Our First Nicaraguan Experience

We have talked about traveling to Nicaragua for a couple of years and we finally did it!

Last year, we went to Mexico and got married. We never had a honeymoon and by July we thought we better go somewhere for our anniversary. So, this is our anniversary/honeymoon. 

We had a long day to get here yesterday.  Up at 5:00 am, 4 hour flight to Houston; we had a 4 hour layover and a 3 hour flight to Managua.  Customs wasn’t too bad and we arrived at our hotel, the Camino Real in Managua, by 9:00 pm. A late dinner and a couple of complimentary drinks and to bed by 11:00.

(BTW, the Camino Real is located less than a 5 minute drive from the Managua International Airport and they have a free shuttle that runs from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm.  The hotel is gorgeous and they have random 'wild' animals trotting through.  On our last night, we stayed here again and enjoyed some Tonas and playful kittens!  It's a lovely hotel.)

This morning we were up at 7:00 to have a quick breakfast and get back to the airport for 9:00. Our La Costena flight to Big Corn Island left at 11:00 but we had to be at the airport early...of course!

Big Corn Island isn’t very large but it’s big enough that there are taxis everywhere. You could walk around the island but I think it would take all day.  The island is pretty and it's very cool to fly into it as you can see all edges from the plane.  

We had a nice ride to our rental with a driver named Marlon. He’s lived in this island his entire life. He seems happy here and proud of his home. It’s really a beautiful place in the midddle of the Caribbean. 

Our rental is on the second floor of a home, with two rental units beside each other. We have a small kitchen if we chose to cook, which we likely won’t.  Our view is of the ocean and you can see Little Corn lit up way out there. It’s lovely here! So quiet and relaxing!  The breeeze is cool and refreshing. The ocean waves are soothing.  This is ideal - I could set up my life with this kind of view and ambiance!  Sitting on the porch of our rental allows me to dream...one day, I plan to own a home with a similar view and a similar porch where I can read, work and just be outside in the fresh ocean air as much as I want!

Bryan and I walked a bit today, just down the road.  We have a dive shop about 100 meters away and some good restaurants about a 10 minute walk from our place.  We have eaten at the Sea Side Grill twice now.  Great food!  Fresh seafood, lots of coconut curries, cheap beer!  And, of course, an amazing view!

I had a wonderful vegetable curry for lunch and then a fillet of fish (I suspect snapper) with jalapeño sauce for dinner.  I also had fried plantain which is one of my absolute favourites!  The meals are huge...I’m struggling to finish mine, but I haven’t exercised much in the past few days so that’s taking its toll. Oh well, listen to my body, right?  

We met a man on our flight to Big Corn who lives on Little Corn. He’s lived there about 4 years now and kite surfs. He recommended the Sea Side Grill to us at the airport and we ran into him again at the restaurant later. I imagine we’ll see him again on Little Corn in a few days too. It's a VERY small world out here.  My imagination has pirates attacking us in the middle of the night and no one in the rest of the world realizing until much, much later!

We spent the afternoon napping and now just lounge on the balcony before bed. There are people moving in next door right now so we will have neighbors. I think we’ll have an early night. I’m exhausted!  Burnout takes a lot out of you!  

The sun goes down very early here. It was pitch black at 6:00 pm today!  It also comes up around 5:00 am so we could be up early too.

There are interesting nature sounds here...woke up to what I can only describe as “monkey-birds” this morning. I couldn’t tell...were they monkeys? Were they birds?  They were loud!

We have a young dog next door who barks often. He’s sweet and playful and looks well taken care of.  We also have hens, roosters and chicks living downstairs.  I told Bryan to be prepared for the rooster in the morning.  He's not impressed.  There are dogs roaming everywhere on the island.  Most aren't tied up and many don't seem to have an owner.  The locals aren't mean to them but they don't acknowledge or pet the dogs, either.  On the flip side, most of the dogs seem well fed and decently healthy considering they're likely homeless.

I saw a small kitten, about 3 months old. Bryan wouldn’t let me touch it, said you never know what it has or where it’s been. Sad...I miss our pets.

Stayed tuned for pictures...I’m not sure the internet signal can handle those yet!