There you find islands where no cars or motorbikes are allowed. Only transportation on the island is walking, by bycycle or horse!

paradise on earth: Corn Islands in Nicaragua

Electricity isn’t available all the day and there is only little light pollution. And therefore the nights get really dark! When your there, you will definetly relax!

Perfect I had the right spot to go to, now I wanted to find the right people to go with…

sunset at the pacific coast in Las Penitas

Las Penitas at the pacific coast

Making a long trip on your own is always risky. Even if Nicaragua is one of the safer countries in Central America, its better to be careful!  Its not only safer to travel in a group, but much more fun!

the flow: finding the right people for the next adventures

When I stayed a couple of nights in Léon I meet some wonderful people from Italy and Germany!

In order to find out if we fit together for a long journey to Corn Islands we decided to spend a day on the beach of Las Penitas. With this visit at the pacific coast we found out, that we can be a little family and travel together.

Léon to Managua

In Léon I spend more than a week in order to do some special hikes to volcanos. Read my post to find out more about volcano hiking and boarding in Nicaragua.

El Hoyo Hike & Cerro Negro Boarding

After our “new” family had prepared itself well for the 3 day trip we took a walk from our hostel in downtown Léon to the public bus station. Asking locals it is quite easy to identify the right bus and for € 1,40 we took the bus to the capital Managua. In Managua we spent one night in order to get the next bus to El Rama. Managua was very special for me!

local buses in Nicaragua

I had my cheapest accomodation ever, sleeping in a private room with bath and shower for less than € 2 per night!

The next day for about € 3,50 we took the night bus to bring us to the port in El Rama.

El Rama to Bluefields

Here the journey continues on the river “Rio Escondido” by boats. If you get a little speed boat (around € 4-5) the trip takes about 2 hours to get to Bluefields. After we arrived in Bluedfields we assumed we can get immediately on an other boat to get us to Corn Islands.

traveling the Rio Escondido by speed boat

But due to weather conditions we had to wait to the next day and spend one night in special port town Bluefields.

Not that I recommend going there, but it is really special. Kind of cut out from the rest of the country, a very unique culture of criminalism, drug war and prostitution developed and is all around in this little town.

But also you can find very kind and religious people in Bluefields!

And with a local family we shared a dinner eating “Cevice” together. Ceviche is a very common speciality. Its basically a very healthy fish salad. If you want to know how to make a Ceviche, in the next chapter you find a clip about Making a Ceviche:

El Bluff to Corn Islands

In Bluefields we got our tickets (about € 5-6) for a container ship to bring us to Corn Islands. From Bluefields we had to take a little boat to El Bluff. There the container ship was about to leave.

traveling on a container ship

After waiting all day in the heat of the sun around 4 p.m. the passengers who had tickets boarded the ship.

going to Corn Island

The journey takes between 5 and 8 hours depending on the type of ship and weather conditions. On the ship itself everything is made to carry goods and products for the islands. And passengers just sit or stand whereever they find a place. And because there is no catering we made our own food during the journey!

preparing a fish salad on board of a container ship

With some creativness together we created a Ceviche salad for dinner! 

Finally in paradise

When you arrive in Corn Island everything is different! Usually in Nicaragua spanish is number one language, but like in all the caribbean islands also on corn island you find an english creole spoken.

my first sunset on Corn Island

The mood of the islanders is extremly chilled and welcoming!

After meeting some locals and asking for a cheap place, we found a local family renting a little house on their ground. After some friendly words in english we moved in a beautiful place close to the beach. Because usually you have to calculate between € 10 and € 20 for a night, we had good luck to live in this wonderful place for only € 5 per person and night.

Diving Corn Islands

And because caribbean islands are perfect for diving I choose a nice dive shop “Dos Tiburones” and did some fantastic dives on Corn Islands. Watch my clip about diving the spot Blowing Rock in Nicaragua, Corn Islands.

Blowing Rock is an underwater volcano and a very special dive!

I enjoyed an unforgetable and spectacular spot with unique rock formations and a lot of marine life!

On Corn Island I spend almost 2 weeks and it was never so easy to forget the time.

My Visa expired and I had an overstay of 11 days !

natural and authentic life makes me happy

Definetly one of the most fascinating places I have visited in my trip!

Bye for now & thanks for visiting Traveling Adventures

Lui

The cuban island is filled with great places for diving, nearly anywhere on the coast there are many possibilities and its quite difficult to decide where to go! Because of its beauty and virgin dive spots it is almost guaranteed to have a fantastic time in the underwater world.

choosen dive spots

As a passionate diver I was really exited to do my first dives in Cuba and I wanted to take the chance to explore different dive locations.

In order to get a good overview I choose three locations to go diving!

In the east Baracoa, Cayo Coco facing to the Atlantic Ocean and Playa Giron on the caribbean side.

Dive Shops in Cuba

Almost all dive shops in Cuba are still run by the government and you cannot do dives without official permission.

Thats not an advantage for low budget diving!

There is no real competition and negotiations are not possible, because all prices are fixed. But still there are huge differences in prices between the different regions in Cuba!

good dive standards and safety in Cuba

A very good point is the saftey level in cuban dive shops. Because all shops are under frequent checks, all dive equipment is usually under very good condition.

A big plus for safe diving everywhere in Cuba!

Diving in Cayo Coco

Getting to the sand keys in Cuba is like traveling in paradise. Due to its fantastic waters and awesome beaches all the keys on the northern side are very popular. Therefore they are also one of the most expensive places in Cuba to visit.

paradise on earth: keys in Cuba like Cayo Coco

There are no casas particulares (read about casas particulares) to rent in, because locals dont live in these places. The main possibility is to get a quite expensive hotel starting from € 80/day.

But I found a much cheaper and more exclusive way to spend  4 days and nights in Cayo Coco!

Thanks to my spanish I was able to get very useful informations from locals how to visit the keys for less money! Instead of booking a hotel, you can get into a country residence run by the government.

low budget country residence: best happened to me & my budget

A stay here is much cheaper than any hotel and costs between 35-40 €/day including 3 meals and drinking water.

And a big advantage for my healthy food habits!

Because as a guest in a government country residence your food is prepared as you want it. And I got lots of salads, fruits, vegetables and fresh fish prepared for me. And I asked not to serve me any bread, sugars or processed foods!

living good & eating healthy on a low budget

So this was the most important point to save on my budget during diving in Cayo Coco. Because nearly anything on the keys is costful, also for diving it is not the best place for saving money.

Two dives did cost me € 70 including all equipment rental.

For this reason I decided to do more freediving activities. And for one of my freedives I got a great hint from a local divemaster where to go to see lots of sharks! Unfortunately the sharks where getting fed and a shark feast happened in front of me! Watch this clip about my freedive in Cayo Coco.

Another very important saving tip is getting on and off the keys.

Taking a taxi is the most common but also the most expensive possibility and you can easily spend € 100 and more for a one way drive. When I got on Cayo Coco I found a little group and we shared a taxi together in order to save money .

cuban oldtimer taxi

But using the local buses the cuban workers use to get on and off the keys is still much cheaper. Its a little bit tricky, because you need to tip the bus driver, but with some friendly spanish words and a little “propina” everything works fine.

Instead of spending for an expensive taxi I payed € 10 including the tips to get a ride back by local bus to the main island.

Diving in Playa Giron (Punta Perdiz)

Before arriving to Playa Giron I have already heared many divers talking about this huge bay and its exeptional underwater world.

Playa Giron is a little town and perfect for economic divers!

In comparison to the keys accommodation is possible at local families and I took a nice room including breakfast and dinner for only € 20/day.

driving an Oldtimer in Playa Giron

And the diving itself is also much cheaper in comparison to the keys. Here I payed less than € 20 for a dive, what made me do five dives in total!

And again a local gave me a great tip for a good dive shop!

You can go to the only dive shop in Playa Giron and dive with huge groups of divers. Or you go to a little dive shop in Punta Perdiz (only few kilometers north) where you can enjoy small groups and more individual diving!

a little bit hidden: the dive shop in Punta Perdiz

And every dive was fantastic and I was able to do some great footage underwater!

In this clip you can watch an exeptional fish in its different phases of his live:

And more great things happened during my dives.

Here you can watch a moray eel that fell in love with me and my GoPro cam and tried to give some kisses!

No joking, moray eels can be quite dangerous and I would never try feeding them. Watch this nice clip where a green moray eel is swimming very close with me.

Diving in Baracoa

Unfortunately the weather in Baracoa was very rainy during my visit. It was easy to get a connection to a local dive shop by asking my guest family. And I planed to do some dives with a local Dive Instructor, but due to the weather I had to postpone my diving experience in Baracoa. But even if I did not do dives in Baracoa it was the most magic place in Cuba for me and I would definetly recommend going there!

Baracoa is a perfect hiking location

The expenses for one dive should be around € 25, that seemed pretty fair to me. Nevertheless that gave me possibilities to do other great stuff in Baracoa.

Thanks for you interest and hope you enjoyed my saving tips! If you want to read more useful hints on saving money while traveling Cuba you should read the previous post on my blog Traveling Adventures!

Your Lui

Low Budget Cuba? Too expensive for backpackers?

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