Off to Little Corn

March 16, 2011
To get to Corn Island: take a bus to Managua, take a taxi to the airport, take a plane to Big Corn Island, take a taxi to the dock, take a panga to Little Corn Island, walk to your hotel and your there! Every form of transportation is put to use, besides a dog sled.
The flight to Corn Island was a nice change from hours on a bus. Almost as soon as we were settled into our seats we started our decent. We landed on Big Corn Island and had to get a cab to the docks where we caught to panga (little boat) to Little Corn Island. The crossing is notoriously rough. We hit a few big waves but overall it was more entertaining than scary. We met a couple from Colorado who opened a hotel/restaurant here and when we got off the boat they showed us the short cut to the beach cabanas out of the village. We had to stay in a leaky room last night because all the rooms were full! But this morning we snapped up a sweet beach cabana with its own bathroom! It is so much more expensive here than we realized. We took about $200 with us thinking that was more than enough for a week because it has been so far. As soon as we got here we realized the hostels are about double the price they are on the mainland and food is about quadrouple. Last night we went for dinner at the coloradian's restaurant and were blown away by how much the food was. I had shrimp and it was $12 and chad had a tiny piece of chicken for $9. We had to try their ceasar's though! They told us on the boat that they get so many Canadian visitors that they had to start making them because they all hated the bloody mary's. They decided to quit making bloody mary's all together because these were so much better. The only catch was that they were $4 each! Our whole bill came to $32! oops. They accept credit cards at some places so at least we can pay for our room but eating out is going to be tricky. Have to dust off the ole calculator.
Today we spent the day wandering lost around the island. Amazing how lost you can get on an island that only takes an hour to walk completely across. We started in the village and thought maybe we would walk the beach until we got back to our hostel on the other side of the island. We found some beautiful golden sand beaches with not a soul in sight but we also neglected to bring any water or sunscreen. We walked a bit faster and at every turn we seemed to find more beach or impassable cliffs. The first path we took from the beach ended up in this family`s yard and they were quite reluctant to tell us the correct path back to the village, pleading `no english!` . So we guessed. After we found a bunch of cows we found another house and a much more helpful family that pointed us in the right direction back to the village. If we weren`t lost and hungry and thirsty it would have been a great hike! Once back in the village we had a beer and decided it was lunch time. Ritz crackers, chips and cookies were on the menu to conserve much needed funds. Although the damn chips were as much as a small meal! Back to the Cool Spot for us and we settled in with a nice bottle of Nica Rum a coke and a tub of ice. We rigged up the laptop and the ipod and are having quite the happening cabana party.