Pearl Lagoon

In the moment of rejection by the Immigration officials, I would have to argue that in that moment I was more bummed than Kristie. We were both extremely disappointed but being the one communicating in Spanish and then rejected, I didn’t know what decision to make next. Thankfully though Kristie saw that there was another river taxi “panga” boat traveling to Pearl Lagoon. And to our great satisfaction we didn’t need to have our passport for that boat.  This boats entry with no passport is an illumination of rule B) order is non-existant! Anyways, we quickly decided to go to Pearl Lagoon a recommended location to visit according to our Lonely Planet travel guide. We would end up spending Saturday, Sunday, and Monday there.

The whole Caribbean side of Nicaragua is influenced by Creole communities. Therefore the culture in Pearl Lagoon, Bluefields, and Corn Islands is completely different than the side of Nicaragua we live on. The people in Pearl Lagoon were black, speaking predominately English with a heavy Jamaican type of accent. It was like we were in a whole different country.  We took our time in Pearl Lagoon to rest after our long day of travel and then sudden disappointment. We also spent time devising a plan to somehow get our passports. Kristie and I agreed that we were both too motivated to simply drop the Corn Island destination. We even discussed traveling all the way back to Dolores to get our passports.

Our time at Pearl Lagoon was marked by going to “Aguas,” beach to swim, eating delicious Creole food, and attending the community’s festival on the night of my Birthday! 

 

I found my own private island for my Birthday!

My dear friend Kristie setting up my hammock
while onlooking the Caribbean.

     

Coconuts! Picked straight from the tree. 

Our Mesquite friend Jasper climbed a tree for us :)

We left Pearl Lagoon Monday morning. We had anticipated traveling all the way back to Dolores until we found out from Barry that the airlines service from Managua to Corn Islands has a mailing service. I was hesitant to trust any Nicaraguan airlines service with my identity, but after prayer and discussion I had a great peace about this. Barry also mentioned we could go back to Bluefields where the airplanes touch down from Managua before going to the Corn Islands, and get some further assistance from a man he knew named Pastor Ed.

I loved this picture I took of one of the village homes
under the sun set. I took it while we were on our walk to Aguas.

We left Pearl Lagoon anticipating getting our passports back in Bluefields, and furthermore just beginning to see the beauty of this unexpected route and where it was leading us.