Island Dreams

Yeah I know this is a lazy old blog - but when it's sunny outside who wants to stay in cropping photos and composing witty(ish) prose! Well guilt has got the better of me and just in case people start scanning the obits I have put pen to paper...

As before all these posts read from the bottom up so scroll down to what you last remember reading and you'll be good!

Little Corn Island

Let me rewind to just before Christmas - the plane turned away from Havana and as I looked back I felt a sudden sadness - maybe I had fallen a little in love with that funny little island...

Island Laws

Half a day later I was on the last leg of my journey to another island - Little Corn - a tiny place 60 miles off the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. This last bit of the journey had to be done by boat. If you were lucky you caught the yacht. If you were less lucky you caught the big boat (they call them pangas here) and if you were very unlucky - like me! - you caught the little panga

The sea journey from Big Corn to Little Corn is wrote in urban myth - stories of green gilled tourists drenched to the skin and the occasional backpack lost overboard abound...in the event is was quite hair raising - the sort of ride people queue up for hours at a theme park. There were some pale faces and but for the plastic sheeting we pulled across a drenching would have been certain. But as we disembarked at the jetty all passengers and backpacks were accounted for and we wandered off to find our accommodations,

Map of Little Corn

So began a week of lazy indulgence - the only interruptions being to get up for a beer or go for a swim! Little Corn is a tiny place - at it's narrowest point you can cross the island in 10 minutes!
There are no roads just a series of pathways criss crossing the island. For the first few days I busied myself with a diving course - there are lovely corals here and plenty of nurse sharks eagle rays & lionfish - no turtles spotted sadly

Eagle ray

Little Corn Power Plant

Easy livin'

There was even a little bit of veterinary work to do - with one of the beach dogs having an infected tail Surprisingly there is a veterinary clinic on the island  Umas-Little-Vet-Clinic no permanent vet though! It had been built by an Italian lady called Paula on her beachfront property Farm Peace & Love A couple of times a year vets come across from Italy or the States and help treat and neuter the islands' dogs

The Clinic

Island Dogs

Christmas Day was most un-Christmassey - they tried to play a few carols but when it's 80 in the shade and the palms are swaying reggae is best and they soon switched back

Like all paradises things are not always what they seem - the islands Little and Big Corn have problems. Cheap drugs especially cocaine and marijuana are a  huge issue here - not so much with the tourists but with the islanders Another issue is rubbish - a lot is washed up on the beach but the bulk comes from local people.  Nicaraguans are lovely people with a ready smile but when it comes to rubbish I can't believe how they spoil their beautiful country - it staggers me to see a pristine beach strewn with plastic - of course my photos don't reflect this sad reality - maybe I should be more honest with my photography...

Routine sunset!

Soon enough I was back on the panga - this time the sea was a millpond - no chance of losing your luggage or your breakfast!

Check In at Big Corn international Airport (seriously!) took for ever - the plane was full so every piece of baggage and every passenger(!) was weighed! The check in allowance was a measly 14kg - no limit on what you carry on tho - so found myself bizarrely taking things out my backpack and squeezing them into my carry on which then in the absence of scanners took them 20 mins for security to go through - of course the total amount I took onto the plane was the same regardless!!!  Work that one out if you can!!

Pretty soon I was in the air leaving another island behind - one that definitely captured my heart