Nicaragua - Esteli to the Corn Islands

After our mad dash from Roatan we were trying to get to the Corn Islands as quickly as possible. The plan was to drink water, eat fruit and catch some rays, commonly known as detox!


It was all going well. Three hour bus journey to San Pedro del Sur, over night stay, up early for a 5 hour bus ride to Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, only to find that all the buses for Managua, capital of Nicaragua, were full for the next three days, ahhhhhhh......

We had no option but to make a run for the border on chicken buses. We picked up another dissapointed traveller, Neil, who was a seasoned traveller so i felt much safer. Five chicken buses and 12 hours later, having only eaten 4 biscuits, we had to end our journey in Esteli which is about 2 hours from Managua.

I forgot to mention the dodgy border crossing where a local woman offered to buy Jo for 8000USD, she wanted her to be her husband. We negotiated for a higher price but the deal fell through as we raced for the last bus.

Esteli was beautiful and we stayed there for a few days to recover from the buses. After a nice organic breakfast we walked to a waterfall, the book said was a 5 km walk, after 2 hours of walkin we were still reading signs that said 4.5 kms.

Which was not a bad thing as this was the view. It was a really nice day, however, it took so long to get there that by the time we did it was throwing it down with rain.

As we arrive at the waterfall everyone else is leaving. We didn´t mind as we figure we would have it to ourselves. Ahhh, pretty. Sadly this photo doesn´t show what was really going on......


..... this one does, even though it is in sepia. It was like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. The rain had caused all the mud to run into the river and it looked like a massive chocolate fountain. I opted out of the swim but Jo and Neil braved it, not only was it brown it was freezing cold.


This is close enough for me.

Rested and all booked up for a flight to the Corn Islands. Advertised as ´veritable tropical paradises in an isolated corner of the Caribbean. Both islands boast clear turquoise water, white sandy beaches fringed with coconut palms, excellent fishing, phenomenal coral reefs to explore and an unhurried, peaceful pace.` Hmmmmmmm...........

After the scarey flight we had to take a spine crunching boat ride. Whilst Jo was checking out emergency exits and who to save first i was white knuckled and ready to chunder!

This is probably the largest bit of beach on the Island. We stayed on the other side with lashing wind and waves. All the accomodation was very basic and included bed bugs. This really wasn´t the relaxing getaway we had been dreaming of. There were no roads, which is fine, but the mud paths were lined with rotten mango and bread fruit. It stunk and it was a challenge not to slip in the slime and also dodge the ones falling out the trees.

We did go diving and there was one dive that was pretty cool. White Holes - 8 meters deep and lots of surge, we saw 6 nurse sharks, 3 eagle rays, 3 souther stingrays, 20 barracuda and i had a very close encounter with a spotted trunk fish. It is one of my favorite fish and it was staring me out nose to nose, BRILLIANT!

Jo´s handy work with the camera as mine is still broken, at this point.

We made some new friends on the Corns Islands, Cameron and Simon. Both from Canada, friends from school and incredibly funny. We went out for a nice meal, the food was melt in your mouth delicious as was the wine.

Enjoying the detox!

Whilst the rest of the customers were enjoying a came of coconut oil twister we were outside enjoying the storm.

Jo, Simon, Cam and Sara still enjoying the wine......

....and then all the excitement got to much for one young lady!

This was our body guard on the walk back along the beach. He was pretty cool but got distracted by the temptation of a quick snack!

Totally rested and ready to go. Heading to Leon for my Birthday and some volcano surfing.

Bye for now

xx

Sara