Nothing but Time

Just got back from a rugged, gorgeous, down to earth vacation in the Corn Islands! The day I left, I went to work out beforehand. I put on my workout pants, went out the door, and suddenly an awful pain hit me. In my butt. There was SOMETHING in my pants!!! I yanked them down (in front of a lady washing clothes) and instantly knew that pain had to be from a scorpion. I finally got it out of my pants and killed it, but I was still reeling from the pain. After I calmed down from that serious rush of adrenaline, I went to the gym. A few minutes in to working out, my lips, tongue, and part of my face were numb in addition to the sting site. I started to get a little worried, what if I just keel right over in the gym and no one knows what’s wrong with the gringa? I asked the owner of the gym if he knew much about scorpion stings and what he thought of my numbness. He basically told me to not be such a baby. I appreciated that. Better than some of the crazy remedies like drink a shot of black coffee and rub lime on the sting. I stayed numb til later that night, but no other side effects came out of the sting thank goodness. Lesson learned: it’s not enough just to shake out your clothes before you put them on, you have to turn them inside out and inspect them as well.

Later that night, Carla, Joc, and I spent the night in Managua at an Embassy worker’s house. There were a few moments where I truly believed I was in America! We even went to the mall, at night, and had dinner. Don’t roll your eyes. It IS a big deal to be out after dark in Managua and not feel like you’re about to be robbed. We had a lovely meal, and then gelato, which I did not think existed here. It was so weird to see so many rich Nicaraguans out dining at the mall. It was baffling. I imagine that no one in any of our towns even knows that world in Managua exists, and that you really can go for a night out and dine on things that normally don’t exist in this country.

The next morning we got on a 36 passenger plane and flew to Big Corn Island.

From there we took a “panga” boat for 25 minutes and arrived on Little Corn Island. We found a place to stay and started exploring the 1.5k island.

Within the first couple days, we got SO lost. We were wandering through thick brush and along the water on what seemed like completely untouched beach. Most of the way, we were led by our trusty guide dog that took us on as his charity case to get us back to civilization. He finally led us back to the main path after cutting through someone’s farm and almost getting attacked by a bull and other cows because our guide dog was taunting them. Once on the main path, our guide dog wandered off and we were able to get back to town. There were no roads on the island, so all “traffic” was foot traffic, and all goods were delivered via wheelbarrows.

We spent a few nights on the quietest part of the island (though all of it is quiet) in a coconut tree house. It was made mostly out of natural materials: palm trees and fronds, bamboo, etc. There was no electricity, just candles. And we washed our clothes in an old canoe with a washboard in it.

We also showered outside and cranked our water from the well. It was a very natural experience, and we were pretty dirty the whole time. Aside from more costly restaurant food, pretty much all there was was coconut bread and beans.

Even fruit and vegetables were hard to find, and very expensive since it’s such a trip to bring them there (the island itself doesn’t really grow anything of it’s own, maybe because it’s so tiny?) So besides the 3 times we ate pizza, it was 7 days of coconut bread and beans, over and over again.

A highlight of the trip for me was snorkeling. A boat came and picked us up right at our little coconut house on the beach, and took us out. We saw sharks, stingrays, lobster, and lots of colorful fish. It was all so beautiful and fun to be swimming around with fins. The water was so crystal clear, and just the most beautiful color of turquoise.

Another highlight of Little Corn was climbing the islands highest point. There was a “lighthouse” tower to climb. Just an open faced metal ladder. To make things more anxiety provoking, the old lighthouse tower was collapsed over on it’s side right in front of the new tower! The view from the top was great, but it was very nerve racking going up and down with sweaty, nervous palms; afraid to fall!

Our last 2 days were spent on Big Corn Island. After another “panga” ride (which stalled out about 4 times and we were afraid we were just going to be floating along in the ocean for an awful long time), we landed and found a place to stay. We explored the beaches and found bread and beans to buy. The next day we hiked to the highest point on the island to take in the views. Halfway up, we stumbled upon the Island’s school (apparently combating childhood obesity as the have to hike quite ways to get there!) and a family who sent their 2 boys to take us up to the top so we wouldn’t et lost. The boys were so excited to chow us around, but so shy at the same time. It was really hard to understand them, because though the Islanders speak English and Spanish, it’s a Creole and/or Mesquite dialect of English. But we tried our best to communicate with them, and they brought us to the top.

We climbed the “lighthouse” (basically a phone tower with a light at the top) and check out the gorgeous island, and Little Corn off in the distance.

I loved running on the big island. There was a road that went all the way around the island following the water. It was a fun way for me to go exploring and just have some solitude to take in the gorgeous views. They even let you wander across the airport runway! It was super fun to run across it. I love when totally inappropriate things are totally acceptable because it’s in another country! At one point, I ran across the runway along with a horse, a guy on a bike, and half a dozen other people.

It had been quite a long week. Though wonderful, I was ready to get back home to the luxuries I had been missing the whole week (it’s amazing what “luxuries” mean to me now). I’m happy to be back to drinking coffee, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, having good cellphone service, and sleeping in my own bed under a mosquito net that doesn’t have huge gaping holes so I don’t get eaten alive.