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

Dangerous Mexico

Frequently the media reports about criminal statistics and mortality rates going higher every year. Many travelers get influenced and avoid visiting.

But how are the mexicans really and is it everywhere in Mexico dangerous?

little boy guarding his parents sales stand

For sure the drug war is a constant topic, everybody in Mexico talks about this and it is definetly one of the tasks this country has to overcome. The reality is that you are going to change your behaviour while traveling through Mexico.

Move safely

Especially when visiting Mexico City or other big cities your are going to think about what you are carrying on you. And you will have to ask yourself what you really need for the day.

One of the most important briefings I got from my mexican friends!

ugly and beatiful at the same time: Mexico City

Dont carry a watch, dont use a purse and hide your expensive necklace and bracelet or better dont put them on. During a 4 months stay in Mexico City I visited the UNAM (University of Mexico City) to take part in a spanish course, I have experienced that you only carry the money with you that you need for the day.

Walking around with a backpack especially when using public transportation is not really a good idea.

visiting the aztec site Teotihuacan close to Mexico City

For example my books and learning materials I always carried in my hands. Like this everybody can see what you have and potential thiefs will not ask themselfes what you could have inside your backpack.

Get in tough with locals

Mexicans are a very proud nation and love to show and teach you about their impressive culture. Besides the great nature and an unbelivable big amount of historic places its just an amazing country with awesome people who still have the love for humans inside them. And if you open yourself for the mexican culture and start to learn about habits and conventions you are going to have access to a completely new world.

enjoying Palenque with mexican friends

From the very beginning of my mexican travel experience I started to build up friendships and serious relations with locals.

This opened possibilities for me that you never could experience as a tourist. As someone who lived most of his life in Europe I had to a adapt my habits to be able to come along in Mexico.

Sharing everything

First that sounds weird, because I was raised in a western society where egoisms and individualism is the religion. There is no: thats mine in Mexico! We are friends so we share everything!

mexican couple celebrating dia de los muertos: day of the deads

When I learned to relax in these situations, I started to have one of the most valuebale times of my life!

beautiful sunset at Rio Lagartos

And yes for a german thats not that easy but I am so happy to have done this personal process of sharing. However if you want to be friends with mexicans you are going to know about differences of real friendships.

Historic places

All over the country you can visit archaeological sites and formerly I used to think about temples as boring places. When I learned more details and stories from my mexican friends about their culture and history, the pyramids and temples turned into the most fascinating places for me and I couldnt stop visiting mayan and aztec sites. Everybody knows Chitchen Itza and for mexico travelers it is one of the priorities to go there. Even if Chitchen Itza is a great place I can really recommend to visit as many temples and sites as you can.

not so popular, but amazing: mayan site Ek Balam

In almost one year traveling through mexico I have done more than 15 different ruins and I still have the feeling that I want to do more of them.

Once you start you can not stop! In one of my clips I have summarized my visits in the mayan world. However the mayan world spreads also on Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras.

Mayan Underworld

Because diving is one of my most favorite activities, I also did many dives on the pacific ocean (Oaxaca) and the caribbean of mexico. Did you hear about cenotes in Yucatan (south of mexico)? For sure you heared about it!

It is the biggest underground river system in our world!

And for the mayans these cenotes are sacred places and one of the connections to the underworld. Almost in every trip I did to Mexico I visited different cenotes and swam and dove inside them. Cristal clear and fresh water is playing with the shining light of the sun and when going inside the cave system you are entering this underworld of the maya. Therefore the caves are filled with stalagtites and stalagmites, sometimes grown together to a huge pilar.

entry to the underworld: a mayan cenote

A visit in this different world gets you back to your own connection with god and the universe!

Stay healthy

When I started to travel Mexico 10 years ago I had no task to eat healthy. My only focus was to try all the new foods and enjoy the great mexican cuisine.

drinking healthy and fresh pressed juices

But honestly now I think and act different!

Yes, the mexicans have exeptional food and they have their reasons to be proud of it. But I had to learn that mexican food isnt always that healthy! A lot of meat, many fried things and too much industrialized sugars are nearly everywhere. And I am not talking about all the fast food that is spread all over the country. It is obvoius that many people in Mexico have serious issues due to the unhealthy food that is available everywhere. But in the same time the mexicans have so many great vegetables and fruits.

one of the most impressive mayan sites deep inside the jungle: Yaxchilan

Coming back to Mexico was a little difficult for me, because I was scared to fall back into some of my old bad habits.

But when I opened my eyes for the healthy stuff I realized that its so easy to maintain almost all my healthy food habits. Wherever you are you can get fresh pressed juices (take care for added sugars), smoothies and lots of salads. In conclusion it is the every days choice you make on your own. And everywhere there is healthy and good food. After I teached myself to maintain my healthy habits, it is so easy to make good choices while traveling through Mexico.

You want to know more about my healthy food habits? Check out my posts about some of my food inspirations:

http://wahhoud.de/food-inspiration-juices/

http://wahhoud.de/food-inspiration-smoothies/

my food inspiration: salads

If you want to try out my most favorite recipes that helped me to get my health back on track, get your free E-Book here:

My E-Book “3+1 Power Recipes” is now available for downloading on this website. All you need to do is to subscribe with your E-Mail below this post down here or in the side bar.

[lab_subscriber_download_form download_id=2]

Then you have to confirm an E-Mail you will receive from Traveling Adventures. After that you will be directed to a Welcome page with more details about my personal change. There you can download your free version of my E-Book 3+1 Power Recipes in german or english.

Have fun and hope to C U again on Traveling Adventures!

Lui