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)