Nicaragua: Part 2

It was an EARLY morning that Monday. We got up and made it to the airport. They were having some difficulties with the first plane we boarded so we had to get off and wait forever for another plane. The second plane we boarded was sooo tiny it made me nervous! We got to the island eventually and made it to our hotel. This island is NOT developed for tourism. There are only a few decent hotels but the majority of people on the island are not tourists. It is very dirty in some places but its really cool to see a piece of the world that is so naturally breathtaking, yet untouched by tourism. Since we got there so early, we had all day Monday to enjoy the island. We went to lunch and then spent the day on the beach! It was so relaxing! We ate dinner at a little hut on the beach. Pretty much, the only thing that is delicious on this island is lobster. I think I ate lobster at just about every meal. I’m not a lobster lover, but it was pretty good! Very fresh. The next day we had planned to go SCUBA diving but we woke up to pouring rain. The sea would have been too rough to SCUBA that day so when the rain paused, we decided to rent bicycles and ride around the island (about a 10 mile ride). We rode to a great surf beach and went body surfing(thats us at the beach). It was a blast. But then the rain came again and we had to seek shelter in a beach house that was under construction and abandoned. Once the rain subsided, we got back on our bikes and finished our ride! We had a blast! The island was so gorgeous and the bike ride was very enjoyable (even though I knew that walking the next day would be painful!) The next two days were SCUBA days! We went to 2 different sites. The first day the sea was a bit rough so we just went around a reef near the island. It was very pretty and fun but we had no idea what was in store for us on our second day of diving! The second day the seas were calm and they told us that we were going to be able to go out to a place called Blowing Rock to SCUBA. We had been hearing about Blowing Rock since before we came to Corn Island and really wanted to see it for ourselves. It was basically huge lava columns jutting up out of the water. They were too small to have plant life above water on them because they were constantly battered by the waves. However, under the water was a different story.

There was so much coral growing on these rocks it was unbelievable. There were thousands upon thousands of tropical fish swimming around everywhere. The barracuda were scary, the parrot fish were huge and colorful, the sting rays under the sand were sneaky, the eagle rays (pictured) graceful, lobsters everywhere, and little tiny fish all over. It was just amazing. There were so many different kinds and they were all so colorful. At any point you could look all around you, above you and below you and see hundreds of fish. One of my favorite things was that you could hear the dolphins. I was bummed because we didn’t see any of them but we knew they were out there somewhere. It was an amazing dive. We used 2 tanks. On my second tank I went down to the floor, but I couldn’t get the pressure in my ear to equalize. When you are under that much water you have to equalize the pressure in your ears and sinuses or else your ear drum will burst. I was in a lot of pain but it was so beautiful I didn’t want to surface. After about 30 minutes I wasn’t able to bear it any longer and signaled the dive leader that i was in a lot of pain and i needed to go up. you can’t really cry under water in scuba gear, but tears were streaming down my face. Once I surfaced most of the pain went away although I’ve had random sharp pain in my ears every now and then ever since. The rest of the divers were only down about 5 minutes longer than I was. They told me that right after I got out of the water, they saw a 6-7 foot black tip shark. I told them I was glad I didn’t see it because I would have freaked and they were like “how did you miss it! It was like right under you!” apparently I was so busy freaking out about my ear and looking at the surface that i missed the huge predator under me feet!!! When we got back to the hotel we were soo tired. We ate dinner and went to bed early. Jaron and I got back to our room, sat down on the bed and turned the tv on. I woke up at 4 am with the lights and fan on, the tv on, and our clothes from dinner on, shoes on, and not under any covers….apparently we were exhausted! I got up and took out my contacts and crawled under the covers to sleep for a few more hours. Then next day we took it a little bit slower.