George Town, Cayman Islands

Little bit o history.....

Grand Cayman is one of a group of three gorgeous tropical islands that Christopher Columbus called "Las Tortugas" (the turtles) as they are in abundance in the waters around the island. But later on the locals labelled the islands "Caimanau" which is the Indian word for "crocodile". This refers inaccurately to the iguanas that are native to the island which were probably mistaken as crocodiles at one point.

What we got upta.....

Tortuga not a million miles away. Feel fierce Piratey!

On this trip were my mam, dad, niamh, ray and myself. There is no question about it, there are plenty of banks on this tiny little island. Approx 600. These are not banks like you would be used to in the West but tiny little places. There is a lot of contrast here. We would see a hotel where loads of money would be pumped into it and across the road little huts and tiny houses where locals lived. Plenty of sunshine here, one very happy guy out painting his house a happy pink colour waving at everyone, half expected to see a Malibu truck going by somewhere.

We went to a Turtle farm first (since its all about the turtles here). Big ones, little ones, fat ones, turtles kept for breeding, turtles for eating (yuk!) and others to be released into the wild. It all goes on here. There was a chance to pick up some turtles and everyone did but me, couldn’t handle the flapping. Apparently turtles shag for 3 days! Gowan! And the female one usually dosen’t want to (don’t fuckin blame her…. 3 days!) so she is beaten to death by the male unless she agrees. The oldest one there was over 100 years old.

We visited the town of Hell. Wow, definitely one of the most unusual places I have been in my life. Ancient rock formations have created a crazy looking landscape that looks like …Hell! Its black and jagged and looks like its charred. It looks like volcanic rock but its very hard limestone and if it was immersed in water it would turn back snow white. But for the formations in this particular part of the island they are black as coal. There is a little post office there and we sent ourselves, to my old job and to our uncle Michael (he is a priest!) a postcard from hell. At least now I can say that I have been to Hell and Back!

After that we hit the Tortuga Rum Cake Bakery. Plenty of cake samples soaked in difference flavour rums. Being a big rum fan, and a big cake fan, I was fairly happy.

The locals on this island are lovely people. Its not at all like I pictured in my head. Crazy and colourful.

After our trip around the island we all went our separate ways to explore and see what we could get upto.

Mom, Dad and Niamh went off to go scuba diving and I had a look around the town. Ray didn’t come with us on this trip as rest was his main objective today. We had paragliding booked for later on so had a bit of time to chill out and have a look around.

George town is quite small and there are loads and loads of jewellery shops. Gold seems to be the main reason why people would stop over to shop here. I was starving and saw a Hard Rock café which is where I headed to. I know, I know, all the way across the world and I end up in an English franchise. Got a Harley Davidson top (for the rock and roll night on the cruise ship) and enjoyed lunch all by myself looking out at the Caribbean waters!

Time was coming up for the paragliding. Headed back to the port to board the speedboat which would bring us out. No sign of Ray! Started getting worried when the lads were pointing to their watches telling me they were gona have to go. Got talking to this guy that was there who was by himself (you paraglide in pairs) and we partnered up together. I had great fun but wasn’t the same without himself. Once we got back to shore there he was looking more sorry he had let me down rather than miss the paragliding. It was a tender boat bringing people to George Town and he was racing against time and lost! Couldn’t be helped.

The folks and Niamh came back from scuba diving and all had great fun. Pictures were amazing and Niamh got a fright when a barracuda came swimming towards her. If ever I was to go scuba diving it should have been on this trip but there was just so much more to see and do. I will have to come back. Any excuse.