the itinerary

We arrived in Managua by flying first to Miami and then to Nicaragua. We didn’t spend long in Managua. Very early the next morning we caught a local flight to Bluefields, a port city on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. The airplane was square and utilitarian in design, and appeared held together with glue and string, but it worked very well.

After a short period of time in Bluefields, we took off for Big Corn Island, Nicaragua’s biggest Caribbean island. From Big Corn Island, we piled into a very crowded water taxi (the boat was designed for about 25 people, and I counted approximately 40, including ourselves, a puppy, a toddler, the other adults, and boxes of milk, eggs, and meat) for a somewhat nerve-wracking ride to Little Corn Island. We were soaked by the time we arrived.

We stayed four nights on Little Corn. During that time we explored the island, went diving and swimming, fell into the pace of life in a remote village with no cars, ate dinner with some wonderful travelers we met from New Zealand, and spent a good amount of time sitting in our hammocks and reading. It was blissful. As expected, there was no hot water, and the electricity was limited, though reliable, so we quickly adjusted to a tropical schedule, rising around 6:00 am and going to bed around 9:00 pm.

On the fifth day, we piled back into the water taxi and scooted up to Big Corn’s ramshackle airport. After some careful negotiation in Spanish with the local agent, we managed to get back on the flight to Managua even though our reservations had disappeared.

We again spent an evening in Managua, and took a very early flight back to Miami and then home yesterday.