La Costa Atlantica

For New Years this year, I went to the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua with my good friend John(for all intents and purposes, I will hereforth refer to him as Juan because that's what he's gone by since training). Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast is often seen as more Carribean than Latin American. Both in its manera de ser(way of being), music, food, and the darker colored skin of its residents. It is also broken into two autonomous regions, the north and the south(where I went). I don't exactly remember what being autonomous means, but I did get to go into the goverment building for the southern autonomous region. So there's that.

Standing in the govt building overlooking Bluefields Bay and its park

Juan and I first traveled to Bluefields, the capital of the southern coast, which meant taking a 10pm bus and buying tickets at 4am to leave on a boat at 7am. But we made it there, walked around the moderately sized city, and then flew the 25min to Big Corn Island, an island off the coast.

Sitting right behind the pilots on the way to Big Corn

Our original plan was to head immediately to Little Corn Island(no cars on the island!), but we didn't make it to take the last boat to Little Corn, so stayed in Big Corn. It's not so rough when your alternative is a beach-front hotel, night swimming, and fried fish for dinner. We made it to Little Corn the next day, and it was one of the most amazing places I have been.

One of the northern beaches of LC

Little Corn was beautiful. I passed New Years drinking by the beach, with fireworks at midnight a swim post-party with Juan. Just lovely. During our short stay there, we snorkeled(seeing nurse sharks, eagle rays and a blowfish!), went from isolated beach to isolated beach, checked out views of the island from a vista point, and  at seafood all day long. Our big activity was a snorkeling-fishing combo trip. One hour each. It was just Juancho and me plus our captain and his helper(our boat was more like a glorified dingie). I caught 5 fish while we were fishing and grabbed 3 conch shells for us to eat while snorkeling.

Our catch!

The deal was that our trip included dinner with what we caught. Juan and I requested the traditional soup rondon or Run Down. It's an east coast dish that takes 6 hours to make because the seafood is soaked in coconut milk and you let it run down. Our lil chef made us rondon with grun fish and yellow-tail snapper that we caught, plus conch, plantain, yucca, and breadfruit, another east coast specialty. Breadfruit is a big, tree fruit that isn't found anywhere else in the country. It actually isn't in season for a couple more months, but this guy managed to get one for us. It tasted a bit like plantain in our soup.

Southeastern beach on LC

After Little Corn, we went back to Bluefields for a night, ate lots of coconut bread(coconut is the Atlantic Coast's addition to everything- even with gallo pinto, rice and beans!), and then took a boat up to Pearl Lagoon. Pearl Lagoon is really the last haven for other indigenous groups.

Overlooking the lagoon

There are several within the municipality. However, due to weather and transportation, I unfortunately didn't get to visit any. Juan and I explored the tiny town that is Pearl Lagoon, eating more yummy pastries. On our second day, we were planning on heading to Orinoco, a Garifuna village a half hour boat ride away. But after 3 hours of waiting with our new Swedish friend, we figured the boat wasn't coming. The boat only leaves Bluefields every other day and necessitates a night stay in Orinoco. Unfortunately, our time was limited so we decided to end our trip early and headed back.

Juan and I end our trip!