There's no cars just footpaths on this Island, that adds a certain tranquility to the place that you can't find anywhere else.(you can walk round the whole island along the beach in just an hour) Also, if you eat in the right places you can get a fairly cheap deal on food, and it's All freshly caught fish from the sea. I ate Barracuda tonight! (Note: although it's great eating freshly caught fish here everyday, you have to think of the fact that for every lobster, barracuda or turtle you eat there's one less. The locals think you can catch 50 turtles a day and that's sustainable, but it isn't. Don't eat the turtles they are endangered and the locals know that!
Just one of the idyllic beaches on the eastern side of the island, probably one of the nicer places to stay
The pathway past the east beach, at night this is so tranquil and relaxed
THE ISLANDERS:
Gomez
There are a few well known characters on this island too, notably Gomez who runs the Sea Shell Hostel. They are basically a set of rather shitty rooms that he rents out for $12 a night. You have your own kitchen, so you can save a lot of money and cook. The catch is Gomez is literally a complete lunatic. I dunno what's wrong with the guy but when he talks to you he just rants. He doesn't listen to a word you say. Some people say he wasn't always like that (some people say he was) and that all the free diving he did has fucked his head, or made him deaf or something, either way he doesn't listen. Some say he has taken too much cocaine or drunk too much, or has the onset of dementia...I feel sorry for him because I can see he is a good person...
BUT
...it's got to the point now, after being there 3-4 days that if I ever see Gomez I avoid asking him anything or making any eye contact as to start a conversation with him is a big mistake! It's not even a conversation, it's just a one way rant about a load of shit you never asked about and you can't understand him anyway as he talks so fast your just left confused...basically if I stay on this island long term I can't live in his room, it's a shit room and he will bother me and I'll get angry and I don't wanna piss off islanders. Maybe I'll just go visit him once in a while, as I guess the guy is rather lonely as most people cannot stand him! But also what's nice on this island is that there's a real sense of community. Everyone knows crazy Gomez, but no one say bad of him they just accept him as the local nutter. Village (or Island) life hey!
I actually attempted to explain to Gomez today why people who stay at his don't last long. I mean basically he comes round all the time bothering (islanders call it molesting) the current occupants of the rooms about little things like the fact I left my fan outside my room the other day,(cause it's so small I can't fit my bags and the fan in there!) but he chooses to do this as I just sit down to breakfast I just cooked! I literally shouted at him, "I'm eating breakfast, come back later!".(I'd been warned what his latest gripe with me was!) It worked fairly well actually as instead of going on at me he just walked away. Gretel, who stayed with him for a while, who is super lovely American lady and extremely patient, but likes Gomez, says she lost her temper with him loads of times so it's fine.
Yesterday though was almost the final straw for me...so basically we haven't had any running water for 2 days. Couldn't wash or flush the loo, or even wash up the plates he asks us to do. Now Gomez was drunk for the whole of yesterday, but what sort of excuse is that! And that was his excuse, lol. So I lost it with him and went up to him in the morning and said, "Gomez, I want a word with you now!", he replied, "Yes I need to talk to you!", I'd still not spoken to him about the fan issue, Infact I avoided it, so I said, "No Mr Gomez, I want to talk to you! Cause I'm annoyed, so come here!". I then had to ask him constantly if he was listening, because you are never quite sure, and he just starts ranting about something else while your in mid-sentence. So he comes over and I said, "I'm not paying you $12 a night for a tiny room with no running water! For every night I stay here, with no water, I'm reducing the rent to $8!". He then flustered a bit, didn't apologize at all but then ranted about how the guy who supplies him water isn't doing so, so it's his fault, and that he was drunk yesterday so couldn't see him.
Mr Gomez hard at work after a hard night drinking,(this is about 1pm) we followed him home from the Reggae club the other night and he couldn't stand up and kept falling over lol! He'd spent most of the evening trying to chat women up, but somehow failed spectacularly and went home alone!
I said I didn't care, get it fixed! Then to top it off, and make my point about the utter shithole we are living in (I mean today I had to getting fucking bucket of water from the well today to wash the dishes like some third world country! Actually to be fair Nicaragua is pretty third world and I chose to live here) I demonstrated how the large padlock, he obsessively tells us to lock all the time, can actually be opened with one of those pointy things you have to get your sim card out of your iPhone. He looked rather embarrassed, and actually probably for the first time in his entire life had nothing to say, other than he agreed we needed a new lock, although he only has 1 key for us which we all have to share by leaving it by the door! I think the only thing that keeps this place secure is actually Mr Gomez cause people just don't wanna deal with any shit from him!
Coincidentally the rather nice, and amazingly hilarious eccentric Dutch lady, who had only just moved in 2 nights ago, decided she was leaving! Surprise, surprise, there's been 5 people come and go since last Thursday, so that's 5 days, one a day!! Apart from the whole water thing, he had also charged her $5 more than the last person in the same room, just cause she arrived late at night and was desperate. (what a fucking cheek!) To be fair though he was decent enough to admit his bit of craftiness and gave her her money back! Christ, if this guy is on trip advisor (The Sea Shell Hostel) he is gonna have a whole Tsunami of shit reviews coming his way.
So anyway yesterday Mr Gomez did manage to fix the water, after my word with him! I discovered this though when I popped back to the hostel in the afternoon to find the entire kitchen flooded and Gomez mopping up frantically, and then he ranted at me about why me and the rest of the tenants had left the tap on! Ha ha ha! As if it's our fault that his shitty taps which, coincidentally, you don't know whether they are turned on or off, have flooded the place, we didn't even have any water. So I lost my rag with him about that too! I do wonder how the tiny little drip that comes out of those taps flooded the kitchen though, I mean it takes 10 minutes to fill the kettle! Anyway, he seemed stressed so I helped him clean up.
With all his faults I kinda like the guy and I don't want him to hate me for being a massive bastard to him, as I also told him he scared the Dutch lady, and all the other people who have left in the last few days, by being so angry, but he didn't accept that, said it was lies. I don't think he is capable of understanding his behavior, he says he isn't angry and everyone knows him "like dat". It didn't get through to him. I think, in a way, when I move out of here (I've almost definitely decided to take a room in a really nice house with some other divers) I'll sort of miss it a bit cause all this drama and shit he creates around him kinda makes for quite a few funny stories. He's a character I'll give him that. He just needs to learn to stop being a dick to his customers else no one will stay! Although to be fair if you own anything on this island like a hostel, hotel or restaurant, you are always full. This place is so idyllic everyone wants to come and it's always busy. It's a special place! I'm lucky to be here. I'm gonna stay a while, but not at Mr Gomez's!
Sharkyra
So I met a lady at dinner time yesterday, called Grettel (I don't think she has a brother called Hansel but that would be hilarious, I didn't ask!) who is super lovely and has visited Corn Island on 3 separate occasions. She knows a lot of the locals, including The Only Gay on the Island (it seems) Sharkyra. He's brave to be openly gay here, this reggae man straight up, fisherman territory. I asked him about what it's like for him and he says its fine, people know and respect him (he's a social worker) and cause of that, and the strength of his character they don't judge him...too much. Grettel says that actually he does get a bit of abuse for it. For example there was this other local dude in the bar last night, and for some weird reason (Sharkyra says he's strange) he thought I mistook him for Sharkyra, and then basically looked really offended, and threatened to push my head in the sea! His friends say he was joking and that's what he's like, he likes to take the piss, but I think he's a dick. I never know how to handle that and I'm scared to piss people off here so soon so I just apologized, I wish I hadn't. But I don't want to get on the wrong side of the islanders just yet, as who knows what they are capable of and I want to make my time here pleasant if I stay here long term to do my Dive Master. The gay issue was one thing I was worried about but it seems if I get people's respect it won't be an issue, from decent people anyway unlike that guy. (if I ever meet that rude guy again I'm gonna ignore him or I'll pretend that I think he's Sharkyra just to wind him up!) Of course there's not much opportunity to meet people here but perhaps in a way I don't want that distraction right now.
Georgina
The other day I was up early and went to buy some Yellowtail fish from the man on the beach but then I realized I didn't know how to gut it! In stepped Georgina. She showed me how to descale it, the gut the insides out and then wash it in the sea.
Georgina showing me how to gut a fish!
We didn't talk for long but she seemed really nice and the kind of person who has a lot of stories to tell.(she has a restaurants far up on an isolated beach in the north of the island called My Dream, I'm gonna pop in)
I met her again a couple of days later when I was enquiring about Spanish lessons from Jose. She just happens to be his boyfriend and then they invited me to dinner for a meal of Kingfisher! Was amazing, and a great opportunity to get to know her before I interview her for what could be a BBC world programme about Little Corn. She's a fascinating lady.
She told me about what the Island was when she was a child, no hotels, no tourists, no electricity or mobile phones. Her Dad who ran the farm, at the south end of the Island used to call people to dinner by blowing a conch shell!
She also said how she used to think the Island was more tranquil and safer (its not dangerous, many tourist police) because what changed is people moved here from nearby Bluefields, and Pearl Lagoon.
Also, she told me her fears for what will happen when the Big Corn island gets an international airport so people can fly from Miami. That'll be the end of Little Corn's paradise. Bigger more expensive hotels will be built, prices will rise, more dive schools will be started, the coral will suffer (students kicking the coral and destroying it), the fish and big sea creatures (turtles, Sharks, Dolphins, Rays) will disappear because the tourists will demand to eat them so the fishermen will catch more. It's what happens to every idyllic paradise, its what happened to Thailand, its what will happen here eventually. However, some people say the airport will never get built, they've been talking about it since 1995, and the only way a big airline like United Airlines or Delta will ever fly here is if Big Corn has much better infrastructure such as a Hospital and a Firestation. Nicaragua isn't a rich country, and that will take years, or maybe will never happen...right now little corn is simply perfect.
She also told me when she had her first child, it just happened to be on the day before Hurricane John in 1988, that decimated Little Corn, where she lived. She was on the Big Corn Island at the time in the hospital! A lucky escape.
Ivan
My current "housemate" Dominik playing superman with Ivan
Ivan is 4 (almost 5, he adamantly points out, but he doesn't know when, but he did invite me to his Superman birthday party) and him and his brother are two of the sweetest kids I have ever met. I think it's because they are used to so many people coming and going from the hostel that they are just used to seeing and welcoming new faces. But maybe also because on this island bad things don't happen to kids. If they ever did that person would be removed or dealt with in a harsh way by locals no doubt, everyone knows everyone here, and knows each other's business, if something bad happens that person gets found. But anyway, as a result, these kids trust you and just wanna play everytime they see you! Dominik, the guy in the room next to me is amazing with them, to the point they literally won't leave him alone, even when he was exercising. I was late to go diving and they wanted to see the shark video I'd made again and kept asking even when I said no several times.
Ivan's so sweet though and funny to talk to, when I showed him the video of the Sharks I'd seen the other day, I asked him if he'd ever seen one. He replied, "Yea, me daddy caught one, and we ate it!", he also said similar things about the Turtles, around here the men think it makes you strong and more virulent. So you see eating things out of the sea round here is just what people have done from a young age. It's what they are used to, and if some diver like me comes along and says stop they aren't going to care. I think the real problem globally is overfishing, it's a biodiversity crisis waiting to happen, that we are blindly walking right into. One day there won't be much fish left because of our demand in the developed world, our lack of education of what we are doing to the seas. It's no good telling a local fisherman who has done it all his life not to catch Lobster, because it goes for such a high price, but they are just feeding the small tourist trade that goes here, and as it grows so does what they need to catch, so who's the culprit the fisherman or the tourist?
What's more beautiful? This...
Or this...
I asked Ivan if he could tell his daddy not to kill The Turtles or the Sharks, as I wanted to see them alive. Of course you can't reason with a 4 year old, he just said no cause they were "yummy" and asked me to bring him a shark from my dive, I said I'd feed him to the shark! I guess maybe all you can do is try and educate the kids here that what's in the ocean, and that it's more beautiful for tourists to see alive than on their plate.
The dive shop I've dived at the past 3 days goes into the schools here to talk to them, and they also offer free diving lessons to locals to maybe give them an idea of what is down there and perhaps educate them not go catch atleast the bigger more rare species. Although, maybe they just see it as a way of finding out where the latest lobster is to sell! When I showed this local dude a lobster, his first reaction was to ask my why didn't I grab it to sell?! I think he was joking, sort of!
Of course, like I said, it's still not the local fishermen who really cause the problems with fish stocks. It's our insatiable demand for fish, the unregulated over fishing of the sea with huge nets that not only catch the shrimps or the cod or the tuna in vast unsustainable quantities but the bigger more rare species, the Dolphins or Sharks, and then these just get thrown dead back in the sea and not even eaten. Dominik, the Austrian guy in room next to me was telling me all this, and for this reason he is a vegetarian. He said many things actually such as the amount of food that is wasted by supermarket chains, it just gets thrown away. So why do we fish out the oceans so much if we don't need all the stuff we can get? Of course he goes further, he doesn't eat beef or pork or chicken, because of the way the animals are treated when they are slaughtered, which is pretty disgusting. I personally don't mind eating meat unless it's an endangered species of fish or something, still Dominik really made me think about meat and fish and where it comes from. Clearly us in the west are uneducated too!
Delver The panga (boat) guy
He told me stories of drug trafficking through The Corn Islands, as it lies directly on route from Colombia! It's been known to have huge packages of coke just wash up on the beach, that have been dumped by passing speedboats packed full of coke when they are being chased down by the coast guard. I'm told though that if someone finds it, they keep it safe and sell it back to the cartels, or sell it here for them and pay them off. And if you steal it for yourself The Cartels know who has it and will come and kill you probably, the islanders know everything, you can't hide! This is all just hearsay by the way, but I'm gonna ask this dude to tell me this story.
The guard outside of Little Corn Dive
Man this guy is like the coolest dude ever. He looks a lot like Jack Sparrow, from pirates of the carribean, literally 10's of big pirate like earrings, gold teeth, bracelets and long black wiry hair.
So yeah I'm so interested in people on this Island, mainly cause people fascinate me, but also because my friend Ashley wants me to interview some people and build a story for The BBC Worldservice! How awesome would that be!? I get to make real use of my travels and get into journalism in some way. Also I'd get $150 a piece!
The Lobster Fisherman
So on my dive to Blowing rock the other day, Cody from Dos Triburnos dive school told me about what massive risks the Lobster catching companies make their fisherman take. Basically they dive with unclean air, improperly maintained equipment and have no idea of the risks involved in diving for long periods of time and surfacing too quickly causing decompression sickness. The lobster divers risk the bends, loosing their legs or arms, loosing their lives! The lobster companies know this but don't educate their divers as this would mean they dive less and they make less money! Cody, from Dos Triburnos Divers, wanted to educate the lobster catchers. But he was told that if he did his dive school would get shut down. The companies have a lot of power and money and influence...honestly workers rights here are awful, it's like some Victorian industrial revolution style capitalism, its fucked up.
Boat ride here was one white knuckle ride tho...So you'd better hold onto your hats and learn to surf the bumps the speed boat flies over:
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