Although it has been 4 days since we got on the panga (aka Little Suicide Boat) from Big Corn Island to Little Corn, I still can not talk about the trip with-out feeling the need to hold Reed as tightly as I possibly can. I’m sure that I will be able to laugh about this one day, but with the return ride coming up in a few days I’m still hoping a helicopter will show up to save us!
Our day started off at 4AM as our shuttle arrived to take us from Granada to the airport in Managua to catch our flight over to Big Corn Island. After misunderstanding the Spanish flight attendants 3 times, it was finally our turn to get on the plane. It was a very strange looking little plane in that it looked almost as tall as it was wide, kind of like a double decker bus, but with-out the double deck inside! We were all really tired, so we fell asleep almost as soon as we took off. About 45 minutes into our trip the plane hit some turbulence and bang! We fell about 10 feet! It woke the entire plane up and everyone seemed a bit nervous for the rest of the ride. Luckily, even with our 1 touch down we only had another 45 minutes to go to get to Big Corn Island.
After a rather bumpy, but ultimately safe landing, we headed in a taxi to the ferry terminal to catch our boat to Little Corn Island. Big Corn and Little Corn are a couple of islands just off the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. I had heard the ½ to 1 hour panga ride could be a bit rough, but it is not rainy season so I was only a bit worried. Well! After waiting an hour to finally get on the boat after all the supplies had been loaded, they started loading all the passengers on. We were so squished on there that Jade was sitting on Jason’s knee. With all of us scrunched together like sardines, they made us wait on the boat in the boiling sun for another 15~20 minutes. By this time we were all getting grouchy and everyone just wanted to get moving so we could cool off. Jade wanted to go swimming in her clothes again, but I told her I didn’t want her to get wet ...HA!
I sat with Reed beside a local woman from Little Corn Island and her children. She assured me that it would get cooler out on the open water. She was right, after we started moving the breeze was welcome .... until the waves hit 30 seconds later. The waves were at least 5 feet high swells and when I looked out the side of the boat all I could see was blue waves higher than the boats edge. We were all getting sprayed and then boom another wave hit and the boat driver had to stop the motor because the waves were so high! As soon as he did that a giant wave came over the top of the boat and just soaked everyone. Although we arn’t sure if he stopped because of the waves or if the boat kept stalling, this happened 3 more times along the way.
I would guess that there were about 60 people on board, not to mention the side of beef sloshing around the front of the boat or the crates of beer and other supplies along with everyone’s luggage. I was lucky enough to be at the back of the boat, but I was right on the edge holding Reed with all my might. The good thing about being on the edge was that I could attempt to hold the black tarp over our heads although this only slightly helped. We still got absolutely soaked.
Thank goodness for Lena and Jade and their ever present love for adventure. They screamed and laughed the entire way to the island. We had been lucky to meet up with a great guy, David from Atlanta and he had the girls laughing, too. I could also see his arm behind Lena while Jason had Jade which made me feel better as all I could do was squeeze Reed and pray for land. I think the girls with their giggles helped the rest of the folks feel a bit better about the ride from hell. When we finally got to shore, we almost had to be dragged up onto the dock both because it was so high up and the fact that the entire boat was sopping wet and shell shocked.
It took me a few beer and a few days to get over that ride. I suppose it was worth it as Little Corn is absolutely amazing. A perfect little island with no roads or motorized vehicles (aside from the boats). But more on that in the next blog. I need another beer to get over writing this and reliving it.... and I need to go and hug those kids again :o)
