Cruisin' 2004 Day 6 - Grand Cayman
Wow, what a day we have had! We woke up in the capital city of Grand Cayman this morning, Georgetown. Grand Cayman is the largest of the three islands forming the Cayman Islands and till this day is still a British colony. We did our usual routine this morning, getting up early, having the "Big B" (breakfast) and got ready for our excursion. Different than the Bahamas and Jamaica where we docked to a port and were able to walk off, all the ships in Georgetown are anchored off shore and we are taken in a boat (tendered) that holds approx 100 people to shore. The ride was nice and it gave us a great perspective of our ship, Voyager of the Seas. The winds were relatively calm today, so even at 8:30am it felt quite warm. It had reached over 30C today; thank goodness for the slight breeze so that we weren't totally snapping from the heat. Once we arrived ashore, we were organized into our tours for the day. We had chosen the Stingray City Tour to touch, feed and play with the stingrays. The bus ride was about 15 minutes to a marina area where a tour boat was waiting for us. We had a private tour with a group of eighteen and we headed off on a 30 minute "wet" ride to Stingray City! You would think that a city would be a place on land, but in this case, it is a large waist deep sandbar far from any shores. The waters are a beautiful clear agua color, and the temperature is practically tub temperature! There were dozens of boats in the small area, where we were given masks, snorkels, and floating jackets. Our tour guide had chopped up squid, their favorite food to lure them in. We were able to feed, hold and swim with them. There were dozens and dozens of stringrays around, they have become tame, and you can touch them as they swim by. Rhonda got in and had many of them swimming around and brushing her legs, she got to pet one too. Gary, Wendy and I went crazy diving and letting the rays come right up to you. Looking into their eyes as they brush by you was truly an amazing experience. As with the falls yesterday, we have some digital pics, but we used a roll of film with a waterproof camera above and below the surface; we will share those later. We headed headed back to the marina, and before long were back on a bus to Georgetown. Back in town, it was time for lunch and we had about three hours before needing to back at the boat for 3:30pm. We wanted to go to seven mile beach, so we did not want to spend to much time waiting for restaurant food. We asked around and found that a "Burger King" was only a five minute walk towards Seven Mile Beach. We headed off and got pretty hot walking in the hot sun, but enjoyed the air-conditioned "BK" and our quick meal. We were right on the water, so Gary headed out to the end of the parking lot and cast his rod into the coral reef area where we could see lots of beautiful tropical fish. The colors of the fish were amazing and it wasn't long before the lure of the bacon (from breakfast) couldn't be helped. Gary latched onto a pretty red fish, then let him go... It was time to catch a taxi and head to the beach, but wow what and experience, "Fishing at the Burger King". Three dollars each got us a couple of miles down the road to the one of the endless beach resorts along Seven Mile Beach. This resort was beautiful, and the beach was incredible with coral sand and translucent aqua water. Gary and I had some snorkelling gear and headed out to the deeps to check out the sea life. We were amazed by the number and diversity of the fish and dived down to get a close up. Tropical fish of all sizes and colors; reds, blues, yellows, whites and even striped ones. We also came across a large school (wall) of silverish fish that had to be 18-20" long. We followed them for as long as we could before they swam off into the distance. WOW! We took some time to take some pictures. Rhonda and I walked down the beach looking for rocks and shells to take home to Chandler and Connor. It was soon time to "dry up" and catch a taxi back to the dock for our tender ride to the ship. It was pretty neat to be able to see our ship (one of four anchored today) pretty well from anywhere we were. It sure is big! When we got back on board, we rested and got showered up to get ready for our formal evening dinner. After dinner we decided to head to bed early to see if we can catch up a little. It was a great day. Grand Cayman was a definate contrast to the other coutries we had visited. The country is very properous due to its huge tourism and banking industry. Everything was beautiful, clean, well developed and up to North American standards of living. Lots of wealth!"