My Nicaraguan counterpart, Juan José, and I were real amateurs at our jobs. The Institute of Tourism sent us on a mission to go to Corn Islands to bring back some great pics and promotional material. We were really out of our league.

As I recall Juan José had a degree in commerce but he was the head of marketing at Inturismo. The Sandinista Government really had to struggle to find professionals. There was a massive brain drain in the country after the revolution as many professionals had moved to Miami or elsewhere to seek their fortunes. Juan José wasn’t a diehard Sandinista or a nationalsit. I kind of think he would have preferred to be in Miami as well but I believe he stayed in the country to take care of his mother.

I was a biologist and environmental educator and hardly a tourism photographer so I had to learn along the way.

We spent the first few days doing the obvious which was trying to capture the beach scenery but nothing was really working and the weather wasn’t favorable. I think Juan José and I spent most of our time in the pubs drinking rum with the locals.

After a few days of mingling with the locals it occurred to me that we were missing the boat on our Corn Island message. It wasn’t about the beautiful tropical beaches which really couldn’t compete with Cancun or even Costa Rica. It was the colourful culture which would bring tourists flocking to the islands. It was the Corn Islanders themselves who were the attraction. So for the rest of our stay I started pointing my camera at the locals.

I remember walking down some dirt path on the island and saw this young boy hanging out on the front porch. I loved colours of the peeling paint around the woodwork of the old house. He had nothing better to do so I moved him around and got him to pose. I think I said something like his photo was going to be on a poster in Europe with the message ‘Come to Corn Island’ and that got a big toothy grin from him.