Corn Island

Primitive Beauty off the East Coast of Nicaragua


Beach Some of our friends were waiting to board the airplane as we arrived on Corn Island. The 20 minute flight from Bluefields aboard Atlantic Air’s dual engine commuter airplane was pleasant and gave us the opportunity to view the clear blue Atlantic Ocean water and an overview of the island from the air before the final touchdown. Our friends didn’t know we were coming to the island and were quite surprised to see us exit the airplane. The timing could not have been better because they were able to tell us some very interesting information about what to expect. The word from them was not all that great. Should we get back on the plane and return to Managua?

Boats on beach
Are you kidding? Nothing gets the adrenaline flowing as much as a new adventure! And when Ed Sackley, one of our Rotary International NicaPartners from Kalamazoo, told us that the airport runway was the "cleanest place on the island", how were we to know what in the world he was talking about.

Beach
Fifteen minutes later, we KNEW what he talking about. We were covered with dust... and I mean COVERED. The taxi, one of the several hundred Russian jeeps in Nicaragua (leftovers from the war), literally sucked in the dust as we made our way around the island on what has to be one of the roughest roads in the world. And going to who knows where... we discovered our hotel was closed for "malaria fumigation". How "interesting" can it get?

Beach baseball
What? Was that a taxi... a real car... with it’s windows closed... air conditioned? YES! We had found William, the taxi driver. And William knows his way around Corn Island. Thank God for William. He took us to the Beach View Hotel (which was NOT closed for malaria fumigation) and to dinner at Sylvia’s for an absolutely great lobster dinner. Things were looking up. Was this really paradise in disguise?

View from hotel
The water in front of the hotel was beckoning as the sun came up the next morning. After our breakfast (the normal Nicaraguan eggs, toast, beans & rice), it was time for swimming and snorkeling in the crystal clear and warm Atlantic Ocean. Not a bad place to just sit and read, either. One may call it an area of "contemplation". I would suggest a visitor be ready to do a lot of it... there are not a lot of other activities going on here. And, in my opinion, that is good. This is not Cancun. It’s better. Nothing artificial here!

Store in town
Time for just a little shopping in the small town next to the airport. The island residents were very friendly and dinner at the restaurant at the end of town was fantastic. Memories were being formulated and stored in my mind’s recesses. The decision was being made: yes, we will go back. In some ways, it’s too bad that we won’t have the initial travelers depression on our next arrival... we can certainly look back and laugh about it. But, we didn’t go there to be pampered... we went for the life experience. We were not disappointed.

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay





Thanks for letting me share this great experience with you. Hopefully, we may see you on Corn Island someday! Please send your comments and suggestions to bobstemm@nicamigo.com

UPDATE September 2000:

The author of this website recently received an email from a native of Nicaragua who believes the above account about Corn Island is not accurate. While I have attempted to portray my visit as truthfully as remembered, I regret that a Nicaraguan has objected to the information presented here.

He/she specifically mentions that their visit had no problems with dust or mud, that they were impressed with the care in food preparation (even when it took a very long time), that the island -in sections- does not have electricity at all times, that I did not mention the emaculate sandy beaches and that the town and airport were clean.

IN RESPONSE: Comments and suggestions concerning this or any article on NicAmigo.com are very much appreciated and useful in providing fair and balanced information. This particular article was written so that a tourist would have some idea of local conditions before their arrival. The last thing I would want to have happen is a visitor from, say, the United States going to Corn Island and expecting some kind of polished tourist destination on a remote tropical island. If they did, they would not -in my opinion- find it there and would never go back again. I believe this would produce a most undesireable and unneccessary consequence. Nicaragua needs both first-time and returning tourists... realistic expectations should give the visitor greater enjoyment and satisfaction.

So, I guess you'll just have to go there and see for yourself... I hope do! I believe Corn Island, although not having a deluxe country club atmosphere, is one of the most interesting and fun places to visit in Central America. Please let me know of YOUR experience!


January 2001... Another response (used with permission):

Hello, this is Derek Sharp and I live out on Little Corn Island. I read your Page about Corn Island and I think it is fairly accurate description of what is there at the moment, and I don't understand what the other was complaining about. It is the way it currently is, which is what makes so damn interesting and blessedly isn't a "Cacun" yet, and hopefully will never be. Increased tourism would probably be good for the island, if done in a manner best designed for the people rather than large resorts as some plans in motion would suggest. If kept small, more along the lines of family run hotels and businesses, I can't see a terrible price to pay for the local inhabitants and I think everyone would benefit. The island has a way to go and a lot of education to absorb, but it is on the way and merely needs time and patience, hopefully the rest of the world will give it it.

In the meantime it learns and grows and gives the exploratory traveler a taste of something a little "different", something which can be found in almost no other island in the carribean. If one ever learned the addage "expect the unexpected" one will escape the islands unscathed, happy and hopefully with a wonderful tan and stories to tell.

Next time you go out, visit Little Corn Island for everything that Corn Island didn't have. One thinks that Corn Island COULD be paradise but when they reach Little Island, they see that here IS paradise! But then, let's keep this our little secret, eh?

Derek Sharp at Derek's Place, Little Corn Island



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