Sting Ray City

Thursday we pulled into Grand Cayman. Unlike Jamaica and Cozumel, we are not able to dock to disembark; therefore, we tendered into the port. There were four large cruise ships lined up with us, two from carnival and two from Royal Caribbean. It's a pretty impressive site to see such large vessels lined up as if in a parking lot.

Our group was one of the first ones off of the ship since we had purchased an excursion consisting of a visit to Sting Ray City and snorkeling over one of the reefs. Stingray city is a large sand bar which remains submerged under the ocean. The depth, however, is about four feet, enough to stand up and be out of the water. In the past, local fishermen would clean their catch of the day at this sand bar, and not too surprisingly, sting rays would then congregate there to eat the bits that the fishermen would throw overboard. Since that time, sting rays have continued to gather there, and it is a favorite tourist destination because of the close interaction with the rays (see the attached photo of our group). Our guide had a floating bucket of sliced squid, a sting ray delicacy. From that bucket, we would be able to feed the rays as they swam up to the shallow area. In order to feed them, you would hold the squid in the palm of your hand with your fingers wrapped around the squid. Next, you would hold your hand by the sting ray's mouth, and with the force of several vacuum cleaners, the ray sucks up the food being held within your closed fist. One second the squid food is there...the next second, it's gone. It's really quite remarkable. They also warn you not to wipe your squiddy hand on your leg or swim suit because the sting rays will smell it and then come over to apply suction wherever they smell squid.

The final part of the outing was some time spent snorkeling over one of the reefs. Different varieties and colors of coral and fish were there as far as the eye could see. I saw some parrot fish, conch shells, brain & fan coral, etc., etc. I was surprised that the guide said you could gather shells if they weren't “occupied.” I suppose I'm used to leaving everything in situ for the next person to come along and see. It's also the law at least along the Florida reefs.

We finished up the land part of our Grand Cayman stop with some jerk chicken sandwiches, drinks, and some conch fritters. I was pleasantly surprised that the conch fritters were as good as they were. They looked like little hush puppies accompanied with a spicy jerk sauce.

After tendering back to the ship and collapsing for a nap, it's time to get ready for the last formal dinner night on board. Sandro, the dinner waiter, is from Peru, and he seemed surprised/pleased that we had dined on cuy and anticucho de corizon before. I suppose it's safe to say that those two items have not made onto the dinner menu.

Jamaica Me Crazy

The first port of call was Jamaica. I have never been but have always been curious to see what all is there. There were several options for shore excursions, e.g. the Applewood Rum distillery, Ocho Rios with it's long cascading falls, etc. For the morning, we decided to check out Jimmy Buffet's Margaritavlle. It is a combination of food of the Jamaican variety and water amusement. As one would guess they served margarita's and the food was decent. We had some calamari and nachos. For this trip, why I don't know, I haven't been following my usual food precautions. That means, I've had ice in drinks, eaten dairy products, and also had some green leafy vegetables. I'm hoping that I won't pay for it later. Associated with Margaritaville is a 2-3 story water slide and a swimming area with some enormous trampolines that you can bounce from into the water. I, however, with my fresh burn decided to stay in the shade, with my total body sunblock application and wearing a long sleeve broadcloth shirt. Being left in the shade with a margarita and food wasn't a bad option.

We went back to the ship for lunch—see the running theme. For the afternoon, we had purchased an excursion which consisted of riding a cable and pulley system through the Jamaican rain forest. I've done several high ropes type courses, rappelling, etc., but this was the first canopy top cable system. Needless to say it was a lot of fun. One of the runs was from platform to platform high up in the canopy of the rain forest. As for safety, they had a double cable system—independent from each other—so that if one broke, the second would serve as back up. There were 6 runs in all with a few of them being several hundred feet long. The last one ran across the top of a river valley with the river and trees probably at least 100 feet or more below....very exhilarating.

To round out my Jamaica stop, I did in fact find a box to add to my box collection. It is of the arts-and-crafts variety being hand carved mahogany.

Shipping off

Well, we've been at sea for the last two days. The forced relaxation was a nice thing. As a friend is fond of saying, “Isn't it a wonderful thing to do nothing, and then rest afterwards.” That probably typifies the last two days.

The trip is a conglomeration of med school friends, with the cruise being an extension of the our ten year reunion. My how time flies. Tom started to see if people were interested about a year ago. Quite a few expressed interest, but when push cam to shove, only four of us from our class (six total in the group) ended up going.

The last two days consisted of eating, shows, bingo, eating, some craps, eating, sleeping... During one of the talks on the upcoming ports of call, I came across an interesting saying for the first two stops, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, since they were former British colonies: “Drive on the left and you'll always be right, drive on the right and there won't be much of you left.”

While on the cruise, I had some grand plans to get a little sun. When younger (since I really haven't tried to tan in recent years) I would lay out initially for about 30 minutes a side. Usually I'd start in June and then add time on after a base coat. Well, I thought that 15 minutes a side for a total of one hour would be a good start. I thought, “It's March and the rays shouldn't be that strong.” Well, whether it's that we are further south, there isn't the Dallas haze to absorb the sun's rays or some other combination of factors to precipitate the perfect storm, I got a nice burn. Fortunately it isn't too bad and it already seems a bit better—two days on. From now on, I'll be putting on the 1 Billion SPF that I should have been doing from the start. I know that will be enough, because that's what I used in Cambodia where we spent probably eight hours a day out in the sun.

Today, Wednesday, we have arrived in Jamaica. The three groups on the cruise were out on the balcony as the ship was docking at the pier. The small Coast Guard boat was cruising past when Tom decided, embarrassingly funny as always, to yell, “Yo Mon!!!” It didn't get a reply—if they could even hear us.