Little Corn, Big Adventures
Welcome to the Corn Islands. Big Corn and Little Corn to be exact! These islands are the hidden jewels of Nicaragua with the clearest, calmest and warmest waters we've ever experienced on our travels to date as a family. It truly was paradise or at least we thought so.
Las Costeña is the name of the airline that flies out to the Corn Islands from Managua. It was a small cessna and I could literally reach forward and touch the flight panels of the pilots if I dared. However, my stomach wasn't too keen on moving, nor keeping my eyes off the horizon. I blasted the air and just continued to breath while trying to comfort Eli who was not feeling so well either. As the flight continued, we both felt more at ease and when I looked forward to see the pilots, I realized they had put sunshades on the windows of the plane. Everyone was pulling out their phones to take pictures of the sunshades, the flight panel and, of course, the view outside the windows.
Most of the people on the flight were heading to Little Corn. You come to realize everyone's personal life story due to the required early arrival time at the gate which was 12 noon, yet the flight didn't leave until 2pm. Be ready to be weighed in, check in your bags and wait, and wait and wait.
When our flight arrived, there were 2 cessnas that touched down. One had a patient on a gurney awaiting the ambulance while the other cessna offloaded its passengers straightaway into the airport. Questions abound and we never got the answer. We prayed all would be well right before it was time to board. Both planes were being used as there were at least 30 people (a guess) flying to Big Corn. Half on one plane and half on the other.
If you were heading straight to Little Corn, you first fly from Managua to Big Corn then take a panga, or an open outboard boat, to Little Corn.
Having read that the size of Little Corn island was so small, we weren't sure where to stay. We didn't know if we would want to stay on such a small island, with such a rustic flare for so long. There are no ATMs, no vehicles, and we also read the electricity was questionable. We decided to spend our first month on Big Corn. We spent only one night on Big Corn. Why? Unfortunately we had the worst AirBnB experience on Big Corn. Long story short, we found broken pieces of glass all over the grounds, the house had exposed light bulbs and sockets and had an overwhelming smell that made it difficult to enjoy the space. It was a sketchy place and unfortunately the owner reviewed us on Airbnb stating there was only one piece of glass and he's never had a problem. His words were in complete contradiction to our wonderful conversation the morning we informed him we wanted to leave.
FORTUNATELY it made us change our plans for the BETTER! We were going to leave Big Corn and head to Little Corn. Before we hitched a ride on the panga to Little Corn Island, we did a tour of Big Corn. It was a quirky little tour. Basically the taxi driver just talked. It was no professional tour but he did share with us how recently one tourist died and another got hurt. It wasn't the best start. Weird, actually. But eventually after he showed us the gas station and a store he likes, we headed up to this pyramid which has some sort of connection to the heart of Earth. I googled it, you should too. It was kinda neat. After all, who can say they were at the corner of the heart of the Earth, in the middle of nowhere?
On top of the island we tried to make the best of our situation on Big Corn with a taxi driver trying to make an honest living sharing us where he was born, where he worked and what his daughters are doing. After the tour, we hopped on a panga and headed to Little Corn Island. The weather was AMAZING and fortunately the waves were down so we didn't get too wet from the ride.
There is no cover on the panga so you will get wet. Just a heads up.
Due to our last minute arrangement, I had to find a place for our family to stay that would last longer than a night or two. I didn't want to keep packing up and moving around. We stayed at the only place that had at least 7 days to offer us with A/C and in our budget! The only other option was a resort.
We are learning really quickly how valuable A/C can be when you are near the water.
The island is super small. I mean small. We walked around it, through it and all over it in the short time we were there. Every day we would just walk. But there weren't new trails, hikes or things to see. You can see it all in one day.
The walk is unique. It's so cool how you can go from the crystal clear blue waters of the Caribbean and then walk into the middle of a jungle only to find a rustic and super cool throwback baseball field, the favorite past time down here.
We stayed at Los Delfines. Even though the island was small we decided to extended our stay because Scott's bday was coming up and we wanted to splurge a little and head over to the Yemaya Reef Resort on the other side of the island for a few days to celebrate.
Before we headed over to the Yemaya Reef Resort we did hang out and have fun with the locals. We went to different restaurants.
My favorite restaurant was Havana Libre owned by this amazing couple, Twila and Rolando. Rolando is from Cuba. And man, can he cook. I couldn't get enough of his food. Their hotel is next door and was damaged in October by the hurricane, so it wasn't open during our time there.
A common sight to see throughout the island was the damage caused by Hurricane Julia. And because Little Corn is so remote they basically were kinda forgotten when it came to renovating and rebuilding. But these locals are doing their best. They really do come together down here, everyone pitching in to revive the island and it's life.
Did you know? Everyone is everyone's cousins. Fun story...we were supposed to meet this one local, Charlie, to go on a snorkel trip. He didn't show up at 8:30 or 9:30 or 10. So I walked around and asked if anyone has seen Charlie (no last names needed here). Finally one of his cousins took me to Charlie's mom. She called him and right in front of me said "Hey Charlie, the white people are here for you to take them out!" No joke!
35 minutes after the phone call (he had to have breakfast), Charlie gave us an unforgettable snorkel trip. We started out simple and easy at a nearby reef, then headed to a shipwreck and at the end of our tour we ended at Tarpon channel.
Charlie stated we would not anchor and just drift in the hopes of seeing a hammerhead shark. Not only did we see TWO hammerhead sharks, but we saw a bunch of manta rays and large fish swimming in the channel. It was an out of this world experience!
What was suppose to be a two (ish) hour tour was well over three hours! It was the biggest hit and Eli couldn't stop talking about it! In fact by the time we left to go to Yamaya Reef Resort the whole island had heard about our snorkel trip! People would approach us and ask about the sharks. Everyone was curious. Other tourists were looking for Charlie to get them out on the boat to see sharks!
Eli couldn't really homeschool while we were there. The electricity is intentionally turned off from 6am - 1p. The island, still recovering from the hurricane, is doing it's best to provide electricity when needed.
There's no internet unless you hang out at one restaurant. And when the electricity or internet was on, it was pretty dicey. Definitely not high speed nor reliable.
BUT fear not, the two ladies running Tranquilo Cafe had heard about Eli not being able to homeschool - they decided to give him an assignment.
What was the assignment?
Eli was to write a poem about the restaurant. This was a fun assignment as we had to make it rhyme too. When he completed the assignment, they took pictures of his work and displayed it on their refrigerators! This is one proud mama.
It was a great way to spend the hotter part of the day (once the A/c came back on at 1pm).
Finally it was time to celebrate Scott's bday and we decided to make it last a few days longer and extend the celebration. This resort was amazing. We felt like royalty! If this had been anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't have even been able to afford the closet in our pool and beach front accommodation!
The food was crazy awesome. Our favorite were the shrimp meals! We never even ordered dinner because we were so full from our late lunch! The service was outstanding and they even made a special Calala pie for Scott on his birthday. They accidentally made 2 pies so they gave us both. One of them was Lemon...but the Calala pie was the one to write home about if you know what I mean.
Did I tell you there is a catch to being on Little Corn Island. There is no ATM (the electricity and internet issue should help you figure out the lack of stability to have an ATM on the island).
We didn't plan our trip to Little Corn island well. It was a hasty decision and we didn't have enough money (cash) to stay. Paying with a credit card was getting expensive.
When you pay with a credit card they tack on a 6% service charge. If you want a cash advance they tack on a 10% service charge.
Save your cash! You need cash to pay for the panga and some other stuff like taxes. So we had to really watch our cash. We paid as much as we could with a credit card and decided to cut our time short. We initially wanted to spend a month on the Corn islands but in the end we were just shy of 3 weeks and decided to return to the mainland of Nicaragua.
Eli was so sad. He really wanted to stay and live there. It was truly paradise. He had quickly made friends and so did we. It was a family atmosphere for sure. Everyone watches out for each other and the kids do not get away with mischief since there really is no privacy on the island.
No cars, no motorcycles. All walking. It was true paradise. And seriously, everyone is everyone's cousin! But we had to explain to Eli that logistically this just wasn't the place to call home. In fact the panga ride back to Big Corn Island proved us right. It was rough waters, we got soaked and so did our things. Fortunately our bags were in a safe(ish) spot and didn't get too wet. Then we had to stay in a hotel for one night in Big Corn.
Once again we had to spend a night on Big Corn island. Although it was safer than the first place we booked, this place just wasn't our jam. With our last minute decisions, we had to be happy with places that were just a tad more rustic than desired.
Rustic. This is crazy. Little Corn island is definitely a place that is rustic, yet the accommodations at Los Delfines were clean and suitable for our family. Big Corn island, with continuous electricity, more resources and closer to the mainland, proved to be more rustic. It was the exact opposite of what I read in the blogs prior to coming to both islands.
By far, the residents of Little Corn island took care of their accommodations, their tourists and really took pride of their tiny little community.
The plane back to Managua was much bigger. Both Eli and I were very relieved. I know Eli misses Little Corn Island but even a month later he still wants to live there. I think he understands logistics now as things are way easier now here on the mainland. What a trip! We will never forget Little Corn Island - Ever!
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