My next trip, Grand Cayman

byMCicch1

113 followers

5 months ago

April 29th, I go to Grand Cayman. there will be another blog about it on my website. Between now and my next journey, I will be viewing all necessary training modules so, in the meantime, anyone who is really interested in who I am and what this website is based upon, can go to my Instagram link and YouTube link available in my links section. thank you for your time and happy reading.

I have membership with United Airlines and with Delta Airlines. I compared the cost of plane tickets with United Airlines and Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines tickets were more that US $720 and United Airlines tickets were only US $548.

I chose the United Airlines reservation. I went straight to United Airlines mobil phone app and booked the tickets.

I have membership with IHG Hotel Group and with Marriott Bonvoy Hotel Group so I compared prices between those two hotel offerings on Grand Cayman. Marriott Resort on Seven Mile Beach wanted more than USA $750 for each nights stay. IHG hotel Holiday Inn Resort in West Bay wanted only $ US 270 for each nights stay. I chose the Holiday Inn Resort reservations. I went straight to IHG mobile phone app and booked the reservation.

On Grand Cayman, I will be visiting three areas. 1). Turtle Conservation Center, 2). Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens, 3). Camana Bay. I googled the Cayman Turtle Center; Island Wildlife Encounter. The reservation cost $27 which is at a $3 discount because I booked online. If you book through other means, you will pay $30.

I tried to book tickets for the Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens at their website but could not. I then called their office and was told that reservations are not taken for this venue. So, the day after I go to the Turtle center, I will go to the gardens and just pay the entrance fee as I arrive.

Camana Bay is a neighborhood community of George Town which is the capital of the Cayman Islands. The movie cinema is here. The largest Fosters Supermarket is here. It can probably be considered as a northern suburb of George Town. The world famous Seven Mile Beach is just north of here. Upscale restaurants and shops are numerous here.

The Turtle Center opens at 8:00 am and the Botanical Gardens open at 9:00. The first morning I am in George Town, I will arrive at opening time and stay all morning until around 1:00 when I will go to Camana Bay. The next morning, I will arrive at the Botanical Gardens at THEIR opening hour and spend all morning there until around 1:00 at which time, I will return to Camana Bay. From Camana Bay, one evening, I will walk up and down some of even Mile Beach. The other evening, from Camana Bay, I will walk around George Town. The half days that I am there will be to explore the hotel and its neighborhood of West Bay. There are some excellent restaurants there and it is on the ocean front.

I hope these humble excursions will be sufficient as an example of how I travel and deal with planned experiences and unplanned occurrences

Stuck in Denvers' airport for about four hours and feeling happy that I brought my hoodie with me. I first thought that I would bring only one shirt and one pair of pants because I always buy at least one pair of pants or shorts and a shirt or two wherever I travel and it will be around 85 degrees in Grand Cayman. But I also know that planes and airports are always freakin' cold and this is very much the case right now. My hoodie is saving me and I shall not suffer tonight. Just before midnight, we will fly out of Denver and then arrive in Newarks' airport three hours later. I will sleep during the flight. I will spend this time at Denvers' airport working on my roamreverie website after dealing with a few e-mails.

On the plane, I find that I made the right choice when I chose a seat at the back of the plane. The last three rows of seats have only 6 people in 18 seats. Every one of us have three seats to ourselves. This was also the case for the flight between Newarks' airport and Grand Cayman. The last two rows of seats were completely empty. I had three seats for myself and the three seats on the other side of the aisle were completely empty. The three seats in front of me also had only one person.

I got a little lost today. I was following Google Maps to walk from the airport to the hotel. There are a lot of traffic turn a-bouts and I messed up at one of them. Google Maps will say "Pass through the turn a-bout and continue straight ahead." I miss judged the "continue straight" part and turned right. I ended up in the Camana Bay area. I added a kilometer to a walk that should have been only 4.5 kilometers. At least I got a photo of the road entering Camana Bay and a photo of a pedestrian walkway into Camana Bay neighborhood which looked about as gentrified as any place I have seen so far.

I am getting my 10,000 steps every day by walking part way to where I am going. Yesterday, I walked all the way to the hotel from the airport. I would have used the public buses if I had seen one after I reached the Camana Bay area but I did not see any buses. Today, I walked from the hotel through West Bay and Cypress Point up the Esterly Tibbetts Highway to the area where the Hotel Indigo and Kimpton Seafire Resort are located. So yes, I am making sure I get my daily goal of steps. The first bus stop I came to did me no good. I waited for a bus but never saw one even after waiting half an hour. I started to think that maybe the buses were not running to day so I started to walk again. After about 10 or 15 minutes I did see both the #2 bus and the #3 bus pass me by. I then decided to wait for buses again. I walked far enough to pass by one more bus stop then I stopped at the third stop. I had to wait only five minutes at the most for another #2 bus to arrive. I made a video of that ride which took about nine minutes. That bus ride took me all the way yo the Cayman Turtle Center.

I did not go into the Turtle Center right away. There was a tour bus of people who had just arrived so I went to the small shop at the left of the entrance. They had small cups of Hagaan Das Ice Cream which are waaaay too small for me so I bought two of them; the Mango Cream and Coffee flavors. After relaxing there for about 15 minutes, I entered the Cayman Turtle Center.

I stayed there until around 3:00 (1500). I made videos around the property. There are huge turtles, there are small turtles, there are medium sized turtles, all in their separate enclosures. The huge turtles were in a very large pond where they could swim freely but a good many of them are congregated together in one area because people throw food to them in that area. There are turtles that are not to be touched and there are turtles that can be touched with only two fingers. There are hand sanitizing stations all around the property.

The aviary mostly has doves in it. It is a small enclosure that is full of exotic plant life. Some of the trees are labeled, such as the Silver Thatch Palm which is the national tree of the Cayman Islands.I saw more butterflies in the Aviary than I saw in the Butterfly Enclosure. There I
saw only two butterflies in the Butterfly enclosure and I had to sit on the bench to relax for a few minutes before the butterflies appeared. There are often parrots in the aviary but not always because parrots are brought to health here and then released into the wild.

I did not photograph Smiley the Crocodile because she has a much too small enclosure and it is full of moss so it looked too sad for me. I realize that she was rescued from an early death but I really would have preferred to see her in an area where she could happily swim around.

With that said, I still feel happy I visited the Cayman Turtle Center. The pros found in their conservation and breeding programs out weigh (in my estimation) the cons found in the cement enclosures that seem too small sometimes (especially for Smiley). At least the turtles had plenty of water to swim in, even with the smallest enclosures. Smiley did not.

My next excursion was to the Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Garden with the Blue Iguana Conservation Center.

The Blue Iguana Conservation Center was great. The smaller enclosures still had a fair amount of room for each iguana to roam about. These smaller enclosures had only one blue iguana and the name of the iguana is on a plaque. Larger enclosures could have two iguanas. I did a nice video that included an iguana eating. It was eating leaves piled into a basin. I think this iguana was Delaila but I am not sure because there were two iguanas in the large enclosure.

Here is a link to a video I made when I wanted to eat breakfast on the way to the airport just north of George Town:

https://youtu.be/BOh6ugf0-TQ

Anne Radmacher said:

"I am not the same, having seen the moon on the other side of the world".