Getting to Nicargua and more importantly to Little Corn Island was a journey like no other. We boarded a TICA bus (our favorite way to travel) at 3am from San Jose, Costa Rica destined for Managua but little did we realise the absolute trauma it would be trying to get across the border!

About halfway through our journey the bus stopped at a hut. We knew there would be passport control but we didn´t realise every single bus in central america would be choosing to cross the border at the same time! We had to leave the bus and queue in the blistering heat for at least an hour just to enter a dingy office with cream smoke stained walls, walk up to a lady who quite obviously hated her job, so she could examine our passports and stamp them with an inkless stamp! We boarded the bus quite disappointed with our faint outline certifying we had in fact crossed the border but atleast we were back on the bus and could continue on with our journey...no!

Ten minutes later we were marched off the bus once again to reclaim our luggage. I unfortuantely was half dressed in pyjamas and found myself in a queue, juggling my handbag my luggage and various other items including my bra which i had taken off in the night. This item also happened to be the only item I failed to keep hold of when we approached the secuirty guard who was checking our bags. Kella and Lottie found this highly amusing as did the security guard who could hide his smirk!

We sat in the sun for at least another hald hour surrounded by Nicaraguans offering us DVD´s, sandals and some sort of food which the woman kept on repeating the name of over and over again just incase we didn´t understand the first time.

Final we reboarded the bus and the rest of the trip was fairly painless. We arrived in Managua before the afternoon and decided to try our luck at the airport getting flights to Big Corn Island. After some muddled Spanglish we finally found a taxi driver that understood where we wanted to go!

We arrived at what would ber best described as a room rather than an airport with one desk and a long queue. Everyone around us had tickets and things so we weren´t confident we´d make the flight but with true backpackers luck we managed to pusuade them to let us on the flight. Instead of boarding passes we has La Costena (the airline) license plates which were rather weird but the whole place seemed pretty chilled out. We checked in our bags and were even weighed ourselves and we didnt understand why until we saw the size of the plane!

It was no bigger than a bus and resembled a toy plane. It had such helpful safety reminders as "Please use the bottom cushion as a flotation device!" Very reassuring as we took off in the rickety plane. On the flight you could feel every turn and motion the plane took but we landed safetly and smoothly and we were even allowed to get our pictures taken in the cockpit as a momento of our survival!

Then we got a taxi to the pier where we sat and dipped our feet in the sea until we boarded a small boat that was to take us to Little Corn! It was bumpy and exciting and we spent our time rating each wave that the boat crashed into. Fun times!

Details of our adventure on Little Corn to follow...