OK, all 7 of you,
I’m back! I am currently sitting at Tranquilo bar and restaurant on Little Corn
island on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua as I write this. So lots of stuff has
happened since we last talked, or you read, we zoomed up to Vancouver to visit
family and friends and set my Dad up with a Skype account. Although because I
knew the internet on Little Corn is usually crappy at best, communicating would
be a problem, I set him up anyways in case we travelled somewhere, where the
WiFi is a little better, which I’m thinking is everywhere else
Me: This way you can talk to me where ever I am
Dad: I can just use my phone card, it’s easy and pretty
cheap
Me: Is it free? Cause Skype is virtually free
Dad: It’s not very expensive
Me: Yes, but is it cheaper than free?
Dad: No……
Since Dad reads this,
yes one of you 7, I won’t get into the not wanting to do new things, thing.
Let’s just say he’s now a Skype convert . Just Skype me baby!
So we did a bunch
of stuff after that, which mostly involved hanging out with friends and family
and of course meeting my new nephew, Riley, that’s going to be a big boy. I
have been writing this blog in fits and starts (spurts? Sounds a little rude,
starts sounds better) I can’t seem to get into the mood to write, but to be
fair we aren’t travelling around, sightseeing and stuff, we’re on Little Corn,
soaking up the beautiness of it all here. So… wonderful but not necessarily eventful
or really that funny. After visiting, we packed up and piled into the Honda and
drove across the country to Rhode Island to visit with Cora…and her parents of
course. On a side note, which seems to be what I do, after moving from
Vancouver, it made me realize just how beautiful and amazing Vancouver is and
it made me appreciate it much more when I go back. I think that can happen
wherever you happen to live, I know Carrie and I rarely went out wine tasting
unless we had company from out of town visiting. So in a long about way of
saying, WOW parts of America are absolutely stunning, even other worldly, of
course other parts are like driving around in circles in the Tri cities, but I
do understand now when I meet travelers and they absolutely gush about the
beauty of America. We posted a bunch of stuff on facebook, about our travels,
so I’m not going to get into it here, but I am excited about the prospect of
driving back the other way, in the spring.
OK, back to the
blog. We are in Rhode island for 3 weeks and David is sending stuff there, for
us to bring with us to Little Corn, this was not unexpected, but as the
packages started piling up and the weight started to grow, we were starting to
get a little apprehensive and maybe a little sweaty. Meanwhile it’s getting
COLD!! in Rhode Island and Nicaragua is looking better and better by the
minute. So off we go to the airport in Boston with a total off about 200 pounds
worth of stuff in 3 backpacks and 2 carryon daypacks..stupid airline luggage
fees, mavbe with all the fees we are paying now, maybe they could take 3 or 4
seats out of the plane, so we could have a little more leg room, yeah ok that’s
never going to happen. We have been to Nicaragua a few times, so we have an
idea of what customs and immigration is like…hit or miss, mostly miss. Hmmm,
what should we put on the customs form? I don’t know, does it matter? No
probably not, I don’t think they ever look at it. OK so let’s just put nothing
to declare, OK done.Get off the plane in Managua, an hour or so to get through
immigration, no problems , just slow. Grab our bags, off to customs.. is the
suspense killing you? Yup Welcome to Nicaragua and your 200 pounds of stuff,
can we get you a taxi? Old people don’t smuggle stuff.
After a night in
Managua, back to the airport, for a short flight to Big Corn island, then a taxi
to the ferry dock and the ferry to Little Corn. The ride was a little rough and
wet, but it wasn’t raining and nobody threw up on me, so really it was all
good.
We have a little
house just a short walk out of “town” that he just finished building, Blackie
is his name, it has a small kitchen and a refrigerator that Blackie got for us,
after we agreed to pay 2 months rent up front. So what’s it like here you ask? Well
let me tell you….The power has been fairly regular, on around 1pm and off at
around 6am, except on the days they sell some of the gas they use to power the
generator, then on those days we have less power or on days they just don’t
feel like getting diesel from Big Corn
or it’s too rough to make the crossing, again, then on those days we have less
power. Not really all that big a deal, but it does make keeping things in the
fridge cold, somewhat difficult. A little more challenging was being out of
water for a day, hard for the restaurants I think, we have a fair amount of
rain water to use where we are, so again, not that big a deal, just another
thing that can happen on a small beautiful Caribbean island.I know all this
sounds negative, but really, it just is what it is. I have gotten a little bit
of work from the dive shop here, which has been great and we have been able to
get in a few dives. For me, the great thing about this place, is the people,
the locals, the tourists, the ex pats, all of them. The island is small and
everyone knows pretty much everyone. It’s like Cheers…where everybody knows
your name. Old reference I know, we’re old.
Allright, so just some random stuff…I love not having to
wear shoes anywhere, rain or shine. It’s been raining quite a bit, but really,
it’s not cold, so whatever. There are fireflies here at night, just magical. We
have pigs and chickens where we are, watching the chicks run around with their
mom chicken has been vastly entertaining. Blackie’s 5 year old grandson Dylan,
can be seen at various times of the day, running around with a machete, half
his size. Pretty sure that’s not something you see every day back in the states.
They have ramen here. Blackie has a lawn mower, cause we have grass, hmm yup.
Ok that’s about all I got for now.
Love and warm thoughts from Little Corn
Carrie and Glen
.
