The man with the machete approached from the opposite direction. I looked left, right. We were on a narrow forested path with nowhere to run.


Little Corn Island, long known as a port of call for Colombian drug smugglers, sits 85 km off the coast of Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea. The guide books say Little Corn is a tropical paradise, a diving jewel. But those same guide books say that tourists should guard against armed robbery, cabin break-ins and the occasional forest path rape. Ellen and I had spent many days and a few sleepless nights wondering if flying to Little Corn Island was wise.
"You want to buy a mango, man?" the machete man with a big toothy grin asked as we came within a metre of passing.
"N'no, thanks. We've got our own." I said, stumbling as we passed.
"How much are they?" mango loving Ellen broke in.
"One dollar each." he replied.
"A dollar. No thanks." she responded. Then in a quiet voice said "That's what we pay in Toronto. We'll just slip off the path and find our own." her thoughts of rape and robbery washed away by the scent of fresh fruit and the Caribbean breeze.


We're staying at Ensuenos, a 30 minute hike from The Village to the most northerly part of the island. The eccentric owner/artist Ramon, originally from Madrid, has created adobe gnome houses that he has scattered throughout his idyllic beachfront property. Our troll house has five tall coconut palms growing from within, right up through the ceiling and into the sky. Once in the night, a coconut fell and banged off the roof. I thought for a moment that it was the man with the machete.


I wanted to write tales of my underwater adventures in the sparkling reefs and dark caves off Little Corn. Then as I sat and was about to begin, I met a local who swims alone with only mask, snorkel and spear-gun, 500 metres out to the reef. The man spends 4-5 hours each day spearing fish which he stores in a sack by a buoy. Daily he has to beat off sharks with the butt of his spear-gun so they won't steal his catch. My scuba experiences are pathetically pale in comparison.


Little Corn Island has a population of 2000 or so. I'm guessing the ethnic makeup is 80%Black, 20% Latino. The seemingly more well off Black people speak Creole amongst themselves, a kind of Creole-Spanish with the Latinos and a fine-cultured English with the tourists. Everyone is friendly. No armed robberies have been reported since our arrival. Rape occurs only amongst the cat and dog population.