GRAND CAYMAN

January 13-20, 2007

Cayman! With everything to love-warm weather and waters, snorkeling and multicolored fishes, pastel houses, yellow, pink, and aqua, as well as bright tangerine, limelight green, and luminous turquoise. The purple house at left is just one example. Add to this some comical lizards, iguanas crossing streets, roosters and chickens foraging curb sites, turtles, frogs, and more, and the combination is unbeatable!

We had searched online and found us the perfect spot to stay (truly), the Turtle Nest Inn in Boddentown (once the capital of Cayman and now a small quiet village with an aqua post office). The Turtle Nest is right on a large sandy beach, and also has a turquoise pool, and appears as a large villa. Having only 8 suites it is truly "intimate and elegant". We had registered late (the Turtle Nest fills up months ahead) and so actually lived in two different parts of the villa and also had two nights at Sea Spray Cottage, which Marleine and Alain also manage. While it took time to pack and repack the extra two times, we felt we really got a good taste of different locations, and that was interesting. What was so lovely was the interior decoration, the warmth of the rooms, and the fact that everything was there, from the colorful pottery in the kitchens to the beach towels and coolers.

The only misconception we had was that we figured we could just hop outside and snorkel any time. Granted we hadn't really done this (much) before, but we pictured calm waters and lazy floating. Whoops! We happened to be there during a week of very high winds, so that although the waves crashing on the far side of the reef were 6-8 feet tall, there were still fairly good wavelets and strong currents even within the protected part of the reef near shore. The winds were so strong that boat trips to Sting Ray City had been cancelled just before we arrived! So if you are new to an area and don't know what's underneath and if you are not a strong swimmer, it takes a bit of time (experience/courage) to venture out far!

Having said that, venture we did, both in the water, and on land. We put about 600 miles on our rental car in a week, and so saw a lot of Cayman (considering the island is only 22 miles long). Driving on the left side of the street (Cayman is part of the British West Indies). I did not drive at all, mercifully! We experienced so much-and with the video camera, my 35 mm., and a new digital with underwater housing, we had fun recording things-both Turtle Nest and Sea Spray Cottage had "entertainment centers" in the rooms so that each night we could see the videos and digital photos of the day on our own TV!

We spent hours at Boatswains Turtle Farm-and I got to pick up and hold darling green turtles, juveniles about a foot or 1 ½ feet in diameter. They were fun to hold, albeit surprisingly heavy. There are all sizes and ages there, from the huge breeding turtles to the tiny babies. Their shells are outstandingly beautiful and I am very glad that they release numbers of these sweet endangered creatures into the ocean each year. Boatswains also has large pools, gardens, and a great little aviary, where the friendly aviary keeper pointed out all the nests which I would never have been able to find by myself and where I got to have a monk parakeet perch on me and walk about.

I had two submarine trips in the Atlantis which drops to a coral and sandy 100 foot bottom The day trip shows tropical fishes' activities; the night trip focuses on those creatures awake then, including a huge predator the night I went (which unfortunately caught a colorful parrotfish). It was kind of exciting venturing out in the tender to the submarine in the dark and walking the gangplank over to the Atlantis submarine, the lights of Georgetown twinkling from the shore. My underwater photos did not look good however, mainly because as you go deeper underwater, you "lose" colors, and in the end, everything looks blue!

On the other hand, the photos I took close up underwater, of the fabulous Southern Sting Rays, came out great! We made two different trips on the Fantasea-a trimaran, under the hand of Captain Dexter and Mate Don. First we went to Sting Ray Sand Bar and I got to play with, feed, and even "cuddle" Daisy, Captain Dexter's favorite sting ray. Daisy had been cut several years before by a propeller and was dying, when Capt. Dexter nursed her back to health by force feeding her bits of squid. I'd been under the misconception that the whole tail was "deadly"; in reality the stinging barb is a short, thin, dagger-like projection found where the tail is attached to the sting ray's body.

The sting rays of Sting Ray Sandbar and Sting Ray City have long been used to human/sting ray interaction and they swim up, looking like an underwater ballet, eager for food (pieces of squid Don had in a plastic bag). Feeding them feels like being sucked by a very strong baby, a baby with a sandpaper rough mouth. I fed the rays a lot! The white underpart of the rays are baby soft-so unbelievably smooth. You can be feeding two rays in front of you and suddenly one comes up behind you and strokes your bathing-suit-bare back with his/her velvety white skin. You are very surprised and tickled into giggling! What fun! I also snorkeled over them, avoiding the barb, so that I could get some good underwater shots.

After Sting Ray Sandbar, we boated about 5 minutes to Coral Garden which is perhaps 12-15 feet deep, and part of the reef. There we'd snorkel for 45 minutes to an hour. Captain Dexter's trips are very relaxed, you have more time, and there are less people than on many of the excursions to Sting Ray City/ Sand Bar/Coral Garden. The waters both Tuesday and Friday were still very wavy, so I had to watch drifting too far. But oh, how amazing it is! It was just as clear as looking at the fishes in a great aquarium, only now I was part of their world. I must have seen 15-20 species of reef fishes. Sergeant Majors, Queen Triggerfish, Black Durgons, French Grunts, Blue Chromis, Rock Beauty, cleaner Wrasse, Harlequin Bass, and many more. And I saw a very colorful Bicolor Damselfish with his tail fin area luminous! I saw either a male Stoplight Parrotfish or Rainbow Parrotfish gnawing at the coral. A scarlet squirrel fish with really huge eyes! Lots of striped fish (both horizontal and vertical). It was great! It was hard to return to Fantasea having left a real marine fantasy land. Then Capt. Dexter and Don raised the foresail and we headed for port, a lovely 45 minute sail into the almost-sunset. I actually saw a large turtle swimming off in the distance, something Capt. Dexter said you don't see too often.

On this trip at various locations I was made aware of some of the many different coral formations, such as the staghorn coral, the elkhorn coral, vase coral, tube coral, fan coral, and brain coral. I was happy when I saw blue, red, yellow, and orange-yellow coral, because unfortunately much of it was brownish (not a healthy sign, I believe).

As for sunsets, we watched lovely ones from different parts of Cayman, including the patio of our own lovely Turtle Nest Inn, but also the patio of Sea Spray Cottage, the Kaibo Yacht Club (open to the public) open air restaurant on the beach, and even from Georgetown, waiting for the Night Atlantis trip. The waves are lovely-and one afternoon we caught the Blowhole action on the way to Rum Point. Quite amazing!

Another memorable afternoon we spent at Pedro St. James Castle. It is the oldest building on the island and was not only the estate of several important island personages, but also served as the capital building, where Caymanian democracy began, as well as a jail and even, for a short while, a restaurant. The building, three stories high, with a stone core, is surrounded by verandas where one could sit and enjoy the views of the ocean and surrounding gardens and houses, as well as have the breezes. A particularly exciting and moving multimedia show gave one an idea of the history of the building and much of Grand Cayman. It was lovely to walk anywhere in the "castle" and around the grounds and outbuildings, wherever you wanted. Also much of the handsome estate furniture, dishware, and even toys were there.

Did I mention the weather? It was in the low eighties during the day, but did not feel overly warm as the humidity must have been low and there were all those winds. At night the temperature would "fall" to 76 or 78.

I have to mention a darling little frog which would adhere itself to the sliding glass door at Sea Spray Cottage at night; how it managed to climb up sheer glass was amazing! One night when I came in I'd forgotten his night time excursions and so he fell onto my head when I opened the door! For a four inch frog he made huge 3-4 foot leaps around the room. When he finally rested on a (vertical) wall I popped a big blue paper cup over him, slid a piece of paper under the cup, and so was able to safely transport the little fellow outside again.

And chickens and roosters were all over-mostly by the curb sites, and even in busy Georgetown. Very colorful roosters. This seems to be an island thing wherever you go-Cayman, Key West, Hawaii. Laidback relaxed roosters scavenging insects.

Enough of this for now-I enjoy thinking about Cayman and imagining myself once again exploring the coral for pretty fishes and/or being tickled by southern sting rays!!