After returning from our boat excursion up the coast, we headed for Corn Islands, or Islas del Maíz, which were once a haven for buccaneers. The larger of these two islands, which are approximately 70 km off the coast, is 6 km long and 3 km wide and is said to have 6000 people living on it, is fast becoming a popular holiday spot. There is clear turquoise water and white sandy beaches -- some of which are still for sale, fringed with coconut palms and surrounded by coral reefs. There are a few cars and motorcycles here, and there are services by the two regional airlines from Bluefields, Managua. There is also boat service from Bluefields.
The hotels and inns offer accommodations to a very limited number of tourists. They have no organized tourist services to promote leisure time activities associated with the local attractions available here such as, recreational diving on surrounding reef sites and sunken ships or coastal and deep-sea fishing. We stayed at Le Paradiso, (The Paradise), owned and operated by two Canadian fellows who bought a piece of land and are slowly building two room bungalows, each with private baths, electricity and king size beds. They have completed eight so far and were busy building four more. Corn Island is also the home of the other seafood processor on the coast, George Morgan and Sons. He appears to employ about two thirds of the island population directly and indirectly. We visited their plant and cold storage facilities. There is a Municipal concrete pier built during the Sandinesta control, but is in need of repair and maintenance. We saw various Honduran fishing ships loading at the docks to return back to their country with freshly packed Nicaraguan seafood. We borrowed several diving cylinders do some diving later on in the week. Not recommended strongly suggest that you bring your own gear.
Another Hotel on the island is Bayside which has 20 rooms with a private wooded pier that is a lovely place to sit back and sip a cool drink. This Hotel is owned and operated by the Dawns. Her family has been here for generations, as have most of the island's inhabitants. I went snorkeling and fishing for the day at Peril Cayes with Adrian Julius (the fisherman who spotted us flying over the island) and his son, both of whom are local lobster divers. They knew all the best places to catch whatever I wanted. They have a small cabin on the Caye that sleeps nine people, and they have a compressor. They also look forward in increasing tourism to diversify their means of income. My other two companions went off on their separate ways. One of them, the video/photographer that never gave me those pictures, went diving with a pair of working lobster divers he met. The other one, Bob Izdepski, rented a motorcycle to tour the island and conduct interviews for his non-profit organization project.
