This was a spot recommended to us by Scott’s cousin, Rob. Thanks Rob. Little Corn is an island off the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua and it was exactly what we wanted. We flew in a VERY small plane from Managua to Big Corn Island and then caught a Panga (small boat thingy) to Little Corn Island or Islita as the locals call it. It was wee bit of a wait to get that Panga as they only go twice a day but we got there. (unfortunately this is more than can be said for a boatload of tourists in January; their boat capsized and 13 people died. Since then, the Coast guard is much more strict, on when the Pangas can actually travel, weather-wise.) Anyway, we got there.

We stayed in the South end of the island that night at a place called The Lobster Inn which is touted as being the best value for money on the island – 20USD for a private double, sea-facing room with its own bathroom. Pretty good. The thing is, when it’s low season, like it is now, you can get great deals everywhere. The Lobster Inn was just what we needed though, and that night we had a few rums on the beach and a delicious Yellow-tail fish dinner.

The next morning we walked the 25 minutes to the North end of the Island to Ensuenos. Ensuenos is a group of little shacks on the beach, built from whatever has been washed up on shore. The result is a quirky, artistic, simple, ramshackle place that we loved. My favourite part was the bathroom; created out of rock, crushed coloured glass, thick old rope and washed-up wine bottles, it was so beautiful. Also, there is no feeling like showering in fresh water completely naked in the middle of nowhere on an island in the middle of the sea, with exotic birds and God knows what else waking up around you. Once again we had a small room for $20USD and spent the day sunbathing, reading, swimming, and drinking rum and cokes on what felt like our own private beach – literally two other people walked past us the whole time. On the North side of the island there are no stores, no roads, no nothing, so dinner is quite expensive. We balked a wee bit at the $18USD dinner at Ensuenos (it was, after all, pretty much the price of our room) but when we walked into the main shack and found a private candle-lit dinner for two, we couldn’t argue. There is no menu, they just ask if you can’t eat anything and then cook you what seafood they caught that day. We had an amazing three-course meal of seafood pasta, the biggest fish steak I’ve ever seen with crispy potatoes and fresh salad, and a caramel pie thing for dessert. All eaten by candlelight with the growing tropical winds outside howling around us. Dinner was at 6.30pm and because Ensuneos has no electricity in the shacks, we were in bed by 8pm. I had probably the worst night’s sleep I have had the whole time – partly due to the heat of the room, partly due to the maybe-too-many-rums, but once the sun came up I got up, walked the 5m to the crystal clear Caribbean water and had an amazing solo dawn swim. Instantly, all the fidgeting, frustration, and sweating of the night before evaporated. Scott woke, we had an unexpectedly epic private 3-course breakfast of fresh fruit salad, freshly baked bread with homemade jam, an omelette, delicious coffee and freshly squeezed juice and spent the morning chilling on the beach before walking 500 metres down the beach to Derek’s Place, an accommodation I had found on my wanderings the day earlier, and fell in love with. Ensuenos was awesome but I got a little paranoid about creepy crawlies…

Derek’s Place

We got to our beautiful beachfront shack thingy at Derek’s, negotiated a low season price, and spent the day chilling on our little deck and swimming in the sun. These rooms are so amazing. Made of strong beautiful wood, coloured wine bottles, exotic textiles, and everything exactly where you need it. Derek’s also has their own little – and I mean little – Dive shop, so we organised to go for a night dive with them (this took the price of our room down another $15USD). It was just me, Scott, the dive master, and Derek as the stand-in ‘captain’. We went out around 5.30pm and sat out in the water watching the sunset before jumping in. The dive was awesome. I am still not overly keen on night dives, but the sensation of being suspended in mid-air with nothing but your fellow diver’s flashlights guiding the way, is something pretty special. Also, the warm water definitely helped! By torchlight we saw a turtle swimming around – so epic. I slowly swam towards it and stroked its shell. With everything around us in darkness it felt like just me and him (or her) there and it was an amazing moment. We also saw quite a few fish including a massive pufferfish, but then, the highlight; we knelt on the sandy floor, pushed our torches to our stomachs to eliminate the light, and within seconds all around us was illuminated by bio luminescent plankton. It was insane. Imagine; surrounded by black, all you can hear is your own breath going in, and out, and all you can see is little strings of glowing pearls. But they are alive. They separate when you wave a hand through them, and then re-group. It was so amazing. Literally in a full circle around us, these tiny firefly’s of the sea, underwater stars, were glowing, creating what felt to me like the original and best ever art installation. After 45 minutes we surfaced in pitch black, rough seas, and the best Milky Way I have seen in a long time. I couldn’t help but compare these constellations to the very ones we’d just seen 12 metres deep. We hopped back on the boat and came back to shore. Night dives still make me nervous, but in that moment I felt so freaking alive. And I’m pretty sure that’s what living should feel like. We showered in yet another beautiful outdoor shower (read: bucket of water) and had a delicious dinner of seafood curry with coconut rice, wood fired bread, and iced tea. We retreated to our amazing room we still couldn’t quite believe was ours and had an amazing sleep, with the voracious tropical rain intermittently beating down on our thatched roof. So good.

We woke at 7am the next day (a serious sleep in for us) had actually the best breakfast I have had this whole trip of homemade granola, honey ‘from out the back’, natural yoghurt and fruit, and walked down the beach to find our own little private bit. After hours of our own beach, swimming pretty much naked and reading, we were hungry. Doing absolutely nothing does that to you. We walked down the beach and got fish tacos, beers, and coconut potato croquettes, and once again went swimming. The rest of the day was spent reading, drawing, writing, drinking rums, and marvelling at how lucky we were.

However, the next day when we tried to go back to Big Corn for our flight, we found out there were no boats going due to the weather. This was quite the spanner as we had a flight that afternoon and a bus to Guatemala first thing the next morning. We spent the day wondering what to do and exploring every possible option. One of the fisherman came up to us offering a ride in his boat which was literally a dinghy with a motor, which, though we reeeaaalllyyyy wanted to get back, we also rreeeaaallllyyy wanted to survive the journey. We politely declined the offer and went back to a different accommodation called Elsa’s Place and spent the night listening to an insane storm that pounded our little beachfront shack to the point where we got little splatters of rain on us…while in bed. The next day we headed back to the port and waited with about 40 other tourists who had been stuck from the previous day. The weather was still too rough to get a panga so we all got on a fishing boat and had an extremely rocky journey back to Big Corn. We then literally raced in taxis to the airport to try and get on the next flight out. Luckily, instead of their usual 12-seater, they sent their big 40-seater and we all got on 🙂 All in all, we were only a day behind schedule and luckily the transfers for both the plane and bus were mellow. If you are going to Little Corn though, maybe be on the safe side and go back to Big Corn a day earlier.

Ometepe

From Playa Maderas we went back into San Juan Del Sur and caught a bus, a taxi, and a ferry to Ometepe Island. Ometepe Island is made up of two volcanoes and is located in Lake Nicaragua. We stayed here for two nights at a great place called El Bosque which was run by a Brit called Ben who had been living on Ometepe for 15 years. The guesthouse was built by Ben and few locals and it has three double rooms with a beautiful big shared kitchen/lounge/bar area. Once again, we were the only ones there so we had the place to ourselves for $25USD a night. We spent the one full day we had riding round the island on bikes, visiting seriously beautiful natural springs, and eating. Ben also owns a restaurant called Cafe Campestre which is so delicious. Most of the ingredients are sourced from his farm and him and his team bake fresh bread daily. Because the accommodation and the cafe have the same owners, you can order dinner from there – yay.

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Masaya Volcano

After Ometepe we headed to Granada on a ferry and two chicken buses. We weren’t overly fussed on Granada. The Lonely Planet really talks it up but I think maybe because we have seen much more beautiful colonial style towns already, and because it felt quite dangerous, it was kinda average. However, our visit there did involve one of the highlights of our whole trip; Masaya Volcano. For USD$22 each we were taken up this newly opened volcano. I knew we were going to see lava but I don’t think it quite registered until I saw the orange-tinged clouds of smoke on the way up. When we approached the edge of the crater and looked down, I was left truly speechless. For the next 15 minutes (that’s all you get until the next group comes) I was entranced by a massive crater filled with waves of roaring, fiery, crashing lava. The way it would explode up made it look like glow-in-the-dark paint as it held its colour against the dark rock. It was so surreal. I thought of Aladdin, and fairy tales, and even documentaries, where you nod along with the image of lava, accepting that it’s a thing, not thinking too much about it, but not realising how amazing it is. All the time, underneath us, this stuff is beautifully and powerfully surging away. Much like getting lost in an insanely clear starry night and wanting to know everything there is to possibly to know about Space, I felt in that moment that I wanted to learn everything there is to know about the Earth, right down to the core. We were told when the Spanish first came to Granada and saw the volcano they thought it was molten gold as this area was known for it. When that opinion was dispelled and a priest came to visit, they thought it was the gate to hell. Looking down at this frighteningly powerful, completely unforgiving thing, I could believe it. That priest erected a massive cross at the rim of the crater and this, with the deep red, spiralling clouds of smoke behind it created an unforgettably dramatic scene. As you can tell, I loved it. Didn’t want to leave. Actually yelled out ‘No!’when our driver said time to go. It made me want to travel the world looking for lava. Next stop Hawaii, I guess.

*No photo would ever do it justice, but here’s one anyway.

From La Fortuna we took a five hour bus to the Nicaraguan border. This was the worst bus we have had so far – literally just an old school bus with rock hard seats and extremely minimal leg room (even for me). The border was rather confusing. Women were yelling at us to go pay some departure tax but no one was in any sort of official clothing so you are constantly in doubt if you’re being scammed. We weren’t however, and after a very frustrating process we were walking across a bridge to Nicaragua. We jumped on a bus and finally got to San Juan Del Sur. SJDS as the locals call it, is a very touristy beach side town that has become a sort of must-do for travellers in Nicaragua. I wasn’t a massive fan though; the beach isn’t that great and like I said, there are just heaps of tourists there.

We had a yummy lunch at a place called Barrio Cafe and emailed our hostel to come and pick us up. We had chosen Porta Do Sol, which was a hostel about 5 minutes drive from the centre of SJDS and they provide free shuttles at anytime. The price of the private double rooms rivalled the dorms in SJDS, it was quiet, and it was a little closer to other beaches we wanted to explore. The service at Porta Do Sol was fantastic. They only just opened and were clearly eager to please, giving us an immediate upgrade. Which wasn’t so surprising…seeing as we were the only ones there. The main weird thing was that everyday we were there all the staff had their families there; kids playing in the pool, parents drinking on the poolside tables. It made us feel like we were the ones who shouldn’t be there and was really unprofessional, I thought. After talking to some people from other hostels this appeared to be something a lot of hostel operators did. hmmm. Though maybe when there are more than just two people, it doesn’t matter quite so much.

On the day we arrived, the lovely woman in charge excitedly told us about a ‘Fire and Ice’ party they were having at the hostel the next day. The tacky name alone was enough to get those warning bells going. (Sorry, but come on.) Plus, judging by the staff and the fact that the rest of the place was completely dead, we anticipated a very awkward affair – and we weren’t wrong. We came back from the beach to find music literally louder than most concerts I have been to blaring out towards a completely empty pool. There were massive chilly bins of Smirnoff, TWO TVs showing Smirnoff advertising (so weird), a slip and slide which was a piece of tarpaulin on the TILES around the pool, about seven staff…and no people. Not one. This is 3 hours after the advertised kick-off time. Scott and I pretty much ran to our room and didn’t know what the hell to do. We decided to go out and have one drink. We had a beer and a Gin and Soda (I said vodka soda but they must have just been too busy to hear me…) and watched in awkward sadness as the lovely boss looked at her failed party so dejectedly it made me want to hug her. And then, the unexpected happened. A truck turned up and out came about 10 Aussies and a drunken Kiwi. After them followed another truck with another 8 people. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Scott and I had a few more drinks. I felt very 28, as my main concern was all the glass by the pool and that someone was 100% going to die on that slip and slide – (we later learnt one of the guys chipped his tooth off). We then escaped into town. Fair to say the weirdest party yet.

I’m not entirely sure if I would recommend Porta Do Sol to someone looking to meet people or party. They’ve got all the ingredients but still haven’t sorted out how to get it right yet. But, if you want a really well priced, (mostly) chill place with a really good pool – it’s a goodie.

We stayed here for three nights and our days in SJDS consisted of spending a day at Hermosa Beach (not that amazing but nice to be away from the crowds), strolling the little shops in SJDS, and chilling at our hostel. We also took part in Sunday Funday. It takes place…on a Sunday… and you pay USD$30 to get entry and drinks specials at three of the best hostels in town. Quite expensive for what it was. Luckily Scott and I met a lovely South African couple right at the beginning so we had some friends. The day was exactly what you imagine, lot of tourists dancing, drinking, pashing in pools. We met a guy from Torbay and one who went to Westlake which was funny. And the day ended at the Naked Tiger Hostel which had a BBQ going and beautiful views of the sunsetting over SJDS. People were telling us how massive our day/night was going to be, but we peaked around 6pm and were in bed with some tacos by 9pm, and bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next day. Go us.

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The next morning we took a short ride to Playa Maderas, a really cool beach about 25 minutes north of SJDS. We were booked into a relatively new place called Seven Arrows. There weren’t a lot of reviews but the ones they had were good so we gave it a go. After an extremely sweaty uphill walk, we reached the accommodation and promptly had our breaths taken away. The view from Seven Arrows is insane; completely unobstructed and absolutely stunning. The house itself is awesome with massive open spaces, styly spacious rooms, comfy beds, hammocks everywhere…and the view!!! The location is also great as it allows for a lot of wind to cool the whole place down. Once again we had the whole place to ourselves. The beach was a short (but creepy crawly) walk through the jungle, and I spent the day-and-a-half we had here drinking freshly squeezed pineapple juice and reading while watching Scott catch some waves. #greenroom. We spent the late afternoons back at Seven Arrows napping, drinking beers, reading, and generally just marvelling at the view. On our first night we had tacos and a burger down at the beach and on the second night we ventured to Hotel Hulakai for their $1 Taco Tuesday night.Seven Arrows was amazing, albeit a little pricey. If you come, make sure you get lots of supplies from the supermarkets in SJDS first because they don’t do lunch or dinner and any restaurant is a walk away. But yes, definitely recommended.