whole island. We set off and soon discovered there are no roads on the island, just sidewalks, paths, and trails. It was weird not seeing or hearing any cars or motorcycles. We stuck to the side walk at first and soon got side tracked by iced coffee and brownies.

Back on the trail again, we found cabanas and what appeared to be paradise. Our path soon turned to beach. From the beach we found a trail and a women who pointed us towards the lighthouse. From there, things got weird. The sidewalk turned to trail, which lead us to a forest, then a field, then more forest, then a baseball field, then palm tree land. We ended up in a village of little houses.

Our ever-changing path

As fellow traveler Sarah Randall put it, we didn't lose the trail, the trail lost us. Some locals got us back on track. Finally, we found this sign:

We knew we were going the right way! Up and up we went, we felt like we were getting close, and then --- barbed wire. Under the wire we went.

Up the hill some more and we found .... the lighthouse?

Smiling on the outside, but not on the inside

It was no lighthouse. It was a rusted skeleton of what maybe could have been a lighthouse if someone had bought more materials about fifty years ago. We attempted to climb it, but it was not safe and the ladder wasn't straight. There was no good view of the island. We were sure it was a mistake. No way would a map, website, a sign on a tree, and many locals point us in the direction of a rusted ladder. We wandered some more, consulted the map, found help, and had them personally show us where the lighthouse was.

consulting the map of lies

They led us to - you guessed it - the non-lighthouse. We were tricked! We tried to come up with plausible explanations. Maybe it was a tourist trap. Maybe only those worthy enough could find the lighthouse. Maybe it was a ghost lighthouse that only appears at midnight. I suppose we will never know.

From there we finished the trail and ended up on the beach. We decided to walk on the beach back to the docks and main part of the island to get a quick lunch before the afternoon ferry back to Big Corn Island. We set off. The sandy beach turned into rocks and we had to head up instead of around. We chose a nice looking cliff and scaled it gracefully in our flipflops.

At the top there was no trail to greet us. We went in search of one. What we found instead were fields, palm trees, an empty house, and a pig pen.

I was starting to get worried. If we didn't catch the ferry, we would be stuck on Little Corn without money and supplies. As we wandered around, we literally stumbled on the trail. Boom! It just appeared there in front of us. We kicked it into gear, reapplied sunscreen, and made it back in time for lunch.

Adventure #5 Picnicking

What is a picnic without your PB&J, cucumbers, and granola bars? We hiked up a hill one evening, enjoyed the sunset, and found an empty house to crash for our picnic party.