Blogs from Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Central America Caribbean - page 3

Today was 9-12 at the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens. We had great birding and “flowering”? but by 11 am it was really heating up, and by the time we left I was fried. Not much breeze. One of the exciting points – we had paid the extra fee to visit the Blue Iguana sanctuary, but we saw THREE of them in the wild – one we video’ed, the other 2 had been in a scuffle. Evidently it is mating season and the males are very aggressive. We also sighted THREE new birds: the Western Spindalis, the Yucatan Vireo, and the West Indian woodpecker. The flowers were magnificent – but as I don’t know the names, you just get some photos. After the botanical gardens we drove another 15 mins or so to have lunch at Tukka ... read more

Not a good start to the day ☹ We went over to the sheltered ocean opposite our place very early in the morning, like 7:15. Perhaps because they do not adopt daylight savings time, it’s amazingly light early. It was chilly to begin with in the ocean, but by the time we submerged it was the usual lovely temperature. Warmer than Hawaii had been in December/January. The reef is a fair swim off, in quite shallow water (6’ ?) so for about 10-15 mins all we saw was grass, and it would have been another to get to the reef. However, when we went to take a photo of a shell, David saw that his underwater camera was not working, and he saw water inside the “waterproof” casing. Oh no!! So we came back in and ... read more

Hello from Grand Cayman Island, the largest of three Cayman Islands. You can Google the other two island names if you are interested, but this is the one where we are today. And we got a very early start on our activities for the day. We had to meet in the Princess Theater at 6:45, and we obviously needed to get dressed and fed first. Anyway, we arrived on time. Rather than have Janet walk down all the steps to the front of the theater we were able to sit in the upper level and when it was time for our group to leave, they escorted us to the elevators first. We were the first two in the “water shuttle” because this is a Tender Port. But it was pretty easy for Janet to get on-board ... read more

On December 7 we boarded the Regent Seven Seas Explorer in Miami for a Western Caribbean cruise. This is the first time we have cruised on the Explorer, the first new ship built by Regent since the Voyager was launched in 2003. A lot has changed in ship building in the intervening years. Dining options have expanded for most cruise lines and the ships have expanded as well. Regent did increase the size of this ship but decided to stick with a successful model which called for a maximum of 750 passengers, housed in large, luxurious suites and all equipped with balconies. They have added an Asian themed restaurant to compliment their noted French restaurant, a stunning steak house and an Italian cafe. They also offer a casual poolside venue as well as a grand dining ... read more

Dear ones, We are learning fast: Traffic to the west and the capital of Georgetown is heavy, esp the 2 rush hours, whereas the way we are tending to go - to the less crowded, less fancy East, is like real island time. Yes, we get behind work trucks, and yes we have seen an inordinate number of crashes since arriving - 4. Slept well enough, since both are coughing, ate the muesli we brought from home, said goodbye to Jennifer - she is back to Canada till 12/24 as she starts her job iin Jan. They moved down here for his job. Heard last night about how the cat, Chowder, took many months and about $1000 to process him thru the rabies requirements. Not sure any cat is worth quite that much. Oh, right, we ... read more