Getting off the island (little corn)

I just spent 12 hours on a boat which was cramped and full of people. Still it was a free way off the island, mainly cause I didn't pay because the ticket inspector never asked me to pay, which I was glad as they had just left us waiting 3 hours in the hot sun while they offloaded more cargo when they were supposed to leave at 9pm. However we saw Dolphins jumping in the sea following the boat.

So basically it was the most unorganised boat ride ever, we had to wait till about midday till the boat left in the glaring sun, the deck was so hot you couldn’t stand on it. We were meant to leave at 9am, actually we were meant to leave the previous day but that was an entirely different boat that didn’t turn up at all cause they hadn’t left Pueto Cabeza’s.

Then there was the mafia of women sat in the room with beds. God I wish I had taken a picture. They had all marked out the beds they were going to lie in with their suitcases several hours before, they must've arrived at 6am. I removed the suitcase so I could sit on the bed. They weren’t able to climb up onto the top bunk because they were a little too fat, they were big mommas! Anyway i was unable to find a seat anywhere (there were more big mamma’s who had camped out on deck) so the only place we had to sit was on these dirty plastic benches where there was some sort of engine oil or dust from the exhaust of the boat that covered all our clothes and made us filthy. Fortunately I didn’t have to pay for this experience as the guy selling tickets didn’t notice me for some reason and didn’t ask for my ticket!

The best bit about the journey though was the food, the captain cooked a nice meal of chicken for like 2 or 3 dollars, and we had dolphins following the boat leaping out of the water.

Getting off the boat was an experience too. So basically they couldn’t dock next to the port as another boat was kind of blocking the way. So they parked along side that boat, then everyone had to scramble over the gap between the two boats, this is hard when you have a 10kg backpack on, you don’t want to loose your balance and fall in! What made it even more challenging was the 3000 people waiting at the dock trying to get onto the boat, while you were trying to get off. So it was some kind of massive scramble! Imagine if that happened in England, or the civilised world, the entire port would be shut down…it begs the question too about the safety of the boats. I bet a lot of them are hardly marine ready. I mean most of the boats work day in day out, rusted by the sea salty air. The one we were on had a bent safety rail at the back, like someone had sat on it or something, or more likely a huge piece of cargo had fallen from the top deck and smashed it.

But I made it safe and sound to Bluefields town. While I was getting to the end of my boat journey I had these thoughts, because I saw El Bluff port and Bluefields and everything I hadn't seen for 3 months, it brought back memories and it made me think of how I feel like a changed man. I mean I have become a proficient diver. I've found  a reason for my trip and attempted to create a following on the internet that might get some people interested in me. I also maybe dealt with letting go of Amsterdam. I missed it a lot when I was settled on Little corn, probably because other than the diving being settled on little corn wasn't a place I wanted to settle at and I realized I missed being settled in Amsterdam. I wanted to be back there in house I didn't like in the job I didn't want to do. Key to that was Ben, but we will just see where things are when I have done what I need to do and so has he.

I also learnt: 
1) Small islands are expensive because you have to get the food and supplies there. Without the supply ships the islands are screwed, unless you can be self-sufficient.

2)You can’t get to know people unless you stay somewhere for a long time and make an effort to get to know them. When you travel spending a day or two in one place isn’t long enough to really connect with anyone. You have to spend much longer. Like the guys at the dive school, I only got to know them from spending a lot of time around them, having beers, eating dinner with them.

3) Living on Little Corn also made me realise what was important to me, being so remote and far away from things, and that it is important to me to feel settled. I need to be near my good friends and family, I nee to be near my home. I mean yeah giving everything up quitting your job is fine, it seems exciting at the time, but eventually moving around all the time takes its toll on you and you want to find that place to settle to stay else you never really connect with anything. But you can only find that out for yourself. Still I am ok travelling for a while longer...