Leg 3 - Grand Cayman

Flying over the Caribbean on our way to Grand Cayman
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Hi everyone!!

We arrived at Grand Cayman at around 14:15 at proceeded to take a helicopter tour at 14:30. Whirlwind (excuse the pun), to say the least!!

Nicki still felt a little ill from the plane ride (you know she doesn't travel well), but Daryl went up with Terry & Tiffany (our hosts for the two weeks, Terry and Daryl stayed in digs together during university), as well as friends of theirs, Adam (from PE) & Cassandra (from Philly).

It was absolutely amazing!! A little hairy, doing some free falls and 360's, but still amazing!! We had a tour of most of the island (its only about 30 km's long) and saw: Stingray City (a sandbar where you can interact with sting-rays) - we should be going on Sunday to play with the rays; an Eagle ray; sharks swimming in the ocean; and the most beautiful array of blue water you have ever seen - see pics.

Flying over the Stingrays at Stingray City in the helicopter
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Later on Terry and I went snorkelling. From about 1m into the ocean you start seeing a whole variety of tropical fish. Angel fish, Trumpet fish, Parrot fish, Tarpon, Sergeant Majors, etc. Quite amazing! Since then we've also seen lobster and sting ray while snorkelling - the major omission at this stage is a turtle (hopefully we'll see one before we leave). I would show pictures of the fish, but we know the limitations of our digital camera, espceially when dropped!! Just for you Heed!! And Jon!!

Jet ski's and blue ocean from the helicopter
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And that was day one!!

Since then its been snorkelling, eating out at all the fancy bars and restaurants, watching our new friends from Af playing in a local tennis tournament, and plenty of chilling!!

That's it so far, will update this blog later in the week!! Thanks so much for everyone responding to the site, please continue to follow us on our travels!!!

UPDATE:

Pirate ship and more blue from the helicopter
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Every night of the first week was spent at the Cayman Island Tennis Club. We were there supporting our two Saffa's, in the men's singles, but they didn't even come close! What plonkers!! Just kidding!! It was cool hanging out with fellow people from Af again.

The days saw more snorkelling, lunches on the beach (with Terry joining us in his work clothes on the beach - after taking his scooter there, a classic Petyt!!) and other similar activities when one is on a tropical island!!

I must digress just to mention, for memory lane, how Terry and Daryl got stuck without petrol on the scooter. Small Terry on the front, bigger Daryl on the back, in helmets (one of them NOT a scooter helmet), already funny, then walking in the road pushing the scooter the last two km's to the tennis courts. What a sight!!

After the flight
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Other notable things we did: Calico Jack's for the Full Moon party (met Lee from Watford, thumbelievable!!); lobster diving (Terry got 'lost' and we spent 20 minutes looking for him); Daryl ran the 'Cayman Island Relay' for the KPMG team (the team ended up 6th out of about 40 teams, not too shabby); watched the Superbowl at Donny and Addie's; played tennis; awesome beer up the bum chicken at the Bayley's; etc.

Tourist things we did included the following (you must be able to tell from my writing style that I am an accountant):

Daryl & Terry after the 1st snorkel
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* Turtle Farm - yep, "FARM". This awesome place where you get to see thousands of turtles being bred for food and release back into the wild. It was great getting such a close and long look at so many turtles, some of them absolutely huge. Since 1980 they have released about 30,000 turtles back into the wild, but their main task is breeding turtles for food, in a hope that it will stop the hunting of the turtles in the wild. * Hell - a barren place where there are these black dolomite/limestone rocks in the middle of all this vegetation. The burning sun and the algae on the rocks makes it black. Not hugely exciting, but we can now say we've been to hell and back. STRIKE! * Butterfly Farm - this time, not FARM as in eating (I don't think). Pretty cool, went with Adam and Nahah ('Hannah' backwards, apparently). * Botanical Gardens - pretty cool, nothing like those in SA though. Did have to wait under a fake thatch (so kitsch, as Nicki loves to say) while the cartoon rain passed. * Caibo and Rum Point - typical view of paradise. Blue water (ideal for snorkelling), long jetties out into the ocean, shady trees under which to have lunch, etc. God, what an amazing artist.... Daryl must get some kind of medal for convincing both Nicki and Nahah to snorkel. * Jolly Roger - took a sunset cruise out along Cayman's shores and got the SA bartender to play some SA songs, including "IMPI" - what a definite!! Afterwards went to Next Level, a club and danced until the wee hours of the morning. A car hit Terry & Tiff's car on the way out, drunken locals. Terry was his hilarious self!! * Stingray City - WOW! We took a boat out to the bay on the northern side of the island to Stingray City. You get out the boat and there are hundreds of stingrays swimming all about you. You get to feed them, touch them, play with them. One of them even bit my finger. What a blast! An amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience. Also went snorkelling, ate some raw conch and watched a lobster being hooked (illegal I think). Had such an amazing day with all our friends out on the water.

Nicki and Tiff waiting for their men to finish snorkelling
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That's Cayman in a nutshell, well, kind of. We had so much fun and it was awesome to do some serious relaxing (oxymoron, nice!). It was great spending time with our on kind again, especially our old friends Terry & Tiff. Next up, Orlando and all of its man-made, consumerism-consumed glory.

Bye for now!!!

PS Quick mention that my first entry in the Cayman blog above made it onto the editor's pick of the day!! That also caused it to be published on this one San Fran travel magazine web site. Maybe there is a future career for me in this someday!!