I had bought plane tickets months ago to travel across the pond in April, but then my plans changed and I needed to decide on a new destination. I played around with a couple different ideas- Portugal, Belize, Mexico… then I started looking at flights to Nicaragua because for a couple years now I’ve been wanting to travel there after hearing people rave about the country. Within an hour of that idea, I had already changed my flights to Managua, the capital city.
At first my parents were excited about Nicaragua but then they got the idea in their head that me traveling solo around the country was exceptionally dangerous. My mom tried in vain to get me agree to either her or my dad joining me on this trip. I said ‘sorry I love you both but neither of you are coming with me’ and I wouldn’t tell them my itinerary until I had already flown out of the country. By the way, second only to Costa Rica, Nicaragua is (probably) the safest country in Central America and not once did I feel unsafe.
I had exactly one day at home between flying home from Colorado before flying to Managua. When I arrived I went immediately to Leon, because I’ve heard Managua is boring and potentially the only place you might feel unsafe. Leon is in the north and famous for the volcanoes in the surrounding area. If I had more time I would have loved to do one of the multi day treks that takes you around the volcanoes, but I only had one full day and I was set on an adrenaline pumping activity I’d heard about a couple years back: volcano boarding.
I ran into an English guy Rob at the airport who was at my hostel in San Juan and was also heading to the islands, and then we made friends on the flight over with Courtney from Canada and Chloe from England. The flight was only an hour to Big Corn then we had to take a panga boat on decently choppy waters over to Little Corn. This was an experience all on its own – they cram 40 or so passengers onto a very small boat that looks like it could hold about half that many people. Then you sit shoulder to shoulder with the life vest practically choking you while you wait for the military personnel to write up the permit for the boat ride. If you sat on either of the sides of the boat you came away at least 50% soaked. If the waters are too choppy the boat doesn’t go at all. But once you step off the boat on Little Corn, you’ve already forgotten about the boat ride.
The island is exactly what you’d imagine a little Caribbean island to be like – beautiful turquoise waters, palm trees and people walking barefoot on the pedestrian-only island. Courtney, Chloe and I were staying in the same room at our hostel and we had 3 Dutch roommates and decided to nickname our room the Danger Dorm.
During the short time I was on Little Corn I fell into a routine; I would dive once or twice during the day, we’d get lunch afterwards and go walk around the island, go back to drink Flor de Caña rum while getting ready to go to dinner and then figure out where people were hanging out that night – whether it was one of the beachfront joints, the reggae bar which was a mix of locals and travelers, or the lighthouse hostel (not an actual lighthouse) which was a bit of a trek but had live music and an awesome vibe. One of the interesting things about Little Corn was that there was no electricity between 6 am and 1 pm. I didn’t mind it so much but the worst part was that the fans would go off at 6 am and it was already pretty hot and humid that early in the morning. So essentially you were forced to wake up at 6 and try in vain to sleep a couple more hours while you were uncomfortably hot. Fun fact: the majority of the time I walked around the island without any shoes.
My favorite thing during my time on the island was the night dive I did – my first one ever. This is literally one of my worst fears- being trapped in deep dark water – but I did it anyway and ended up loving it. True, I did have to hold onto someone’s hand when we turned off the flash lights to look at the bioluminescence. This was definitely a highlight of my trip though- watching the bioluminescence at night underwater for a solid 5 minutes. I felt like I was in the movie Avatar with all the glowing trees. It was awesome.
All too soon my time on the island was up and it was time to take the boat back to Big Corn to catch my flight. For extra fun it was pouring rain the day I left so everyone got absolutely soaked in the open air boat on the way to the big island. The Dutchies from the danger dorm were not only on my flight from Big Corn to Managua, but were also on my same flight the following morning to Houston, so I stayed in the same hostel as them that night. Courtney was also in Managua, so the 5 of us splurged on a nice steak dinner at this really good restaurant called Los Ranchos. On the flight out the next day I could see at least 4 volcanoes at one time… I need to comeback and explore them all.
As for now I’m about to start my first trip of my second season of tour guiding; a 21-day trip from New York to Los Angeles starting Wednesday!
Sarah,
I always enjoy reading about your adventures?
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This is great, what you are doing..keep doing it!! Thanks for taking the time to take pictures, to past, etc..I travel a lot, but once back I barely can save all the pictures I took, let alone run a blog.
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