Little Corn Island

I have travelled the world, but now I have found paradise … in Nicaragua!

A little tuff to get to but for a reason. Getting to Little Corn Island requires a big commitment. To be fair, most travelers can’t fit Little Corn into their one day itinerary. I was one of those lucky travelers that managed to get from New York to Miami, catch my connecting flight to Managua, a connecting flight to Big Corn Island (with a quick touch down in Bluefields), a transfer to Big Corn Island harbor, and a 30-minute panga ride in one day. But I was determined. I booked this trip on an impulse hoping to close the chapter of my last relationship and move on with my life.

There are only two flights a day to Big Corn Island, the first is in the morning and the second at 2:00pm. Since I was scheduled to land at 1:30pm in Managua, I didn’t have a lot of time to transfer and was hoping that my connecting flight will depart on Latin time, which means inevitably late. After waiting in a very long line to check in my bag, by the time I got to the counter, the agent announced that some bags would have to stay behind in Managua because the flight was sold out and overweight.

Fantastic. I am going diving the next day without my equipment. Luckily I grew up in a country in which you had to bribe here and there to survive during the transition period from communism to democracy. So to make a long story short, I bribed one agent, pulled out few things I thought would get me through 24 hours without my bag in case the bribery didn’t work and hoped for the best. Adding to my travel joys for the day, the weather had turned stormy and when we finally boarded the flight it was a short but pretty rough ride in a very small plane. Just as I was thinking the article in the Managua Times would start something like, “…she was survived by her North Face roller which, by a twist of fate, had a change of plans pre-departure and was unable to join her…” we finally hit the runway (wheels first, thankfully) on Big Corn Island.

Whew!

I understood that Little Corn Island is a world apart from the rest of Nicaragua. It was in the cab to the panga, though, that I began to feel it. “The boat ride will be calm, because they’re not killing lobsters today,” the cabbie informed me. “When you take from the sea, she gets angry.” I’d never heard such romantic assertions over ceviche.

About 10 minutes after we left the dock it started to rain. I closed my eyes and covered my entire head with a scarf as the rain continued to beat down and stick needles all over my face. It would have been an incredible adventure if only I wasn’t completely wet and cold or have a numb butt from not being able to move a single muscles. And then the sun came out again! This time for good. Once I arrived, the Caribbean water made crystal clear that, in this case, it wasn’t about the journey, it was about the destination.

I hopped off the panga to the welcome of my hosts from Little Corn Beach and Bungalow holding a sign with my name. My luggage was offloaded from the boat and the nice young man put it into a wheelbarrow – seriously – and then we were off through a jungle trail to the other side of the island. I realized then, that my confirmation from the hotel never said “we’ll pick you up at the dock” it said, “we’ll meet you at the dock.” Clever. After about a 20-minute walk we emerged on the other side of the island on a beautiful beach, greeted with refreshing mango and star fruit juice.

Since it was a dinner time by the time I arrived, I headed to the restaurant, the Turned Turtle. The breeze felt deliciously pure. Dinner in the open-aired dining room featured fish caught earlier that day in the waters that lapped at our resort’s beachfront and salad and vegetables freshly picked from the garden on the property. I also had a lobster tacos as an appetizer that rocked my world! But the best part? THE SMOOTHIES. Oh my God, the smoothies. The best smoothies I’ve ever had in my life.

Afterward, I sat back and enjoyed the evening in a hammock watching the stars, dazzling and bright.

The following morning I was ready to go diving but most of all to explore. I donned my flip flops for the walk around the island — roughly 1.5 square miles in size — which gnarled mangroves, hidden beaches and dirt paths, deserted coves and lush jungle.

At first glance, Little Corn looks like your universal Caribbean fantasy. But as I walked along the one “road,” a cobblestoned path that locals use to roll wheelbarrows from one coast of the island to the other, I felt a distinct sense of place. I passed a baseball field where the local team plays its rivals from Big Corn, as well as cottages painted Caribbean pinks, blues, and oranges, from which women sell homemade coconut bread to kids in school uniforms, a farmer’s market consisting of one stand, a shack selling everything and nothing, backpackers in cutoffs, and sun worshippers in caftans. Foot traffic is the only kind there is on Little Corn — motorized vehicles, even golf carts, are prohibited.

I came here because I wanted to see a side of the Caribbean that was still a bit undeveloped, away from being a collection of resorts and vacation rentals. Little Corn certainly fits that bill, from its isolation to its rugged interior to its sheer beauty to its friendly, and relaxed people who could offer you shots of Flor de Caña served out of a coconut shell.

The diving in little corn is fantastic, and the “Dolphin Dive” dive shop is definitely the best on the island. An excellent dive operation. Adam was easy to deal with. Jen provided an amazingly thorough and extensive briefing about the wildlife we would see on my night dive (one of the best briefings I’ve ever had). She was also a great dive master. Gary was a legend, a really fun dive master to go out with, clearly knows the reef better than anybody and pointed out all sorts of amazing tiny things that only someone in tune with the ocean can spot.

If you have a wish such as seeing turtles, lobsters, reef sharks, eagle rays or doing a night dive they will make it happen. It was a good time with a nice, experienced and well educated team! The only wish they couldn’t fulfill for me was an encounter with a hammerhead shark.

The most memorable dive I had was led by Gary to “patch”. Beautiful soft and hard corals and a nurse shark that follow us round like a dog and let me pet him and take a selfie.

I have been diving in about 15 countries so far and this dive shop and staff is in my top 2. Adam runs a great operation and his dive masters, dive instructors and boat captains are the best around.

Your time on Little Corn will not disappoint you, whether you are exploring the jungle, walking the coast, swimming, paddling, snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking or fishing the Caribbean waters or relaxing on the unspoiled beaches.

Looking over the cliffs on the south end at sunset was perhaps my favorite viewpoint on the island, especially when walking barefoot on the bouncy and spongy grass!

I want you to know how magical this island is, how lovely the locals are, the nonexistent cars and motos, and how you can discover the entire circumference in under a couple of hours. As I sipped my last Coco Loco, I reassured myself that Little Corn will always feel like no place else. It’s inherently hard to get to, and there’s no room for large hotels. None of the beaches are private, so you will always run into backpackers who have come to dive. The Miskito sailors will continue to lie on boards floating over the ocean.