Grand Grand Cayman Vacation

WARNING: Long post!

Our week in the Cayman Islands (actually, only on the one island named Grand Cayman) was wonderful! Many thanks to our good friends, David and Donna, for inviting us to join them.

Here is the view from our condo looking out to the Caribbean. The condo itself was very nice--a kitchen, dining area, living room, patio near the beach, and two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.

The view from the patio looked out on the beach and toward the dock where divers went out daily (lots and lots of divers every day).

The condo looks like this from the shore line. Ours was the unit on the lower level at the very left.

Though taken on a different day and at a different location, I thought I'd make you envious of the 80º temperatures we enjoyed the entire week by sharing a bit of surf sound and view with you. There is a reef around much of the island, so the sound you hear comes from the sea breaking against the reef. Between the reef and the beach, the water is relatively calmer.

Near the dock was a signpost, where visitors had painted and posted signs indicating locations from which they came and distances to them.

I especially liked this part of the signpost, with the sign reading, "I was here and I saw stuff." My feelings exactly!

Homes and rental units in the Cayman Islands are very colorful!

We saw lots of amusing signs throughout our visit. One of our first outings was to the Cayman Botanical Gardens, home to the endangered blue iguana, who evidently and occasionally take up residence under parked vehicles.

Here we are beginning our tour of the gardens.

I don't know if this is a tiny blue iguana or not, but he was the first reptile I saw on our tour, and he certainly is blue. He is also much, much, much smaller than the official guys we saw later.

I tried to be shorter than my spouse for part of the tour.

We found this rather large spider. He was dead, so I didn't mind exhibiting him, and no, I have no idea about the species. Seeing all the local flora and fauna, as you will learn, was one of the highlights of this trip for me.

Conch (pronounced "conk") and conch shells were something we encountered often during our trip. In the gardens, there was one area, where conch shells were used to decorate the edge of a walkway.

While touring the gardens, I stopped in a men's room along the way. When I went to wash my hands, this little guy poked his head up from the spillover hole in the sink. He didn't seem to mind my presence very much.

The gardens are filled with beautiful flowers and lots of other tropical plants.

Eventually, we came across a roaming blue iguana. Kathie named him Jerry.

Here is a movie of Jerry, taken as we passed him on the path through the garden. Jerry was about 3.5 feet long.

While resting along the path in a shelter covered with palm fronds, we heard what sounded like a cat, actually, one in some distress. When we looked up into the roof area, we spied another frog who had just been grabbed by a snake. You can see the frog hanging on for dear life. We were unsuccessful in interfering with Mother Nature's plans!

After our tour of the gardens, I posed with my lovely spouse near a fountain. We did check under the car for blue iguana before we departed.

For lunch, we went to a place called Over the Edge, right along the north shore.

I tried the conch steak. Really good!

Meanwhile, David tried turtle steak--a beefy taste. We shared bites, and I think we agreed mine was the preferred meal.

I said there were amusing signs here and there. This one was near a retirement or nursing home.

We visited Georgetown one day--the largest city on the island--which has many attractions designed to lure the daily visits from cruise ships. Pirate lore is one of the themes.

That same day, we visited a turtle farm. The sea turtles are fascinating creatures. The first ones we saw were as old as 50 years and more and are in a breeding facility. They probably weighed as much as 300 or 400 pounds each and were about 4' from head to tip of tail.

We fed them, so you can see their interest in the morsels we tossed their way in the video below.

Here are some of the smallest turtles we saw. These are about 6" across.

We were permitted to pick up the ones in the next pool, who were a couple of years old. They have amazing strength in terms of swimming and can be difficult to snag.

I was fascinated with their shells. They were just beautiful. The colors in this picture are pretty accurate.

In the evenings, when we were not out and about doing other fun things, we played cards--hand and foot of course.

I found this trail in the sand just off our patio one morning. I followed the trail but never found the little guy who made it. A turtle? Something else?

We visited the "Wreck of the Ten Sails." You can't see any evidence of the wreck out on the reef unless you dive, which we did not do, but there were other things to examine.

Another day was spent touring the birthplace of self government and democracy in the Cayman Islands. This home is an historic site of the Cayman Islands government and has been restored. I've never seen so much mahogany in one place--all the wood was mahogany, most of it quite beautiful.

Everywhere we went, there were chickens running about. I believe they were mostly unclaimed residents of the island. One wonders if they become dinners for some.

On our last day, we went to an area called Rum Point. The beach and the water there were especially beautiful.

One of the Rum Point watering holes is famous for its list of questions one should not ask. They are quite amusing. Maybe you will be able to read them (and the answers) if you click on the picture for a larger image.

While we waited for the boat that took us out for snorkeling to "Stingray City", Kathie took advantage of a hammock.

Once the boat got us well out to sea, we found this large gathering of other boats and many people standing on a 3' sandbar. This is the so-called "Stingray City." It is likely that most of these folks were on cruise ship tours. The four of us were lucky to have the exclusive attention of three crew members who seemed to know how to give us a much better visit.

We donned our snorkeling gear and entered the water too.

The area is called "Stingray City" because the rays congregate in this area looking for free food handouts. They have been doing this since sailors some hundreds of years ago began cleaning fish in this area and disposing of remains in the sea. (We were very far out from any land at this point.)

Here is what we saw when we looked down with our masks. (This is a borrowed picture--I did not have a waterproof camera along.) We fed pieces of squid to the rays, touched them, and played with them. The biggest ones were over 3' in diameter.

After that, our guides took us to another area, where we snorkeled above a coral formation crowded with fish of all kinds. The guide was able to coax a 4' green moray eel out to eat a plastic container full of squid. We all swam near him--Kathie even touched him--I did not. He was curious but not aggressive. Nevertheless, I felt better being with guides than I would have if I had encountered him while out alone. (This picture is borrowed from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Again, I didn't have a way to take my own underwater pictures.) Visiting "Stingray City" and seeing this guy were real highlights of our trip. We had snorkeled on our own two other days and enjoyed those outings too, but this guided trip was rather spectacular.

Our guide also demonstrated conch shell horns. I bought one! Being a former clarinet player, rather than a brass player, I don't have the right chops to play it well. I can get some sound, but I'm waiting for Henry or Pete to give it a try.

We had a wonderful time and are grateful to our friends for inviting us to join them. We did lots of other things, not mentioned above, such as eating great local dishes, such as the local lobster (spiny lobster), jerk chicken, rice and beans, conch steak, turtle steak, fish tea (a spicy fish stew), and cocoanut shrimp. I have many more pictures if anyone wants to see them sometime.