Cayman Islands

Just another beautiful sunset at the beach.

Okay, this hardly counts as a “western adventure” to fit our blog theme unless you are navigationally challenged Christopher Columbus thinking he has discovered the “West Indies”, but in keeping with our travelogue accounting and to celebrate our very first international trip since the pandemic, here are some pictures to get you in the mood for spring and summer.

Suzie had visited the Cayman Islands some 30+ years ago with a girlfriend, but we have never travelled there together and to acknowledge and celebrate Max’s upcoming undergraduate college graduation, we took him in tow for his Spring Break vacation. We managed to get into the Caymans just as it was opening up from the pandemic, so tourism and most critically cruise ships were just beginning to return to the island making our visit pleasantly idyllic without throngs of people roaming around.

Alright, yes, we have the ubiquitous beach pictures as we had a nice townhome on the beach where we spent many an afternoon playing games, sampling the local rums, snorkeling and swimming. There is a Tortuga Rum factory on the island replete with a plethora of different flavored rum cakes and many flavors of rum to try out. But wait, it gets way more interesting than this!

On the night we arrived, we were greeted by a full moon peaking around a palm on the beach.

Ethan and Max relaxing on the beach at our townhome

Vegetation from the sea washed up every day, making it a never-ending job for the locals to clean up.

We had a few short rain episodes, but mostly sun the entire week. This rainbow was especially beautiful.

Ethan and Max at the Tortuga Rum factory. We sampled many of the rum cakes, yum!

Though we were told the blowholes had been damaged by a recent hurricane that reduced their impressiveness. Hmm, still impressive to me!

Suzie jumping into the water at Smith’s Cove

It wouldn’t be a Gannett vacation without some adventures. Our first adventure was a nighttime kayak trip to a bioluminescent bay that was out of this world. We got in some great stargazing on the short paddle down to the bay, Ethan showing off his knowledge of Astrophysics by helping the kayak guide point out Betelgeuse and the Orion Nebula.

As we paddled into the bay and away from the lights of the surrounding multi-million-dollar houses, we noticed our paddles starting to glow with every stroke. Excited from being disturbed, the miniscule dinoflagellate Pyrodinium Bahamense glows neon blue. This species of phytoplankton is found only six places in the world, many of which are in the Caribbean where they have an ecosystem perfectly fitting for them to flourish. Some visually stimulating images can be evoked by playing with the phytoplankton in the water, the most striking of which is grabbing some water in your hand, lifting it up, and letting the blue “alien blood” trickle down your arm like a scene from Avatar.

It was difficult to capture the image of the bioluminescence with cameras while kayaking, but Max managed to catch this blue glow of my paddle against the red background of my kayak.

Another adventure was the swim with a fever, yes that’s the right term for a group, of stingrays in Stingray City. An early morning pontoon boat ride out to a sandbar off the coast of Starfish Point gave us an exclusive time with a couple dozen stingrays before any other boats arrived.

Now you are thinking, wow Ethan, you saw some stingrays, big deal. NO, that’s not the adventure; SWIMMING with the stingrays is the adventure! Your mind now switches to those last few minutes of Steve Irwin’s life as he clumsily jumps on top of a stringray to “ride” it only to get his heart pierced by the pissed-off stingray’s barbed stinger. Are you out of your mind, Ethan? No, I sent Max in first of course! Kidding aside, despite his storied career as an animal advocate, Mr. Irwin did everything wrong in that fatal scene. A stringray, similar to a bee, is perfectly harmless unless agitated to defend itself. In fact, these stingray come soaring over to the boat when they hear the motor approach as they know its feeding time!

Like a squadron of stealth bombers, the stingray quietly approach as they hear the motors of the boat, feeding time!

Yes, they love being hand fed tiny squid. Holding the squid in your fist with its tantalizing tentacles flopping out of the top of the fist, the stingrays glide up and vacuum, SLURP!!!, the squid right out of your hand. The stringray actually are like cats as they swim by and nudge your ankles with their fins or swoop around you and then come from behind to suck up the delectable treat in your hand. Local fish get into the action too. It was quite an exhilarating experience.

While feeding the rays, we could handle them as well, their soft smooth skin was surprising to stroke

Yes the rays do have tiny teeth, but unless you jammed your fist into their mouth or pulled away suddenly, their suction was enough to get the squid out of your hand without nary a bite.

You haven’t seen the beauty of the island without stopping by the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park which has colorful gardens, orchid gardens, and a local sand garden to celebrate the heritage of the Caymanians. Here there is a blue iguana sanctuary, but you can also run into these iguanas running wild around the island. The pictures tell the whole story here. I have done my best to identify each flower, but if I get one wrong, let me know.

A nearly uprooted palm tree makes for a picturesque vantage point as Ethan and Max hang out

A lone green lizard ascends the side of a palm tree

Orchid. Unfortunately the orchid garden was just beginning to bloom, so we didn’t get the full show.

Uncarina grandidieri, you can say that again!

Tecomanthe dendrophila, that’s a mouthful!

This is a traditional Cayman Hut which is at the center of the sand garden, a local’s garden that largely is planted in the sand.

The kitchens for the huts were always outside the house itself, thatched and airy; they were a good place to cook on a hot island day.

This bridge leads to the walk through the forest where, if you are lucky, you may spot an elusive blue iguana

A blue iguana, this is a young one. In the gift shop is a picture of Prince Charles with the granddaddy blue iguana probable three times this size.

I leave you with a few ethereal images of starfish off of the aforementioned Starfish Point. This coastline near Rum Point once housed hundreds of starfish in the sandy shallows, now only a handful remains. The starfish are still beautiful to behold, but troubling in their reduced numbers.