transportation

Overland from Colombia to Venezuela

Overland from Colombia to Venezuela
Overland from Colombia to Venezuela

We ignored all warnings and decided to cross the border between Colombia and Venezuela overland.

We had been staying for a few days in the lovely little village Mompos in Colombia. To get out of this city we had to take a “jeep”. We thought that sounded reasonable enough…until we realised that we were 18 people plus heavy luggage travelling with one car. The result: The car broke into two…several time. As you can see on the picture in which we are, again, stranded in the middle of nowhere.

We finally reached Buracamanga after 9 instead of 6 hours and obviously lost our onwards bus. Lucky we got the next overnight bus to Cucuta in Venezuela and it all went smooth from there…except Thomas being covered in dust from top to toe…having been a gentleman and sat in the back of the car the whole way 🙂

Corn Island: Bounty island in Nicaragua

Corn Island in Nicaragua
Corn Island in Nicaragua

Thomas and I had dreamt about the white Caribbean beaches since long before we came away. We had seen heavenly pictures from little Corn Island and had been looking very much forward to spending Christmas and New Year there.

Big and Little Corn Islands are both low-key vacation spots in an isolated corner of the Caribbean. The two Islas del Maíz retain in many ways the magic associated with the Caribbean – clear turquoise water, white sandy beaches fringed with coconut palms, excellent fishing, phenomenal coral reefs to explore and an unhurried and peaceful pace.

However, getting there is NOT funny. The ferry there from Bluefields runs irregularly and we ended up having to decide between staying 4 days in Bluefields or flying to Big Corn Island (one way 85$). We chose the last option although it was not in our budget -but Bluefields is honestly not a place you want to spend 4 days (or even one).

On the way back we also flew because there was no boat right after New Year and we would have to wait one week on Big Corn.

Collective pangas between the islands (US$6, 40 minutes) leave from Big Corn at 10am and 4:30pm; if you’re staying on the far side of Little Corn, you need to take the morning boat. Boats leave Little Corn at 7am and 2pm, meeting each round of flights. The sea is very rough and you better wrap your backpack.

I really enjoyed my time on Little Corn Island – but thought it was too expensive to get there 🙂