Nicaragua

Thursday 20th October 2016 – Alysa was much better this morning and felt ready to make the trip to Little Corn. We walked from Morgans to the dock and caught the 9am panga to Little Corn. Apparently when it’s rough the journey can be pretty hairy; fortunately the sea was calm and we could just sit back and enjoy the ride. When we arrived the dock was busy with passengers waiting to board and touts recommending hotels. We wanted to get away from it all so we gathered our bags and made the 20 minute or so walk round to the quiet side of the island. It didn’t take long to find exactly what we were looking for at Elsas place – a little cabin on the beach looking out onto the Caribbean. Elsa agreed to let us use her kitchen once a day for a minimal charge and soon we were settled into our new home. That afternoon Alysa sunbathed and dipped in the sea and I snorkelled the reef offshore. In the afternoon we took a walk further round the island. We met an Italian who was fishing from the shore and an American in his fifties called Tom who spent several months a year on the island kitesurfing. Ramshackle huts marked time carelessly amongst the coconut palms that lined the white beaches as we padded along barefoot without a care in the world. On our way back we saw the Italian had caught a huge barracuda using a bone fish as bait. The barracuda sat improbably in a tree at the back of the beach, its razor sharp teeth gleaming in the late afternoon sun. In the evening we cooked pasta and then sipped rum and Coke on the veranda listening to the waves lapping on the shore. Out to sea a distant storm silently lit up pieces of the horizon. Thoroughly relaxed and happy we fell asleep under a red floral mosquito net.

Friday 21st October 2016 – Despite the mosquito net Alysa had been bitten during the night and hadn’t slept very well – there must have been some mossies hidden inside. We had breakfast and then sunbathed/dozed on the beach for a while.
Alysa was craving pineapples so we took a walk into town where we discovered they didn’t have any but were expecting a delivery the following day. Alysa was determined to get her hands on a pineapple and managed to reserve one with a sweet girl at one of the fruit stalls. Back at our cabin we sat on the veranda and played music as the sun set. It was incredibly romantic and we danced on the beach to George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord. Before bed we tried to find any mosquitoes hiding inside our net – a task our 40 watt bulb wasn’t really up to.

Saturday 22nd October 2016 – I awoke to find Alysa tending her bites – she has a small piezoelectric device which she zaps them with while muttering oaths under her breath. The wind had picked up overnight and over breakfast we watched Tom kitesurfing across the water and jumping high into the air. We stepped into town to pick up Alysa’s pineapple where, with the arrival of a cargo ship activity had quickened to wheelbarrow pace. [One of the nice things about Little Corn is that there are no motorised vehicles. By contrast on Utila we were in constant danger of being mown down by golf carts.] The day was overcast so after lunch we borrowed a couple of books from Elsa and spent the day quietly reading outside our cabin.

Sunday 23rd October 2016 – Today we went to explore some more of the island. We followed a path from town inland, sending panicky lizards skittering through the leaf litter as we went. Eventually we popped out onto a beach, wilder and more isolated than ours. Coconuts and palm fibres marked high water giving the shore a distinct desert island feel. Palm trees leaned at precarious angles, their roots exposed by the sea and a heron fished from a large piece of driftwood stranded a few metres offshore. We would choose this anytime over the regiments of luxury hotels that line the picture perfect beaches of Cancun. We followed the coast back to our shack, splashing through the water as we went. That evening the waxing moon, still just a sliver shone through our window in a lopsided, silvery grin.