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BLUEFIELDS – Little
Eden Cay is the type of island most people wouldn’t mind
being stranded on.
Nestled a few miles
off Nicaragua’s remote Atlantic Coast, the cay is a
23-acre private reserve of undisturbed white sands and
luxury.
Martin Thomas, who
bought the island for nearly half a million dollars in
2002, calls it a “temple to good living,” and has
decorated his plantation-style home here to reflect his
taste for finer things. There’s an ornate Italian
chandelier, a replica of a Louise Philip love seat, and
two genuine French club chairs, which face west to catch
the sunset over the endless blue water.
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Remote Beauty:
An elegant home awaits visitors to Little Eden
Cay. |
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Courtesy of Martin Thomas | Nica
Times
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“We wanted to create something
beautiful on our island, without making a big
footprint,” said Thomas, a native New Zealander who
shares the cay with his wife and four children, when
he’s not renting it out to visitors.
At $14,000 a week, Little Eden Cay
is a relative bargain for those who demand some
pampering to go with their desert-island experience. But
Nicaragua’s top prosecutor of environmental crimes,
Lizandro D’Leon, claims the resort is illegal.
In an interview with
The Nica Times, D’Leon said Little Eden Cay’s ecosystem
is too fragile to build a home. He contends that several
laws forbid anyone from buying Little Eden Cay and the
21 other neighboring islands that stretch some 50 miles
down the Atlantic Coast (NT, Jan. 5).
So, D’Leon recently
paid a visit to the island and told Thomas he would have
to leave.
“I found it
extraordinary he would make such a statement,” Thomas
said.
D’Leon insists he is
just trying to uphold the law.
“It’s illegal,” he
said of buying the island. “These islands are property
belonging to the state of Nicaragua.”
D’Leon’s position is
a lonely one that has failed to evict several other cay
residents after years of trying. The post of prosecutor
of environmental crimes was created in 1996, around the
same time that a Greek-born U.S. business man, Peter
Tsokas, started to buy up seven of the 22 Pearl Cays.
D’Leon has since
filed several complaints, but so far no one has been
removed from the islands.
To enforce the laws,
the prosecutor must rely on local police authorities.
The task of evicting Thomas or any of the other cay
owners falls under the jurisdiction of Bluefields, a
rural coastal outpost that doesn’t have the funding to
pursue the case.
“They have been
working on this for four years without success,” D’Leon
said. “It’s not like in the United States or Europe,
where the laws are more serious.”
Island Fame
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Prosecuter D’Leon says the
island was never for sale. |
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Eric
Sabo | Nica Times
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Thomas, meanwhile, has become
somewhat of a celebrity in his home county. His book
about his island experience, “A Family on the Move,” has
sold well in New Zealand, and Thomas said he is in
negotiations to turn it into a movie.
Several New Zealand television crews
have visited the island, drawn by the elegant-looking
couple that pitched their old life for a new start in
exotic Nicaragua.
If he had a little
more money, Thomas said, he would have bought a French
Polynesian island instead. But he and his family quickly
fell in love with the Caribbean side of Nicaragua.
“I have Spanish and
French blood and we like the warmth of the people in
those cultures,” he said.
Aside from the
headaches of building an island retreat some 60 miles
from civilization, Thomas said his whole family has
managed quite well.
Nicaragua still
remains off the radar for the rich and famous, but he is
confident that many will be drawn to a type of remote
“boutique” resort, which rents for far less than similar
places in the Caribbean or South Pacific.
The island, formally
known as Water Cay, is not your typical posh get-a-way.
The trip is a bumpy
two-hour boat ride from Bluefields. Supplies are hard to
get, and all the trappings of a first-world resort, like
golf courses and five-star restaurants, are no-where to
be found.
Nevertheless, Little
Eden Cay has received rave reviews in travel magazines
and corporations are lining up to sponsor promotional
tours. In February, an Arizona couple will spend a week
here, courtesy of American Express.
Despite misgivings
by D’Leon, Thomas claims that many in the Nicaraguan
government support his efforts. The island is pictured
in the country’s latest tourism brochure and outgoing
President Enrique Bolaños has expressed an interest in
visiting, Thomas claims.
D’Leon says that
Thomas is not at fault for buying property that appeared
like a good deal. Should he win his case to return the
Pearl Cays to the government of Nicaragua, the
prosecutor said the other seven owners who purchased
disputed land will all be eligible to file claims for
compensation.
He agrees that
tourism development is important, but said he is drawing
a line in the sand with the cays because the fancy homes
and swimming pools are endangering the natural habitat.
“It’s my obligation
to protect the environment,” said D’Leon.
Thomas, however, has
no plans to move.
“My island is mine
until I choose to sell it,” he insists. |
