Cruise Report Part 2 of 4, Grand Cayman: In Which We Drive on the Wrong Side of the Road and Snorkel Again

A day after our Jamaican debacle, we awoke to a new port of call. Grand Cayman is the largest of three Cayman Islands, which either were or are protectorates of Great Britain. It sounds like someone had a little size fixation; Grand Cayman, Great Britain? Both are comparatively small islands.

Since Grand Cayman is/was British, it has a different culture from most of the other Caribbean islands. Where islands like Jamaica et. al. will sell their souls for American money, the Cayman Island Dollar (CI$) is actually worth more than the US Dollar. They also do wonky things there like drive on the left side of the road despite having American cars (with steering wheels on the left) and provide bank accounts that act as tax shelters for rich American folk.

Because of this highfalutin' British-esque snobbery, Grand Cayman is also one of the few ports where it is actually safe to walk around on your own without fearing for your life or your money. This was a good thing for us because we were not able to secure tickets to snorkel with the stingrays, which is Grand Cayman's number one tourist attraction. As a result, we planned on wandering about looking for our own amusement. Top notch eh old chap?

Unfortunately there are no docks large enough to support our cruise ship at Grand Cayman (guess it's not so Grand after all), so we were forced to take a shuttle tender to the shore and back. This provided scheduling problems, because the shuttles took about half an hour to run and the ship was leaving at 3:00 in the afternoon in order to make it to Grand Cayman on time.

Once we got to the island we walked around for awhile and found a tour place that promised a glass-hulled boat tour of shipwrecks and snorkeling on the coral reef. We were a little scared about the time that the trip left, though. It was supposed to finish at 2:30, which left us only half an hour to make it back to the pier to pick up the tender. We were convinced that we would be back on time, so we paid for tickets and then took a cab to the beach and lounged for awhile.

After a few currency conversion issues with various locals who wanted nothing to do with our cheap American money, we returned to take the snorkeling trip. This time the water was much clearer, although the reef was still mostly unimpressive. The shipwrecks were kind of cool, but there was no gold to be seen. While we were snorkeling the rain started to fall, which would be a precursor of events to come.

We returned to shore at 2:30 as promised and started running for the pier. This would prove to be unnecessary because the line to get on the shuttle tender wound around and out of the Port Authority. By this time the rain was falling harder, with some of the biggest raindrops I have ever felt. No one had umbrellas, of course, so the entire line of people was getting soaked. No one was very happy, and everyone was pushing and shoving to get on the next available shuttle. 3:00 came and went and there were still hundreds of people left at the pier, including us. An hour later, after we had been completely drenched, we got on what would be the last tender back to the ship.

At that point it was definitely hot tub time.

Next Time, Cozumel: Scuba Diving, Mexican Prostitutes, and Pikachu