We docked at 7 AM and there were tenders all day long to ferry passengers to and from Grand Cayman. The ship has to drop anchor further out as it's too shallow for a proper port close to the island. Tenders ran back and forth all day like busy little ants.
The little boat to the left is a coast guard type of boat or a pilot boat, the tender is the tiny one snuggled up the ship, in the middle. I'm not sure what the small black thing is, over to the right. A periscope? Checking for money launderers?
Apparently during the busy season there are 6-8 big cruise ships anchored there at a time, making for extremely busy tours, streets in town, long waits for a tender and so on. There was one other ship when we were there, and it left before us. Another huge plus for going in the off season.
A clean and colorful place.
We met up with our tour guide and bus, a very tiny group today, hoorah! I think most people wanted to tender in and out, and shop at all the fancy stores. Apparently watches are "the thing" to buy here. Patel Phillipe, TagHeurer, Cartier, Blancpain, Chopard and even the "lowly" Rolex, which is #12 of the top 15 watches to purchase here.
I guess whatever floats your boat (hahaha, cruise humour), but a watch is a watch is a watch. I don't understand people who need to have the best of everything, but that's a rant for another day.
(As a side note, when I was in Lichtenstein, I discovered that "the thing" to purchase there is false teeth. More false teeth industry in that teensy little country than the rest of the world. How odd.)
We stopped at the legendary 7 Mile Beach (which I'd actually never heard of) to learn that it's only 5.5 miles long! Scandalous!
There was an unattended stall selling conch shells, no price so I'm not sure how much they were, but I am pretty sure that we can't bring them into Canada anymore. I have two from years ago when we were in the Bahamas, and we paid $2 each. I imagine they are worth much more than that now.
Then we went to Hell. It's the actual name of the place, the story is: back in the 1500's the first explorer who saw this place said "What the Hell?" 😕. Obviously not quite the truth, and it's now just a kitschy tourist attraction, but it did look sort of hellish and it was certainly as hot as Hell. But they stamp your passport, and I was overly and ridiculously thrilled with that. Doesn't take a lot to thrill me.
When in Rome....
And the reason they call it Hell:
It was a bit of an eerie sight.
They have a post office here and it's popular to send a postcard home "from Hell", but I wasn't interested. The passport stamp was what I wanted.
Anyhow, after that short and strange little stop, we headed to a rum factory. A rum and cake factory actually. Unusual combination, and more of a kick-back shopping stop for the tour guide than anything else, but we did have samples of both rum and cake. There were 2 types of rum, plain and pineapple. I tried the pineapple and oh my god, to my surprise it was like nectar of the gods! Thick and sweet and like a pineapple liqueur. The cake was saturated in it, as well as having it in the batter before baking, and it was just as fabulous, even more because, well, it was cake!
As I've said, I'm no shopper, but man, did I want one of these. They actually have enough liquor in them that you can become impaired by eating a few slices, not "tipsy" drunk, but enough to show in a blood alcohol test. "But officer, I swear, I only had cake today..." That's what they told us anyhow, not sure how true it is, but the ones they sell at the store are not the same "quality" as the ones on the website, so maybe they do have more booze in them. The ones you order online have 1% alcohol.
They called this a "tour" of the rum and cake factory, and it wasn't really a tour, you could look through windows and see the cakes being made, and the same with the rum, but it was still a fun stop to get to have a few samples, plus the store had fabulous air conditioning. Whew.
For those that bought booze, it was delivered to the ship and taken somewhere to be stored until disembarkation. It is very much against the rules to bring alcohol onto the ship by yourself. A few of the ports had duty free shops, as well as the ship itself, and all the liquor you buy is set aside for you until you leave the ship.
Still more to do today. We hopped back on the little bus and headed over to a sea turtle rescue/breeding "farm".
They were so big! The facility was initially used to breed the endangered green sea turtle for commercial purposes. By raising the turtles in a farming operation, the turtle meat could be produced for local consumption without depleting the wild population of the species. It sounds sort of harsh, but it's no different than raising cattle, pigs, sheep etc for consumption in North America.
"Although still in operation as a farm for raising turtles in order to sell product, the Cayman Turtle Centre has been developed into an important research project and conservation facility." (From their website)
So these giant sea turtles are all rescues, and not going to be eaten.
They also breed them and release the babies once they are old enough to survive. It was a huge 23 acre compound, you could spend a whole day there, if one had the time and the inclination, of which I had neither.
Steven was allowed to hold a young one, but they struggle, so he had to lean over the tank in case it struggled it's way to freedom, however his promptly fell asleep as soon as he picked it up.
There was also a odd (to me) amount of chickens and roosters there.
Just strolling into the shade.
Posing nicely.
It was soooo hot that even the iguanas were hiding in the shade.
We were then ushered into the gift shop, as you know, the exit is almost always through the gift shop and people just shop like crazy. I used that time to find a washroom and also to buy a cold drink.
After that we headed to a small dock and boarded a boat to go.....TA-daaaah! Swimming with stingrays.
Now. Let's have a quick chat about cavorting with wild animals. It's something I vehemently disagree with, I would never swim with dolphins, I won't go to a zoo or a sea park. Certainly some rescue organizations are legit and helpful, but the majority of them are not. They're businesses and in it for profit. We do not have "the right" to see animals in captivity, bottom line.
So you're thinking, "Well, Ms Hypocrite, were you not at a turtle farm just two hours ago?" Why yes, yes I was. And they have indeed rescued hundreds of sea turtles, but you are not allowed to swim with them or touch them. They will be re-released back into the ocean. They are the ones who have been injured by propellers, plastic bags, refuse in the sea, fishing nets and lines etc. The ones we were allowed to touch are the ones who are farmed, which, before you scream "EEEK! Cruel!", it's no different than petting a calf or pig or lamb that will end it's life in a supermarket. Sea turtles are raised in these islands as a sustainable food product. So there.
Anyhow, back to the stingrays. When I first saw this as a shore excursion I thought it seemed like a really amazing experience, and when I did a bit of research I was happy to see that they are not in any sort of an enclosure, to the contrary, they are out in the ocean, and it's hit or miss as to if you will see any. They come and go as they please. Like whale watching off our coast.
So I signed us up, I didn't tell Steven as I knew he'd love it and be bitterly disappointed if it didn't pan out, weather wise as well as stingray wise. I sort of wanted it to be a surprise.
So we waited on the shore for out little boat to come for us. This little boat came from nowhere, we got on and rode for 30 minutes towards the horizon. I wasn't sure how the whole thing was going to work, especially since there were no visible life jackets, I'm wondering how the "swimming" part was going to pan out when you're 30 miles out to sea with no life jackets.
To my surprise, there is a sandbar out there, with the water only 3-4 feet deep. Our guy just hopped right out and stood with the water up to his waist. He gave us instructions on how to touch a stingray...only on their edges and "wings", not the middle or their tails. We were not allowed to wear any sort of watershoes or sandals, I guess in case you accidentally stepped on one, so as not to cause an injury. As he was telling us this, a whole group of them swam right over. A group of stingrays is called a "fever". There must have been 30 or more, a couple were the size of a large dinner plate, but others were huge, easily kitchen table sized. We were told to jump in, so we did.
The stingrays swam over to us right away, and brushed against us, undulating around our legs, actually pushing us over into the water. They appeared at an alarming rate, all around us. They were so soft, like fuzzy, warm rubber. It was the weirdest thing. It was amazing. Have you ever seen a stingrays "face"? Adorable....
(Not my picture, I didn't have my camera in the water)
They would come right up to the surface and smack their wings, or fins, or whatever that part of them is called, on the water. We were given a piece of squid and had to hold it in your fist, with your thumb tucked in and the squid sticking out. Our guy reiterated a few times "Thumbs in! Thumbs in!" Well, holy cow, when the creature takes it, he (or she...) he sucks it in and the suction is unreal...I'm sure your thumb would be gone along with the squid if it wasn't tucked in. Even with it's mouth underwater you could hear the gurgle of the suction. Very cool. They are incredibly docile and sort of reminded me of cats, rubbing around your ankles.
Of course I accidentally stepped on a tail and had a moment of Steve Irwin fear, but I survived with only two tiny scratches. I figured the salt water would clean any germs, and apparently it did because I'm still here with my foot intact. I didn't say anything to anyone, so my death would have been a mystery.
My stingray injury on the arch of my foot. 😊😊
The water was so warm and so crystal clear with big waves that sort of rolled you over into a fever of stingrays, it was the best day ever. Something I'm sure I'll never do again.
After it was all over we took the little boat 30 miles back to shore and took our tender back to the ship and tidied up for dinner. For a starter I had a yucca fritter stuffed with spicy beef, as did Steven and we had chateaubriand for our main, and a Grand Marnier Soufflé with vanilla bean sauce. Mmmmmmm.
The entertainment was a comedian/guitar player, he was really very funny, one of the better shows.
Oh, I forgot this story. When we were in our room earlier, Steven wanted to see the airport transfers, which annoyed me because they were all packed away, but he insisted, so I grudgingly got up and dug them out of my suitcase. I had booked them weeks ago, along with all of our shore excursions, and I had booked everything very, very carefully, checking times again and again because once you hit that "purchase" button, your credit card is charged.
He says "Oh. I didn't know were were flying out of Miami." And I said "Ha-Ha. Not funny."
He says "I thought it was Ft Lauderdale" and again my comment is "Not funny." He handed me the vouchers. Well, fuck. It says Miami. How could I have possibly not noticed?
I flew down to the shore excursion desk and of course they were closed for the next few hours. I was a mess thinking that this was going to cost me big bucks.
After a restless and nervous wait, they opened and I was first in line and when I explained what I had done, she said "Oh. No problem, I can change that in a jiffy." And she did. I'm sure my sigh of relief could be heard all over. Can you imagine if he hadn't noticed until we were at the airport? Yikes.
Anyhow, I slept well after that, and tonight we change the clocks again!!
Good night.
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