It was a water shuttle ride to get to our first excursion: Best of Grand Cayman, a 3-stop tour by bus on a beautiful sunny day.
First stop was the Cayman Turtle Center, an “Island Wildlife Encounter”.
We very much enjoyed the turtle center. They are really huge and very old. We got to pet them too! The turtles are bred here after they were becoming very low in numbers. The hatchery was closed because it is out of season. They had a Cayman crocodile, native to this part of the Carribean. Not much to look at in a tiny bath sort of enclosure.
Paula: After a short ride, we arrived at our first stop of the day, Cayman Turtle Center. There are various pools with turtles divided by age. They have beautiful shells. There are 56 females of breeding age and 1 male. He must be a busy boy.
Once eggs are laid the mom walks away never having further contact. So humans collecting them does not disturb the process. The eggs are incubated and raised to a survivable size and released. In nature only 1% survive. Hard to believe a species can exist on such small successful growth numbers.
Sadly we were not here during the breeding season so there were no youngsters to visit. They would have been so cute!
There was an aviary and butterfly house, both with few occupants. May have been a seasonal miss.
Being Sunday, and January 1, the gift shop was closed. So we closed our wallets and hopped back on the bus.
“Stop and Shop” … That is what Paula and I would name the second stop. It was a very small shop. Once full of people a person could barely turn around, and island music was blaring from the modern form of a boombox. Yes, there were little bits of rum cake to taste. There were also flavors of rum to try. Mostly it was bottles of rum to purchase, rum cakes to purchase in various sizes, and the necessary touristy products. Paula did find some nice postcards.
Our last stop, as sometimes happens after life, was Hell. The town. You can mail postcards from Hell. It was Sunday, no mail today.
Paula bought some postcards and stamps, which she addressed and put in a basket to be mailed the next day. A week later and noone has received their cards yet, having gone to hell in a handbasket.
The view from Hell shows why they named it. It is on a high spot, and most people think it is volcanic/lava. It’s not. What is it?
Photos from Hell:
And back to the Ruby.
Day 5 was another at sea day with rest, trivia, cards, dominoes, meals, meet and greet and dinner followed by a show.