Heck yeh! 11 ½ hrs on 3 boats and 11hrs on 2 buses later…we arrived in little known tropical paradise called little corn island. Anyone who has been here would have to put it as a highlight to any trip…this is our 6th island and definitely the overall most incredible. The diving in Utila may be better, but the beaches put this place over the top! Were talking white sand, clear aqua colored water & palm trees…it’s a corona commercial without the corona. I’m writing to you while listening to the waves crash sitting on the patio on our little, simple beach bungalow. The theme here is private bungalows or cabins, whatever, ours like many others is very primitive, no electrical outlet, only one light that appears to be recently wired in, a queen bed raised high to catch the ocean breeze and a rack to hang your wet bathing suits. Oh, did I mention this private beach bungalow costs only $20/night.
The whole place is run by a bunch of young ex-pats, mostly from Canada at this lodge…just more people “living the dream”, they work on contract (sounds like a year at a time), their compensation includes, room & board (and food here is awesome), lots of free drinks, free fun diving & for diving instruction, they pay only 20% of the normal cost! For example, normal price of all classes up to divemaster is around $1500, so, you do the math.
Little corn is far more less developed than its larger sister, big corn, were talking no roads, no cars, no motorcycles, then don’t even have golf carts. They have large dollies that they use to carry goods from one side to the other, but that’s about it. That is really the draw of this place, an opportunity to get away from it all. The folks that live here describe it as what the Caribbean was like in the 70’s, before so much expansion had taken place.
Woah! What was that? Oh, another coconut just fell from the tree and hit the roof of our bungalow…I’ve been told that coconuts are the most lethal thing on the island…haha.
Continued…next morning…
Our days here have been pretty chill…we met a bunch of other travelers on the boat between Bluefields and Big Corn island (7 ½ hrs)…some of them we had actually met in Bluefields before we departed…we went to warn them that the local guy they were hanging out with had come across pretty sketchy to us earlier, offering to pick us up in his families boat, get us deals on lodging and diving, etc. we had told him we weren’t interested and went on our way…about 20min after we warned the other travelers, they returned to inform us that the guy had stolen $50 of “gas money” from them!
So, the group of about 8 of us arrived at little corn the next morning and each went our separate ways to find lodging, but we have been meeting up occasionally for a beer and tonight we have a reservation for all 8 of us at a guys house, named Captain Whiska for an island specialty dinner called Rondown, is mix of all the most delicious seafood they can find, cooked together and served with vegetables, etc. I’m so excited; it’s supposed to be amazing!
You Colorado folks and anyone who liked my blog “Living the Dream” will appreciate a couple named Scott & Christine, from Fort Collins, Co that have moved here and in December of 09’ open the Little Corn Beach & Bungalow, Turned Turtle Restaurant here on the East side of the island (most beautiful). Funny thing is they are friends with my parents next door neighbors in Greeley! So the first day were here, we drop our bags and go in search for lunch, we sat down at an awesome beachside restaurant and start talking to owner who says “I’m from Colorado” …Sophia looks at me and says this must be guy and of course it is! They have an awesome lodge here, not exactly a backpacker place and bit out of our budget (their rooms actually have a bathroom & fans). I would recommend their place to anyone, a great value at around $50/night.
Our first day we found the dive shop that is associated with the shop we dove with in Utila, through an affiliate program they have we get a discount to dive with them, so we signed up for a dive the next day and really lucked out, they took us a to a site only recently discovered, apparently we are only the second group of tourist divers to ever go there, sights were cool, saw some lion fish and a huge stingray and many other smaller species of fish, etc. We are doing another dive today that will be a first for both of us, a cave dive, not a cave were you have return the same way you go in, but a tight spaces “overhead environment”…should be cool!
Outside of the diving, amazing meals (like 2 lobster tails for $9, our first dinner) and some beach side workouts, we been enjoying the relaxation here the most. Tonight there is plans for a beach bonfire and being our last night here, I figure we’d better jump on it…bottle of Flor de Cana rum, beach bonfire and guitar, sounds like a great night to me.
Looks like our ride back to mainland will be a through the night boat, which is cool because it will save us $20 for a nights accommodation but hopefully we can get some decent sleep. Next stop…Costa Rica!
Adios por ahora! Brett
