Touring Big Corn Island With Clint, The Rasta Cab Driver

Good day,

Not yesterday but the day before I made my way to Big Corn Island to sign some paperwork with a gentleman from here and we met my lawyer early on a stormy morning. Once the papers were almost done the gentleman from the island hustled to make the panga, I realized I’d have to take the late one so I had a whole day on Big Corn Island to kill…

Turns out my lawyer is my age and looks like one of my old roomates from university, random. After the formalities were over we enjoyed a beer or so while he enjoyed a fresh fish, supposedly the fish tastes drastically better here from even say Bluefields which is along the coast but I digress. He had some errands to run and suggested I come along if I didn’t want to just sit and rot in the Fisherman’s Cave (the hotel / restaurant next to the pier). Naturally I took him up on the offer and in moments were in the cab of a islander named Clint who had a rasta cab, dreads, about 50 years of age with a snow military jacket and cargo pants.

We drove to the first destination and I realized it was going to be very boring as well and Clint was a character, one of those you’d probably remember from your travels if you took the time to get to know. I had never never really seen Big Corn so I decided to make Clint a proposition. The fare is 15 cordoba anywhere on the island so I offered him 100 for a tour of the island and he accepted. I told my lawyer I was off, we shook hands and said we’d be in touch. It was time to go explore the island with Clint.

About 2 minutes into our trip we saw a gent on the side of the road, Clint looked at me and I said “pick everyone up, pretend I’m just part of your car in the front” and that is exactly what we did. We drove all over the island picking people up, making small talk and listening to reggae music in a small yellow car that resembled a smart car, it was bliss. At one point we had half the island in the back seat and one girl didn’t have change so he let her go, then he looked at the guy in the back and said “don’t think you get the same treatment” which lead to a conversation about how adult dudes get no breaks on anything, we are the “full fare paying people” of the world.

Turns out this gent was in his late 50’s and lived his whole life on the island. He filled me in on the “not so cool spots” and the places I’d want to spend time / bring people should I ever visit. He showed me where he lived, where he was born and took me to some older relatives place who left for Bluefields and never came back. It has a view of the old port that is so pristine it almost hurt me to see that the place was no longer inhabited.

Here is the deal, the south side of Big Corn has a beach called “Long Beach” that goes for most of the side of the island, it’s bliss and he told me you can do whatever you want there, spend the whole day and just be yourself with no worries.  Started thinking about visiting Big Corn Island more often as it kinda had that Hawaii vacations vibe to it on that beautiful beach. There appeared to be a hotel near the end nestled between the cliffs and the beach, quite the sight. At the end of the day we went to a beach, kicked it and joked about “plastic rastas” before he dropped me off.

I don’t have my camera but I did manage to get my iphone 4 restored / fixed up by this India gent who “saved the day”. Would you believe him and some others were looking lost / looking for a room so I approached them to lend my expertise. As it happens two of the gents know a friend of mine from Trinidad and Tobago who told them to look me up when they arrived, random.

If you’re in the area, I suggest you take a tour of the island but personally, not feeling Big Corn so much. It was described somewhere once as a typical Caribbean Island and I didn’t really see any signs of tourism except for people gathering near the dock to make it to Little Corn. That said, know a gent who lives here that spent 5 years on Big Corn and prefers it, to each their own? Either way, recommend you take a tour and keep your eye out for Clint, he’s legit. #SHABLSTAMP

The “House of SHABL” has an announcement coming early next week, stay tuned…

Tips hat,

P.S: The Fisherman’s Cave is the white building on the right, old photo but depicts the day before sun came out.