deep caribbean
View of the promontory where the guest house Casa Iguana was installed.
dawn in the caribbean
Natives paddle towards a Bluefields dock.
supreme view
Caribbean sea and forest backdrop seen from the highest point of Little Corn.
Rust dips
Big Corn Island natives dive from the top of a stranded boat off Brig Bay.
Caribbean look
Coconut palm highlighted above the Caribbean Sea.
Match
A resident of Bluefields - on the Nicaraguan coast - watches a boat pull away towards the Corn Islands.
Hit
A Big Corn native trains baseball on the turf of the island's main stadium. Baseball is the main sport in Nicaragua.
bathing art
Small abandoned facility with whelks on the pristine sands of Little Corn Island.
snorkeling
Visitors to Little Corn Island explore the deep coral sea off the island.
little corn herb
Tropical meadow inland on Little Corn Island.
Bonanza side
The bay that is home to the only village on Little Corn Island.
bathing art
Couple walks past a log construction on Little Corn's idyllic coastline.
Tropical Collection
Resident picks coconuts on a quiet beach on Little Corn Island.
Creole Volleyball
Natives play volleyball, in a game that had ice cream in plastic bags as a prize.
Perfect tropical settings and genuine local life are the only luxuries available in the so-called Corn Islands or Corn Islands, an archipelago lost in the Central American confines of the Caribbean Sea.

Taking a bus from a terminal in Managua is not an experience where you take lightly.

The city breathes an atmosphere of latent hostility.

The grids containing stores, housing and security guards armed with shotguns are intimidating.

Our passage through the capital was thus confirmed in a hurry as we had foreseen. There followed a journey as uncomfortable as it was enigmatic through the interior of the country, along muddy dirt roads, rivers hidden by jungle and fog.

We arrive at Bluefields, already on the Atlantic coast, at the end of the day.

With time to feel, in the streets and in one or another bar, its Caribbean garifuna and reggae pulse, heavy and arrhythmic due to cocaine traffic "white lobster” that gripped the village a long time ago.

Bluefield, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

A resident of Bluefields – on the Nicaraguan coast – watches a boat pull away towards the Corn Islands.

Sunday and Morning Arrival at Big Corn Island

Early the next morning, we flew 60 km over the Caribbean Sea and the two Corn Islands, before landing on the biggest, Big Corn.

We settled in Casa Blanca, a small guest houses family operating in a green and yellow wooden house, aged, worn like almost all around.

With no time to waste, we cool off in the crystal-clear sea on the beach in front. Then, we set out to discover, in two old rented pastries.

snorkeling, corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

Visitors to Little Corn Island explore the deep coral sea off the island.

The trails run past closely spaced clusters of spartan dwellings that tropical storms and cyclones often toss around.

As did Joan in 1988, which cut down most of the coconut trees and the island's vital copra production, leaving it dependent on fishing and negligible tourism.

It's Sunday. We come across picturesque families in full costume on their way to their favorite churches. As in other parts of Nicaragua and the Caribbean, religion supports community. at the same time, it divides it among the various branches that have been installed.

From the crowd that heads to her temple, the Adventist woman seems to have won over most of the faithful. Even less frequented, the Anglicans and the Baptists, do their best in their ceremonies, here and there, performed in the style of a musical gospel.

The natives who did not adhere to any of the faiths, stayed in the houses and small adjacent gardens.

Let yourself be lulled by the Caribbean rhythms that arrive in short wave from the other side of the sea.

Ferrugento boat, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

Big Corn Island natives dive from the top of a stranded boat off Brig Bay.

Meanwhile, they check out the long cooking of yet another lunch of rice and beans, perhaps enriched with some fried fish.

The History and Ethnic Adventure of the Corn Islands/Islas del Maiz

The population of almost seven thousand inhabitants of the Corn Islands / Islas del Maiz was predominantly Creole. Formed by a mixture of indigenous blood with African slaves brought from other parts of the Caribbean, such as Jamaica.

The British colonized the Corn Islands until 1894.

In recent times, the ethnic landscape of the Corn Islands has become more complex.

The islands attracted Hispanic Nicaraguans from the mainland and Miskitos (from Costa dos Mosquitos), both responsible for Castilian being about to overtake English Creole as the most spoken language.

The Miskitos proved themselves to be an unlikely genetic combination.

Several historians attest that it was generated by the maritime indifference of a Portuguese.

Baseball, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

A Big Corn native trains baseball on the turf of the island's main stadium. Baseball is the main sport in Nicaragua.

The Revolt on the Ship of Lourenço Gramalxo that Africanized the Costa dos Mosquitos

Lourenço Gramalxo he was a captain of a slave boat that transported slaves from Samba Island, off the SenegalWith the Brazil as a likely destination.

During the transatlantic journey, the slaves seized your ship.

Without any navigation knowledge, they didn't prevent it from sinking in the Cayos Miskitos area. In a first phase, they were imprisoned.

Later adopted by the Tawira people who accepted unions of Africans with women of their tribe and their children as free members.

We appreciate the intrusion of Hispanics and Natives Miskitos in the Corn Islands at the bars on Main Street and the Picnic Center beach.

There, the reggae and the Calypso and national beers, Toña and Vitória liven up the atmosphere and lead to the easy conversations of Latin Americans.

Trunks, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

Couple walks past a log construction on Little Corn's idyllic coastline.

Gifted by the weather calm, the days succeed one another, glorious, under an always blue sky, caressed by a breeze that softens the tropical heat.

A few clouds venture into the sunset.

The rain that irrigates the island's tropical vegetation only falls at night, in fulminating squalls that cleanse the impending morning atmosphere.

Coconut Bay, Corn Islands, Pure Caribbean, Nicaragua

Coconut palm highlighted above the Caribbean Sea.

Sailing Time from Big Corn to Little Corn Island

After three days of Big Corn Island, we moved from speedboat to the miniature sister, Little Corn Island. The Pequeña Isla del Maíz, as mainland Nicaraguans prefer to treat it.

We quickly understand that it's much more than size that distinguishes Big from Little Corn. The first houses the archipelago's cultural soul and headquarters.

Little, on the other hand, remains on the fringe of events, in a tropical retreat that only its XNUMX inhabitants and a few dozen visitors a day, in high season, are privileged to enjoy.

Shortly after settling in, we took the trail that skirts the island. We discovered the variants of its coast, slightly urbanized on the west coast, protected from the wind and surf.

West Bay, Corn Islands, Pure Caribbean, Nicaragua

The bay that is home to the only village on Little Corn Island.

Almost divinely wild on the opposite side, where the sea is broken by an extension of the second largest barrier of coral of the world. There, it assumes a strange streaked pattern of blues and greens that extends to the white sand and almost touches the line of coconut trees that shade it.

Along this trail and others that branch from it, we come across natives. We greet them with a conventional “Hi” or “Hello”. But, whatever we say, the greeting we get from them is always “OK”.

After some time without understanding the logic, we confirmed with one of the passers-by the explanation for the phenomenon that we had arrived at in the meantime.

The island is so small and has so few trails that its 600 inhabitants end up crossing them several times a day.

In order to avoid the discomfort and boredom of the constant repetition of greetings, they simplified the approaches to the extreme of omitting the question and exchanging only the most basic of answers, “OK”.

The Perfect Panorama From Casa Iguana

A steep slope takes us to the property of Casa Iguana, a guest houses with an almost zero ecological impact that has been installed on a high ledge on the coast and has the best view of the island.

View of Casa Iguana, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

View of the promontory where the guest house Casa Iguana was installed.

"It's something really special, isn't it?" asks us Jeff, a kind of partner-overseer of the place who has moved from vast, frigid Canada to enjoy, for a while, the beauty and cozy warmth of that setting.

“I even get goosebumps when I come back here.”, he confesses to us. And it continues to contemplate the verdant forest of the interior, the curved coastline outlined by the sand and the blue Caribbean that meets it.

The sun falls over the horizon. Without any source of light, we worried about getting back to the west coast before the dark hid our paths.

Prado, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

Tropical meadow inland on Little Corn Island.

We follow a shortcut marked on the “official” sketch of the island. In an area almost at the top of the island, we come across an enigmatic yellowish meadow.

Beach Volleyball and Fresh Coconut Water

In the village, we stopped to watch the end of a home volleyball tournament on the sand. Adolescents and seasoned men dispute it.

Volley, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

Natives play volleyball, in a game that had ice cream in plastic bags as a prize.

Between headlines and effortless shots, they shout, argue and curse in both Castilian and piracy English, almost incomprehensible on the island.

Five hundred meters to the side, in a minimally planted beachfront bar, a group of Scandinavian visitors delights in drinking coconut water.

Coconut palm, Corn islands, pure caribbean, nicaragua

Resident picks coconuts on a quiet beach on Little Corn Island.

Esteban, the Hispanic owner, barman resident harvests them from a coconut tree in his backyard with the meticulous help of a machete and his wife. We join the conviviality.

We admire the simplicity of your business. We compare it to the frenzy of European daily life and praise the lazy life of those almost unknown Caribbean.

Amberris Caye, Belize

Belize's Playground

Madonna sang it as La Isla Bonita and reinforced the motto. Today, neither hurricanes nor political strife discourage VIP and wealthy vacationers from enjoying this tropical getaway.

south of Belize

The Strange Life in the Black Caribbean Sun

On the way to Guatemala, we see how the proscribed existence of the Garifuna people, descendants of African slaves and Arawak Indians, contrasts with that of several much more airy bathing areas.

Lake Cocibolca, Nicaragua

sea, sweet sea

Indigenous Nicaraguans treated the largest lake in Central America as Cocibolca. On the volcanic island of Ometepe, we realized why the term the Spaniards converted to Mar Dulce made perfect sense.

Cahuita, Costa Rica

Dreadlocked Costa Rica

Traveling through Central America, we explore a Costa Rican coastline as much as the Caribbean. In Cahuita, Pura Vida is inspired by an eccentric faith in Jah and a maddening devotion to cannabis.
Morro de São Paulo, Brazil

A Divine Seaside of Bahia

Three decades ago, it was just a remote and humble fishing village. Until some post-hippie communities revealed the Morro's retreat to the world and promoted it to a kind of bathing sanctuary.
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The Desired City

Many treasures passed through Cartagena before being handed over to the Spanish Crown - more so than the pirates who tried to plunder them. Today, the walls protect a majestic city always ready to "rumbear".
Henri Pittier NP, Venezuela

PN Henri Pittier: between the Caribbean Sea and the Cordillera da Costa

In 1917, botanist Henri Pittier became fond of the jungle of Venezuela's sea mountains. Visitors to the national park that this Swiss created there are, today, more than they ever wanted
Margarita Island ao Mochima NP, Venezuela

Margarita Island to Mochima National Park: a very Caribbean Caribe

The exploration of the Venezuelan coast justifies a wild nautical party. But, these stops also reveal life in cactus forests and waters as green as the tropical jungle of Mochima.
Île-des-Pins, New Caledonia

The Island that Leaned against Paradise

In 1964, Katsura Morimura delighted the Japan with a turquoise novel set in Ouvéa. But the neighboring Île-des-Pins has taken over the title "The Nearest Island to Paradise" and thrills its visitors.
hippopotami, chobe national park, botswana
Safari
Chobe NP, Botswana

Chobe: A River on the Border of Life with Death

Chobe marks the divide between Botswana and three of its neighboring countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. But its capricious bed has a far more crucial function than this political delimitation.
Braga or Braka or Brakra in Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 6th – Braga, Nepal

The Ancient Nepal of Braga

Four days of walking later, we slept at 3.519 meters from Braga (Braka). Upon arrival, only the name is familiar to us. Faced with the mystical charm of the town, arranged around one of the oldest and most revered Buddhist monasteries on the Annapurna circuit, we continued our journey there. acclimatization with ascent to Ice Lake (4620m).
A Lost and Found City
Architecture & Design
Machu Picchu, Peru

The City Lost in the Mystery of the Incas

As we wander around Machu Picchu, we find meaning in the most accepted explanations for its foundation and abandonment. But whenever the complex is closed, the ruins are left to their enigmas.
The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Adventure
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Ceremonies and Festivities
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Leisure Channel
Cities
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

From Channel to Channel in a Surreal Holland

Liberal when it comes to drugs and sex, Amsterdam welcomes a crowd of outsiders. Among canals, bicycles, coffee shops and brothel windows, we search, in vain, for its quieter side.
Meal
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Culture
Lhasa, Tibet

When Buddhism Tires of Meditation

It is not only with silence and spiritual retreat that one seeks Nirvana. At the Sera Monastery, the young monks perfect their Buddhist knowledge with lively dialectical confrontations and crackling clapping of hands.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
Prayer flags in Ghyaru, Nepal
Traveling
Annapurna Circuit: 4th – Upper Banana to Ngawal, Nepal

From Nightmare to Dazzle

Unbeknownst to us, we are faced with an ascent that leads us to despair. We pulled our strength as far as possible and reached Ghyaru where we felt closer than ever to the Annapurnas. The rest of the way to Ngawal felt like a kind of extension of the reward.
Ethnic
Nelson to Wharariki, Abel Tasman NP, New Zealand

The Maori coastline on which Europeans landed

Abel Janszoon Tasman explored more of the newly mapped and mythical "Terra australis" when a mistake soured the contact with natives of an unknown island. The episode inaugurated the colonial history of the New Zealand. Today, both the divine coast on which the episode took place and the surrounding seas evoke the Dutch navigator.
View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

Saint George, Grenada, Antilles, houses
History
Saint George, Granada

A Caribbean History Detonation

The peculiar Saint George spreads along the slope of an inactive volcano and around a U-shaped cove. Its abundant and undulating houses attest to the wealth generated over the centuries on the island of Grenada, of which it is the capital.
Guest, Michaelmas Cay, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Islands
Michaelmas Cay, Australia

Miles from Christmas (Part XNUMX)

In Australia, we live the most uncharacteristic of the 24th of December. We set sail for the Coral Sea and disembark on an idyllic islet that we share with orange-billed terns and other birds.
Correspondence verification
Winter White
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Lake Manyara, National Park, Ernest Hemingway, Giraffes
Literature
Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania

Hemingway's Favorite Africa

Situated on the western edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is one of the smallest but charming and richest in Europe. wild life of Tanzania. In 1933, between hunting and literary discussions, Ernest Hemingway dedicated a month of his troubled life to him. He narrated those adventurous safari days in “The Green Hills of Africa".
capillary helmet
Nature
Viti levu, Fiji

Cannibalism and Hair, Fiji Islands' Old Pastimes

For 2500 years, anthropophagy has been part of everyday life in Fiji. In more recent centuries, the practice has been adorned by a fascinating hair cult. Luckily, only vestiges of the latest fashion remain.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Merida to Los Nevados borders of the Andes, Venezuela
Natural Parks
Mérida, Venezuela

Merida to Los Nevados: in the Andean Ends of Venezuela

In the 40s and 50s, Venezuela attracted 400 Portuguese but only half stayed in Caracas. In Mérida, we find places more similar to the origins and the eccentric ice cream parlor of an immigrant portista.
Gangtok House, Sikkim, India
UNESCO World Heritage
Gangtok, India

An Hillside Life

Gangtok it is the capital of Sikkim, an ancient kingdom in the Himalayas section of the Silk Road, which became an Indian province in 1975. The city is balanced on a slope, facing Kanchenjunga, the third highest elevation in the world that many natives believe shelters a paradise valley of Immortality. Their steep and strenuous Buddhist existence aims, there, or elsewhere, to achieve it.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Characters
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Martinique island, French Antilles, Caribbean Monument Cap 110
Beaches
Martinique, French Antilles

The Armpit Baguette Caribbean

We move around Martinique as freely as the Euro and the tricolor flags fly supreme. But this piece of France is volcanic and lush. Lies in the insular heart of the Americas and has a delicious taste of Africa.
Maksim, Sami people, Inari, Finland-2
Religion
Inari, Finland

The Guardians of Boreal Europe

Long discriminated against by Scandinavian, Finnish and Russian settlers, the Sami people regain their autonomy and pride themselves on their nationality.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
Tabatô, Guinea Bissau, tabanca Mandingo musicians. Baidi
Society
Tabato, Guinea Bissau

The Tabanca of Mandinga Poets Musicians

In 1870, a community of traveling Mandingo musicians settled next to the current city of Bafatá. From the Tabatô they founded, their culture and, in particular, their prodigious balaphonists, dazzle the world.
Busy intersection of Tokyo, Japan
Daily life
Tokyo, Japan

The Endless Night of the Rising Sun Capital

Say that Tokyo do not sleep is an understatement. In one of the largest and most sophisticated cities on the face of the Earth, twilight marks only the renewal of the frenetic daily life. And there are millions of souls that either find no place in the sun, or make more sense in the “dark” and obscure turns that follow.
Meares glacier
Wildlife
Prince William Sound, Alaska

Journey through a Glacial Alaska

Nestled against the Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound is home to some of Alaska's stunning scenery. Neither powerful earthquakes nor a devastating oil spill affected its natural splendor.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.