Corn Islands and into Cost Rica

Well the trip out to the Corn Islands was a mission and a half:

Up at six for a bus out to Managua (good so far) then on arriving in Managua I found out that I´d just missed the bus to Rama by 5 min and had to wait 4 hours for the next one (sigh....) That bus ended up taking eight hours for a five hour trip (why must we stop for half an hour in every tiny town along the way???) meaning I´d missed the boat out to Bluefields on the coast and have to stay a night in Rama.

Arriving in the frontier port town of Rama at night was not an ideal situation so I jumped on a bicycle taxi to take me to the hotel I´d chosen from the guidebook. Probably not entirely necessary as the hotel was only three houses up from the bus station but it´s always good to feel safe.

Pretty sure the hotel was a brothel (I was asked if I wanted a single or a ¨matrimonial¨) but I actually had a surprisingly peaceful sleep. I awoke at six to the news that I´d just missed the morning fastboat to Bluefields and would have to wait for another 19 people to show up for the next boat to leave, which it eventually did. At two in the afternoon.......

In Bluefields I was informed that the boat across to the islands had left an hour ago and the next one was in two days time so I just gave up and taxied out to the airport and forked out 100 bucks for a return flight. If I had have just done this in Managua it would have only cost 65 dollars more and saved me two and a half days frustration, live and learn.

The next morning was the flight, another taxi and the final boat over to Little Corn Island. As soon as I saw it appear on the horizon I new it had all been worth it. Absolutely beautiful.

The port side

the beach in front of my cabaña

one of the many trails criss-crossing the island

Found a bed sharing a room with three girls I´d met on the boat and then went and sat out under the coconut trees on the pristine white sand beach with a few beers and guitars to watch the light fade over the caribbean......

The next morning I went diving with Eva and Maga, two Icelandic girls from my cabaña out to Grant´s cave (had to go to Grant´s cave!) and some other tunnels nearby. The water was amazingly clear and whilst there was not a whole lot of marine life about squeezing through the narrow, jagged tunnels with shafts of white light piercing the darkness at strange angles was a truly memorable experience.

The girls joking around

That night was a big party with many bottles of rum, a bonfire and swimming under the stars until 5am. The next day was unsurprisingly spent lounging around in a hammock and unfortunately not doing any more diving, although with no ATM on the island money was becoming an issue :S

So after just three days (I could have spent a month there easily) it was sadly back to the main Island and the airport.

Three days of travel later I was at the border of Costa Rica, where I find myself at the moment. Have been travelling around for the last week with Inga, a german friend from my New Zealand hostel days, more soon......

Island Party, Casa Kiwi, into Granada

Kinda waited a bit long before making this post so I have a bit of catching up to do!

So the party..........

The party was awesome!

It was on a tiny little cay (less than 100m long) surrounded by pristine white sand beaches and reefs with a kind of house set up with a big kitchen, a couple of private rooms, a big lounge/sleeping area and a bathroom. Got there at 2pm and were all straight into the water with a drink to soak up the views and catch some rays (sunrays that is, not stingrays)

Drinking in the sea



The house is in there somewhere.....

It was a great evening and night and in what was actually probably a good move I forgot to take any more photos.......... There was a snorkel in there at some point too for the newly qualified divemasters and from memory it involved rum, tabasco sauce, coke and beer, mmmmm tasty.........

A couple of days later I arrived in Trujillo to check out Casa Kiwi, a hostel that I had emailed from Oz regarding getting a job after the trip has finished. Was a really cool place on a lovely stretch of beach and the staff were really friendly, down to earth people so the next three days involved chatting away at the bar at night, sleeping til midday, laying in a hammock all afternoon and going back to the bar for the nightly sunset. On the last night it was my turn for the obligitary yard glass attempt and I can now share some wisdom in regards to this:

1. Leaving the beer out for 15 min beforehand warms it up and lets some of the bubbles out


2. Its ok and actually essential to burp into the glass every now and then


3. take off your shirt before you start

4. If you think your up for another one straight afterwards give it 20 min, you won´t be then

Thanks to Barry for an excellent pour and Chaz for the pics

off to a nervous start

into the neck

halfway through the bowl

almost there.....

Success!

Some pics from around the hostel:

Casa Kiwi

The Beach
Sunset on the beach

Casa Iguana, how many can you spot?

Jesus Lizard, about a foot long and it can run on water (like Jesus but faster)

After Casa Kiwi it was back on a bus to Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) then Managua (the capital of Nicaragua), both pretty ugly second (third?) world cities, and on to Granada, once the rich and magnificent capital of the spanish colony in Central America.

This is where I have been for the last four days, not doing a whole lot really. It´s a pretty nice city, lots of grand old architecture to keep things nice and enough grit and bustle to keep it interesting, but no real reason to spend four days here without leaving town. I´ve been hanging around with Alicia and Dave a nice Irish couple, having a few drinks at night, watching the odd movie, strolling around and generally just hanging about talking shit, not really doing much at all. And have actually had a great time doing it.

A few shots over town from one of the church bell towers:

Cows hanging out by the lake (the impressively huge but filthy lake)

I guess after moving around a lot and being constantly on the go from one place to the next it´s nice to just chill out for a bit and recharge.

Tomorrow morning I´m up at 5 for the bus back to Managua and on to Bluefields on the Caribbean coast for a boat (9hrs in a small panga, ouch) over to the corn islands for some more beaching and diving. Have heard it´s great and after the fun I had on Utila I´m really looking forward to it........