The Corn Islands

We finished off our amazing adventures in Nicaragua with a glorious week at the Corn Islands! It was heavenly. If you haven't been...GO!

Big Corn and Little Corn Island are located in the Caribbean sea about 70km off the cost of Nicaragua and reachable by a 1 hour flight on a little plane from Managua. It was only $160 return!

You land on Big Corn Island...it's only about 10 sq Km and take a 30 minute panga ride to Little Corn. Big Corn Island has cars and a big circular road that goes around the island.... there are plenty of taxis waiting to take you around and  they only cost you 20 Cordoba/person (about $1) anywhere on the island! So easy and convenient.

You are usually sharing with strangers as the driver will to pick people up along the way. It was nice to not have to negotiate or worry about being overcharged...just get in and pay your 20cord when you get out!

We landed in Big Corn at 10 am and had 6 hours to kill until our 4pm boat ride to Little Corn...we had a bite to eat and relaxed on the beach until it was time to go. Thankfully the water was calm with no wind that afternoon. Apparently, the boat ride to Little Corn can either be idyllic and beautiful as you cruise over the turquoise water or really be rough and get you soaking wet!!...we were very lucky to get 2 great rides.

The  Nicaraguans on the Corn Islands are very different to any others we have encountered along the way. There is a strong Jamaican influence here as more people had a Jamaican accent, everyone spoke English and it definitely felt like the Caribbean and not Central America.

When we arrived on Little Corn we found no cars at all! So peaceful... It is all walking, we really only saw a few bicycles, but it's primarily narrow or rough paths so not ideal for riding..... but on an island that is only 2.9 sq km who needs wheels. Even on barge day, when all the stores for the island arrive, everything must be man handled and transported by foot to its final destination. Men worked hard everyday hauling bricks on wooden trolleys from the docks to the other side of the island where they were building a path (about 40min walk!).

Our hostel had no wifi, no electricity from 6am-2pm, no hot water and no ac....but it was amazing and we had our own little cabana (we affectionately called it summer camp because that was about the extent of the comforts)and had our own hammock and balcony with the best view of the sunrise over the Caribbean sea. There was a huge live music scene here with a different band or open mic nights every night at one of the many awesome bars/restaurants. The island's dogs are all friendly... some are stray... some are wned by people as they had collars but they all became recognizable and wandered around to their hearts content...you'd see the same guys several times a day in different spots.

Food was cheap and I ate lobster almost every night for less than $10!! We spent our days sitting on the most beautiful beach in front of the most expensive hotel on the island....the beach was public however, and they maintained it impeccably...you also could use their bathroom, beach showers and order pina coladas and food from the beach bar so that made the days nice. No one seemed to care if we used the hammocks either!

After 5 days sunning ourselves on Little Corn Island, we made our way back to Big Corn for 2 nights (sometimes the panga doesn't run if the waves or wind is too high and we didn't want to risk missing our plane back home). We stayed in a beautiful hotel with a warm infinity pool to bask in our last 2 days of sun and sand before heading back to Calgary's cold winter.

Lake Ometepe

Our 3 days on Lake Ometepe were so fun!

 

The name Ometepe means ‘two hills’ in the native ‘náhuatl’ language. The island measures 276 square kilometers and it houses two majestic volcanoes connected through a small strip of land.

The Concepción is an active volcano and its most recent eruption took place in 1957. The islanders will confirm that sporadic expulsions of gases or occasional earth movements are commonplace and by itself no reason to panic. There are, according to several organizations at Ometepe, specific, well-determined areas of risk during a possible eruption.

The Maderas volcano is dormant and has an altitude of 1394 meters. Its slopes are covered in forest where you can easily spot howler monkeys and white face monkeys. The vegetation is abundant and the trees are so leafy that they continuously color your hike in a green hue. The green color is alternated by other colors from the colorful flowers that grow in the zone, including a rich variety of orchids.

The view from our hotel of Conception Volcano.

Hammock with the best view from our room.

The intricate river and swamp land of the Rio Istián can be explored on a kayak trip. We spent 3 hours kayaking through the languid river that meanders inland on the isthmus between Ometepe's two volcanos. It's picturesque] with carpets of floating water plants where you see lots of birds like egrets, whistling ducks and jacanas as well as caymans and turtles!

We all rented motorcycles on day 2...me a scooter because that's the pinnacle of my skill level! We had a fabulous day exploring the entire island!

Midway through out cycling adventures we stopped in a place where you could relax under the shade of the tropical forest and bath in volcanic water, sipping coconut water(spiked with large amounts of rum!). This amazing place is called the Ojo de Agua!

The water from this natural pool, known under the name of Ojo de Agua, comes directly from the Concepción Volcano. Because it is a volcanic water, it is very rich in potassium, magnesium, calcium, sulfur and sodium.

Ometepe is famous for its rich pre-Columbian past and belongs to the great rock art areas of the world. Ancient petroglyphs and stone statues have been found all over the island, along with sites containing ceramic urns, pottery and utensils.
The early Indians considered the island of Ometepe as their promised land. The Maderas was the sacred place of the sun, while the Concepcion was the brother of the moon.

Archeologists refer to Ometepe as the Island of circles and spirals due to the abstract curvilinear motifs carved on the basalt boulders.
Some motifs are highly stylized and intricately carved. The most common motif is the spiral.

Other motifs depict animals like lizards, crocodiles, turtles and frogs, or anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures.
Calendars were found on certain stones showing that the Indians knew 18 months, each with 20 days which made a year of 360 days. The oldest petroglyphs on Ometepe date back to around 1000 B.C.

You can easily wander along the paths and see the petroglyphs without a guide.

The last morning before taking the ferry back to San Jorge we hiked to the San Ramon waterfall.

San Ramón waterfall is located on the southwestern slope of the Maderas Volcano, right in front of the lake. San Ramón has about 3,000 inhabitants and is famous for the impressive San Ramón waterfall.

This waterfall is located about 4 kilometers from the village, and it can be accessed after a spectacular hike. We were the frst group up leaving fr the 90 minute hike at around 830am and had the entire waterfall to ourselves for about 45 mins before we turned around to head back down. We also had 2 lovely dogs join us early in our hike and stick right beside us for the entire trek...we named the big brown hound Burro because he looks like a donkey with his giant ears and the little black one we named Shakira...they had a good swim and got lots of love an belly rubs for their effort. They were like little tour guides showing us the way and patently waiting while we caught up.

We passed tons of other hikers going down so were glad to have it to ourselves!

Me and Burro.

Shakira.