Big Hospitality on Big Corn

Talor: What do country music, softball and Sunday nights have in common? They're all huge on Big Corn...

... and so is the hospitality. We took the ferry back and Ike (the wonderful owner of Vientos del Norte where we stayed before) came to pick us up, and greeted us as if we were old friends returning. The first thing he told us was that the power/water situation had been pretty stable, but guess what, it was out again at the moment... figures! It took several hours, but it did come back, and has been pretty good since... uh oh, hope I didn't just jinx it.

The plan was to spend a few days getting to know Big Corn, and then back to Managua and on to Panama or somewhere in South America. Well, a few days turned into two weeks...

From the beginning Ike went out of his way to make our stay comfortable. His air-conditioned cabanas are big and comfortable, and he equipped us with a fridge, microwave, toaster, coffee maker and coffee. He is truly a generous host offering us help with anything. Situated on the north side of the island, you get a constant breeze and a gorgeous view of the water. You can see the sunrise on the right and the sunset on the left. But more than that, it's really his friendship that we enjoyed the most, and his wonderful friends. We enjoyed getting to know everyone... Kevin and Wanda, Lib, Cordell, Merle and others. We would sit down to an impromptu party, sipping beer and rum and hearing about their lives. They reminisced quite a bit about Marvin, a much-loved and respected friend who passed away two months ago. Hearing the stories about him made me wish I had known him. Kevin was lucky (or unlucky?) enough to inherit Marvin's 95 year old Indian.

Ike is the man on Big Corn... everyone knows Ike and Ike knows everyone and everything. Born and raised here, he can tell you where to go for a haircut, who has the best cocobread or who can sew a ripped backpack. And the man can dance! He took us out on a night on the town... live music at Anastasia's then dancing at Nico's, a local joint on the beach... on a Sunday night. We had a blast!

Sundays are big here. Everyone goes to the softball stadium to play, drink beer, eat fritos (a mound of deep fried strips of plantains with a piece of fried chicken, topped with a tangy cabbage salad), "watch the game" and listen to music. Yes, there's a DJ who brings a sound system and blasts Caribbean and country music. It's quite the social scene. In the evening, you see the same people dancing up a storm at Nico's.

You hear country music everywhere... in bars, restaurants, homes and cars. Still not sure why, but it kinda makes sense... Caribbean music and country music are both laid back like the island. Gotten to the point where I'm beginning to enjoy it too. We find ourselves humming or singing along to the popular oldies. (Erik's comment: One local theory to popularity of country is that many years back, the only radio station they got here was broadcast out of Houston, Texas, and the fact that all the country they play here is 20 years old or more tends to support that. Hard to tell, so we'll just leave up to a fun, quirky curiosity.)

Food here is uninspired, unless you want to eat fried chicken all the time. The exceptions are Ike's big breakfasts (fruit, toast and heaping servings of eggs with gallo pinto), Kevin's bbq wings (served up with macaroni salad and okra in tomato sauce... wow, it's been forever since I've eaten okra!) and meals at Comederia Maris, where Danette, the owner, serves up a nice chicken or pork out of her own home. Other than that, we've been making good use of the toaster (cocobread, johnny cakes and cinnamon buns) and the microwave (instant noodles and boiled beans). But all is good when you are surrounded by beautiful blue water and a friendly island vibe.

And then there's LuAnn... a stray dog we petted a couple of times while hanging out at Ike's and now she follows us everywhere! Unlike most dogs on the island that are unapproachable because they just run away from you, she is really affectionate and has the most soulful eyes. We've taken to feeding her leftover chicken bones, cocobread or whatever we've got and now she just sits outside our door. If it weren't for the fleas, I'd invite her in. If we were going home, I'd do anything to bring her back with us. If, if, if... gonna break our hearts when we need to leave her... and the Island... sigh.

Erik's addition:
Man, the men here can drink! Not the beer-slugging kids, but the men. We've wandered innocently by Cordell's little club house (a cement shack with a beautiful patio over the water) early afternoon, waved "hi" from outside, and then all of a sudden we're inside, it's dark out, and we've all polished off 3 or 4 bottles of rum (drunk on the rocks with a splash of water.) I've held my own for several hours with them, and they've accepted us both as part of their group now, which can be a pretty dangerous thing! They are so welcoming and generous, though, that we had to stay another week just to enjoy the hospitality a bit more, and try to pay them back a little.

After one Sunday of drinking beer at the ballpark with Ike, Kevin, Lib, etc., Ike took me around to see his mother-in-law, who must be 70 or 80, and he tried to pawn me off on her as the promised "rich american" for her to marry. Luckily she thought I was too young for her. What a funny, nice woman she was, though. Everyone here has an unpretentious, natural sense of humor about life, it's hardships, etc.

(photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/erikandtalor/BigCornIslandNicaragua)

Living large on Little Corn

Erik's entry:
The panga ride to Little Corn was good fun. The boat is small, able to hold about 15 passengers and a bit of cargo. It's open to the elements, and prone to leaps across the waves, throwing you off of the hard bench seat, and then slamming you back down harder than you might wish. It was a nice day, though, and we enjoyed the 40 minute ride.

Once at Little Corn, we were met at the dock by a welcoming committee comprised of staff from the dive shops and hotels, with handy brochure/maps of the tiny island. There are no roads on the island, so we took a wander over to the far side (20 minutes away), to check out the beach bungalows on offer there. In the end, they were a bit too rustic for us (though quite welcoming to all the mosquitos and sand flies), so we headed back to the main side of the island and checked into the nice Delfines hotel. We negotiated a good, off-season deal on the price with them, based on paying in cash and staying at least 4 days. We've definitely let ourselves slip a little in regards to comfort, budgets, etc., but I think that the heat and the strike finally wore us down and we needed a vacation from our travels, and Little Corn Island was the perfect place for that.

I spent my first 4 days doing my Rescue Diver training with Dive Little Corn. It was very hard work, and I finished with a split lip, bruised knees and a sore back for all my efforts. It was well worth it, though. I feel much more confident diving now, and can provide help in emergency situations, though I wouldn't wish my novice CPR skills on anyone! The staff at Dive Little Corn are all very nice, and good fun to have a beer with after a dive.

Talor spent this time getting to know just about everyone on the island. She and I would walk around after my training, and I'd be amazed at how many friends she'd made in so short a time. Small islands are that way, but so is Talor.

Talor's Take: Y'all, I almost don't even wanna tell you about Little Corn... well, ok but promise you won't tell too many people about it. It really is one of the most beautiful, unspoilt places I've ever been to. Tourism has been building up a bit with a smattering of places to stay and eat, but for the most part, it is not developed at all... no cars, resorts, Mickey-D's or even a Domino's Pizza. You can literally walk along stretches of the most gorgeous beach and not see anyone... no beach chairs, umbrellas, nothing! And the only footprints you see on the sand are you own.

The island is really small... you can walk from one end to the other in less than an hour, but try walking down the "main road" just to buy a loaf of fresh-baked cocobread... it will take you more than an hour cause you gotta stop and say hi to everyone. This is the friendliest place I've ever been to... seriously! And the people are always happy to share their knowledge of the island, and point out who's who and what's what. When you walk through the interior, on the muddy paths, through the woods, you see how most of the folks live... it's really rustic, basically 4 walls with a rusty tin roof, no electricity or running water, some living in real poverty struggling to survive, but the moment, you walk by, they will smile and wave hello. And it's just to say hello... never putting a hand out asking for anything. After Granada, I found it really refreshing, and it didn't take long before I found myself smiling all the time too.

The downside is that food, and just about everything else on the island, is expensive (relatively) since it all has to be shipped there by boat. A meal cost at least 100 cordobas (about $5). In the cities, we were used to spending far less to feed the both of us. But we managed by eating lots of cocobread (13 cordobas), mini-beef patties (5 cordobas) and all the free mangoes we could eat. Mango trees are everywhere. A 5-minute walk into the woods and paths would be covered in sweet, juicy mangoes waiting to be picked up and eaten. Also, we were lucky that our hotel bungalow was just underneath an avocado tree (which the locals call pears). When we heard them dropping with a bang on our roof, we'd just walk behind the bungalow and pick them up. Add a bit of local goat cheese and a tomato and we had a meal.

The other downside was the weather... this is the rainy season, need I say more? The first 3 days, it rained almost non-stop, and we were convinced we brought the bad luck with us. After that, it rained on and off, with the sun making an appearance now and again. It got to be that I felt I had the power to control the weather... every time I put on sunscreen and stepped out onto the beach, it would rain, but as soon as I put on my rainjacket to go for a walk, the sun would come out. When the sun was out, the water was absolutely crystal clear and inviting. One day, we woke up to a beautiful morning with the sun shining, by noon, it was dark and overcast, by late afternoon, the winds came and it rained buckets. We holed up in the room, turned on the news and found out it was because Hurricane Alma was on her way. It was only a category 1, but it was slow moving and headed to Leon where it rained and rained causing lots of damage. We were lucky though cause she died down before reaching the Caribbean side, and by evening, the weather on the island was already calm and the skies were clearing up.

Twelve days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was time to leave. We had planned on 10 days, and managed to stretch it to 15, counting the 3 days we spent on Big Corn. Sadly, we were out of cordobas and there are no banks on Little Corn. We had just enough to get on the lancha to return to Big Corn where there is a bank. We said good-bye to everyone with a heavy heart, but in my mind, I thought this isn't good-bye...

Paulie, hope you're gonna keep your promise and look for a piece of land for us to build a house when we come back...

(photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/erikandtalor/LittleCornIslandNicaragua)

Escape to Corn Island(s)

Erik's entry: Too much agressive panhandling and too much heat/transit strike forced us to make a desperate plan to get out of Granada. We hired a car to drive us to the airport, and bought tickets out to the Corn Islands, Nicaragua's little piece of Caribbean island culture. It actually wasn't that expensive in the end, though we'd originally planned to bus/ferry our way to the islands, which takes about 1 1/2 days and costs about 1/2 the price of flying. Transit strikes can be quite useful excuses to spoil oneself a little...

The flight was easy, with a short, 5 minute layover in Bluefields. Big Corn Island has one paved road which runs the periphery of the island. A cab from anywhere to anywhere costs about $.60/person, and you can walk the entire island in 2-3 hours, that is if you can hold up that long in the heat/humidity. (There are plenty of places to get a cold drink along the way.) We stayed the first night in Sweet Dreams, which unfortunately was a misnomer. The bed was uncomfortable, and I had to do battle with a huge water bug in the bathroom in the middle of the night.

The next day, I was off for some scuba diving in the calm, clear waters. Talor took a walk to the north end of the island, which is less inhabited and gets a stronger, steadier breeze. The diving with Nautilus Diver Center was excellent (if you go here to dive, make sure to pay the extra money and go out to "blowing rock" - it's well worth it.) Meanwhile, Talor had scoped out a good number of the hotels on the island and suggested we stay at Ike's Place (AKA Cabanas Vientos del Norte.) Ike Siu is Nicaragua/Chinese, and has been living on the island most of his life. His cabanas are simple, but very clean, with A/C. He also supplies you with a little coffee maker and very nice coffee to go in it, a big bonus for us, as we've been getting up at around 6am each day and having to wait an hour or two until cafes opened to get our fix. The biggest bonus of Ike's Place, though, is Ike Siu himself. He is one of the nicest, most generous hosts we've met in our travels. Nothing is too much trouble for him, and he knows everything about the island. He's also very well respected on the island, and throwing his name around can open doors sometimes.

Unfortunately, the one thing that Ike couldn't hook us up with was a steady supply of electricity and water. They were changing over generators on the island, and the power would go out for hours or days at a time. And without power, the water failed to work as well. No AC, no fan, no shower, and at the same time the nice north winds quit on us as well. After trying to grit it out for a few days, we finally gave up and headed to Little Corn Island. Ike Siu did right by us, though, and gave us a healthy discount for the inconvenience and even drove us to the port to get the panga (mini ferry) over to Little Corn.

More desperate luxury in Granada

After a couple of nights of poor sleep due to the extreme heat, we agreed that we needed to splash out and get digs with air-conditioning, and we´ve hardly left the room since! Truth is that despite Granada being a very "cute" colonial city, we just don´t like it much. We find the locals are trained by habit to prey upon tourists. If you´re carrying something in your hand, someone will come up and ask you if they can have it, whether it´s food, drink, sunglasses or a camera - it´s just what they´re accustomed to doing. Not many here seem interested in conversation, and we´re finding ourselves a bit on edge because of they way we´re looked at and treated. Obviously the extreme heat and humidity don´t help to improve our moods, nor do the incessant, tiny white mosquitos they have here. Today we´re looking into options to get to the airport despite the on-going (and worsening) national transit strike. First we´ll head over to the Corn Islands for an island break, and then perhaps fly to South America.

Forced luxury to Granada

After a week of intolerable Leon heat, and a national transportation
strike with no end in sight, we decided that we needed to escape Leon
(despite liking it very much, it's just TOO hot right now.) Our only
solution was a private shuttle service which runs directly from Leon to
Granada. It was $15 each instead of $3 each, but I must say it was a
nice bit of forced luxury. They picked us up at our hotel and dropped
us where we wanted in Granada, so no lugging heavy packs through 100+
degree heat to/from bus stations. It was air-conditioned (HUGE plus),
and not too crowded. A very pleasurable 2 1/2 hours. We almost wished
the trip took longer. We explored hotels in Granada last night, and had
a few beers outside on the main pedestrian strip, which was very nice.
More later, once we know the city a bit better.

Staying in Leon-by intention and against our will

We´ve decided to spend a week in Leon to study more Spanish (much
needed!). Almost simultaneously, the transit unions decided to go on
strike to protest rising gas prices, so now we couldn´t leave even if
we wanted to. No solution seems near at hand, so we may end up studying
here for quite some time. Fine by us, except that it is absolutely
scorching hot here, and there is little or no way to cool off (except
the occasional cold beer...) Even a cold shower is out of the question
much of the day, as the town has an issue with running water pressure.
Fun, fun, fun! Should be interesting, though. We did find a friendly, new
hostel, though, Tortuga Booluda, with a welcoming, friendly staff
(Olin, an owner and acting manager, is very helpful with city and
travel information, as well a just being a very nice guy.) There is a
good kitchen you can use as well.