Day 25: One square mile of gorgeous (Little Corn Island)

I'm feeling incredibly smug right now, so my apologies in advance.

Yesterday I made it to Little Corn Island - one square mile of paradise in the middle of the Caribbean ocean, 70km from the Nicaraguan coast.

It's only a 1hr 20min flight from Managua, but it feels like I've come to a whole other country.

The Corn Islands are distinctly Caribbean in language and culture, there's a mix of Spanish, Creole and English here and I'd only been on Big Corn 15 minutes before I'd been offered some 'good ganja'. I replied with a sing-song 'No, I'm fine thank you' that sounded so English I may as well have added 'old chap'.

To get from Big Corn to Little Corn you have a 25 minute ride on the panga boat, a hot topic of discussion in travel forums as it's supposedly a white-knuckle ride.

I waited for an hour at the port, chatting away to the lovely Christine who is a Little Corn resident and was returning from a trip to see her son who is studying in Managua. I asked her about the panga and she told me we'd be fine because it was calm today.

When it came to everyone getting on the boat, my British sensibilities were rankled when everyone jumped on for a spot and it looked like I wouldn't get a seat (I was second in line to buy my ticket - UK people will feel my pain I'm sure).

Thankfully one of the boatmen found me a slither of a spot and helped me leap off the dock into it, while someone bundled a life jacket my way.

To say they run this trip twice a day for God knows how many years, our departure was an entertaining shambles. They overloaded the boat and one of the guys ended up asking: 'Which one of you white ladies is going to get off so this guy can get on?'

This white lady was going nowhere.

Eventually we set off, and I found out the the 'calm' Christine had promised me was a relative concept.

I was travelling wearing my glasses and the ride was so intense I had to sit there with my hands permanently at the side of my face so they didn't go flying off into the deep blue sea - I looked like a perpetual version of the scream emoji.

The ride over would give any theme park ride a good run for its money. Spray was gushing over the side and sometimes the boat would rise high off the waves only to smack down hard back onto the water - by keeping my hands clamped to the side of my head, I was terrified I'd end up smacking my face on the seat in front and giving myself an untimely nose bleed.

All this said, it was flipping awesome! On the way back I'll be wearing my contact lenses to get the full experience for sure.

When we arrived onto the dock at Little Corn, one of the locals greeting us yelled 'welcome to paradise' and I couldn't agree more.

The lovely Jose from my digs at The Lighthouse was waiting for me at the dockside. There are no cars on the island so he had with him a wheelbarrow full of beer to take back with us.

Jose moved pretty fast for a guy wearing fitflops with a wheelbarrow and I cantered after him with my backpack, sweating like the chubby kid in PE.

By the time I reached The Lighthouse, I looked like I'd spent the morning in a wind tunnel then been made to do a cross country run.

Of course, it was the perfect time to be introduced to the two gorgeous French guys who own the place.

But anyone who cares what their hair looks like in paradise is missing the point.

I'm looking forward to soaking up every beautiful second of it.