Grand Cayman was a scheduled “Jeff and Anne” adventure day. That means that we rent a car and try to see as much of the island as possible. Strangely, after Aruba, none of my family wanted to join us. 🙂

The big issue in Grand Cayman was going to be driving on the left side of the road. Anne said she would do it, but I decided I’d rather drive. A few days before were discussing this while walking around the ship and Anne made a comment about them driving on the “wrong” side of the road. A woman with a British accent immediately spoke up and said WE drove on the “wrong” side of the road. We enjoyed the laugh.

We got up early and got ready to go. We were second in line to get off the boat and take the tender boat to the dock. Once there we got some directions from the information lady about where we should go to call Avis to pick up the car. We took a short walk over and found that the place she suggested wasn’t open yet. Anne was determined though and went into a nearby shop and asked if she could use their phone. A few minutes later the Avis van arrived and we went over to their offices. We ended up getting this tiny little half-car, but it suited our needs.

We used the island’s caches as targets and drove pretty much the entire island. The first stop was The Caves of the Lost Pirate’s Booty. It was only a third of a mile from the road, but it turned out to be way more challenging than expected. First there was barely any trail and it was lined with thorny bushes on both sides. We lost the trail a few times and it was hot. What we found when we arrived was rewarding though. It was a set of huge caves, both with tree roots dripping over the front. There was supposedly a cache inside, but after crawling around in bat guano for a half hour we gave up. By the time we reached the car our legs were all cut up and they stayed rashy for a few days. Fun times.

We wanted to go check out Stingray City, a sandbar where tame stingrays hang out and allow you to feed and play with them. We ran out of time, but the rest of my family did a tour that included it and I made a copy of the video they bought of them.

(there’s no sound in the video)

The rest of the day was far less aggressive and enjoyable. We drove through the island’s only national park, which was basically a bunch of dirt roads by the water. We went the post office from Hell.

Overall, Grand Cayman is a picturesque island with white sandy beaches – pretty much what you imagine when you think of a Carribean island. Clearly they were still recovering from hurricane Ivan. We saw lots of trees with no tops and houses with no roofs. Many of the houses were for sale.

At the end of the day we finally put our snorkeleing equipment to use. The waters in the Devil’s Grotto were ok. Most of the coral was dead. I think we are just way too spoiled from when we went snorkeling in Fiji. It was far less populated there and the fish and coral were colorful and abundant.

The last boat back to the ship left at 5. We were on it, and we didn’t get there until a few minutes before it left. First ones off, last ones on. It was another exhausting but fun day, our last day in port before we returned to Miami.