Advanced Diving Certified!!! Little Corn Island

Last week was by far one of our favorites during our 6 months of travel so far!

Picture it, white sands, quaint restaurants, cute beachside cabanas....sounds pretty much like every place we have been to the past couple of months...EXCEPT for one thing....world renown diving. Little Corn Island...the place where Doug and I got our Advanced Divers Certifications.

On a whim, Doug and I decided to bypass a couple of hot spots and head straight to Little Corn Island before the Christmas Chaos. Without any flight reservations whatsoever, without accommodation, without sense (if you ask me) we headed straight to the Managua airport. Getting there was another little classic travel story. We were supposed to take two chicken buses...a short one to the nearby town of Rivas, and then another to the Capital Managua. While we were waiting for the bus in San Juan del Sur, a taxi pulled up to the bus stop and asked where we were going. When we said ´Rivas´ he came out with $20. We knew the chicken bus was about $2 each so just laughed and said ¨No, we know how much the local bus is¨. Without a second of further negotiation he said..¨Okay $5. Not $15, not $10...no haggling at all, just straight down to $5. That seems to be the way in Central America. The taxi drivers either assess you immediately as either - A) Dumb, rich American tourist (obviously their preference) or B) Hardened seasoned traveller who aren´t going to fall for their tricks (not the best financial option for them, but business none the same)....never anything in between.

When we arrived at the Airport sometime after, we were disappointed to hear that all the flights was full. Having just made up our minds to reserve a spot for the next day and find a place to stay for the night, we were surprised to be approached by a local airport worker who whispered¨...don´t worry, go have lunch, come back in an hour just before the plane is due to leave and try again¨. That´s exactly what we did and sure enough, 4 people didn´t show up for their reservation and we were on !!

The flight was just over an hour to Big Corn Island followed by a 40 minute boat ride to Little Corn....and what a ride!! For $5 we got the sort of wild boat ride that people would pay close to $100 for in some gorge in New Zealand. We´d thankfully received some pre-boat advice to sit at the back of the boat because it can get ´a little rough´ -DING,DING,DING ...understatement !!! 2 minutes in, we discovered that the life jackets handed around were not to save our lives but more to save our tushes. With 2x200horsepower engines on the back, our 50 person lancha literally flew and bounced through the massive swells between the Islands. One wave was so big we had a good few seconds of freefall before bouncing back onto the bench. An unforgettable ride.

When we got there, despite many of the hotels, hostels and Cabana sites being sold out (it´s high season), we managed to secure ourselves a wonderful little hut on the beach at ´Elsa´s Place¨. The first night was a bit shabby (it was a $5 room), however the next day we were able to move to a much more attractive room next door at ¨Grace´s Place¨. It had a full shower and bathroom with running water(quite the luxury on the Island we later discovered)...not too bad for two spontaneous travellers.

It took us all of 1.36 seconds to decide that we wanted to take our diving to the next level. We quickly signed up with Dive Little Corn for two intensive days of specialized diver training. To become an advanced diver there are a couple of obligatory dives you must do (navigation and a deep diving- where incidentally we got to peel a raw egg and discovered how the pressure at depth keeps the whole thing intact...eggwhites and all), and then choose 3 other dive types to specialize in.

Ideally we had hoped to do a wreck dive which is a dream of ours, however sadly no ships have gone down in the area so that option was lost to us. Instead we chose, fish identification, a night dive (spooky...although playing Starwars with our torches 20 meters under water is superfun!) and buoyancy. All the dives were fantastic and we both are becoming much more comfortable and knowledgeable in the underwater world.

The following couple of days were spent relaxing in the sun, hanging with two great couples we met on the island, a few fun dives here and there, and chasing the local pastie (meat pies) man around the island, who for 25c each made the most mouth watering savoury pastries (...some of you may notice that Doug is slowly putting on a few more pounds).

What we saw on our dives: (which we can now ID, thanks to our Advanced diving certification)...
Miles of beautiful coral
Grunts
Scampers
Triggerfish
Parrotfish
Angelfish
Surgeon fish
Lizard fish
A goat fish...(very bizarre looking)
Lobsters/shrimp/crabs
Stingrays (Southern mainly)
an Octopus tentacle (it was shy)
Eels
Turtles (one of whom nearly high fived my husband...seriously)
and...get ready for it...LOTS of SHARKS...da dah...da dah: (K, they were nurse sharks who don´t really have teeth and are very docile, but they were still pretty cool!!!)

All in all a fabulous week on Little Corn island...a place we hope to someday return to.


Here´s a short gallery of pics from our time in Little corn Island.


If you can´t see the above gallery, check out the link here - Little corn Island.