The Retreat at Rum Point and home

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Geo: 19.3086, -81.2521

TUESDAY, 1/7/14 – Tuesday morning
Anne and I walked down the road to the end of the peninsula beyond
the Kiabo Beach Bar to an area called Starfish Point. Road access to
the area is blocked by a locked entrance gate that leads out to the
point through what appears to be an abandoned development. Parking
at the circle at that entrance, you can walk to a “public beach”
on the north side of the road and then up the beach to the area where
many starfish frequent the sheltered waters near several short, man-
made breakwaters extending from the beach. We walked up the beach,
taking lots of pictures of the starfish, then, as we rounded the
point, saw a good many boats either anchored or beached along the
shore. Many of the tour operators include Starfish Point on their
schedule and that is what most of these boats were. After enjoying
the starfish, we returned to our condo.
LeeAnne and family
decided to drive down to see Starfish Point while Anne and I with
David and Sonja decided to drive into George Town. Tuesday was one
of the days that there were supposed to be fewer cruise ships
visiting the island so we decided this was a good time to drive over
to George Town and get lunch a restaurant called Bread and Chocolate
that was rated highly (#1 on the island) on Trip Adviser. There
actually were only one or two cruise ships in the harbor, but the
traffic in George Town was still pretty heavy and finding a parking
spot was surprisingly difficult. Most street parking was full or
restricted, and we saw no public parking lots. Finally ended up in a
private lot where we were assured by some nice ladies that it was OK
to park. Found the restaurant and discovered that it was a totally
Vegan restaurant. Since I usually like meat or fish at least with my
meal, I was leery of the menu. I ended up ordering the “Tuna”
sandwich that was made with chickpeas instead of tuna. Turned out to
be amazingly good as did all of the items our group ordered. After
lunch we decided to drive to the only National Park on the island.
On the way, we stopped in at a community called Hell and picked up a
souvenir or two “from Hell”. There is a post office there where
you can send mail from Hell to friends back home. On to Barker's
National Park, a 260 plus acre environmentally protected area
composed of mangrove wetlands and long sandy beaches located on the
northern most tip of the island. The beaches are long, sandy, and
nearly deserted with kite surfers sighted offshore in the distance.
There is a system of dirt roads, some in better shape than others,
that crisscross the area. Several spots with “No Dumping” signs
were located near obvious dumping sites, one an overflowing dumpster
where we noticed a truck with trash being unloaded there beside the
sign and dumpster. This is a nice area and could be a very
attractive tourism area if the government would put forth a little
more effort into responsible development as a real National Park
along the lines of the QE II Botanic Park operated by the National
Trust for the Cayman Islands and which we toured on Thursday. After
exploring the area at the park, we returned to Rum Point. Dinner
this evening was at the Over the Edge restaurant, not far back down
the road at Old Man Bay in the area called Northside. The restaurant
is built right out over the edge of the water with nice views of the
ocean and reef in the distance. After a very enjoyable meal, we
returned to the condos for the evening.

WEDNESDAY, 1/8/14 –
Wednesday was a day of doing nothing special except for deciding to
buy some fresh fish and cook out one evening for dinner. David,
Sonja, and I drove back down to the east end where the Reef Resort
was located and did a bit of grocery shopping and inquired about
where to purchase fresh fish. We ended up driving back toward Rum
Point and stopping at a spot across the road from Over the Edge
restaurant and buying frozen Trigger fish that a local fisherman said
he had caught just a few days prior. The fish were whole fish, head
and all. They had been cleaned but were definitely not filleted.
So, after looking up how to fillet a fish on YouTube, David and I
were able to eventually do a pretty decent job of getting four nice
fillets out of the two Trigger fish. We actually managed to avoid
keeping any bones in the fillets. We started working on the fish
just before noon on Wednesday but, because we were originally
scheduled to do the Stingray City tour at 2:30 that afternoon, we had
to stop before we finished. As it turned out, the weather did not
cooperate and our tour was rescheduled for the next day. So for the
rest of that afternoon, we hung out at the beach there at Rum Point
and enjoyed refreshing beverages from the Wreck Bar. For dinner that
evening, we went to a small restaurant just inland from Old Man Bay
called Kurt's Korner. This was an open air restaurant which turned
out to be probably the best all round value of all the restaurants
that we frequented. The food was very good with probably the best
prices we encountered. The restaurant does not serve alcoholic
beverages but, conveniently, a bar is next door and the waitress from
the bar came to our table and took our drink order. The only
drawback was the fact that at this open air inland location, the
mosquitoes were annoying. However the restaurant provided
complimentary bug spray so that helped to ward off the pesky things
for the most part.
Thursday, 1/9/14 – Thursday was the
day of out Stingray City tour with Captain Charlie. Since the tour
wasn't until the afternoon and neither Anne and I nor LeeAnne and
family had seen the Botanic Park, we drove back along Frank Sound
road to the Park. The Cayman Island National Trust manages the park
and conducts a blue iguana breeding program that is re-introducing
the native iguanas to the island. The park itself is very nice with
a gift shop in the visitor center and several nice themed gardens,
including an orchid boardwalk where, in the spring, lots of orchids
will be in bloom. Saw a very large blue iguana at the Gazebo area
near the lake and another in a tree on the Woodland Trail. After our
tour of the park we returned to Rum Point, ate lunch, and got ready
for out Stingray City tour at 2:45.

Captain Charlie, our
tour guide, met us on time there at the Rum Point pier. We boarded
his boat and departed to meet the stingrays. The Stingray City or
Stingray Sandbar tour is the one “must do” thing everyone does
when visiting Grand Cayman. There are literally dozens of tour
operators that conduct tours to the Stingray Sandbar as well as
snorkeling spots nearby and it can be very crowded, particularly when
lots of cruise ships are in port. The Stingray Sandbar is a shallow
area, 3 to 4 feet deep, located in the North Sound inside the barrier
reef where fishermen used to stop to clean their catch when returning
to port. The stingrays became accustomed to gathering there to feast
on the discarded fish parts. Eventually the people discovered that
you could stand in the shallow water and interact with the stingrays.
Enterprising entrepreneurs started offering tours to the spot and
the rest is history. Captain Charlie's boat was not large, with a
capacity of 6 to 8 plus a crew of two. The seven of us were the only
ones on the boat with Captain Charlie and his mate which made for a
very nice, personalized tour. At the time we went, the area was not
very crowded since by the time we were there, most cruise ship
passengers had to be on their way back to their ships. All of us got
to pet a stingray, feed a stingray, kiss a stingray, and get a back
rub from a stingray. Really, for us at least, a once in a lifetime
experience. After the sandbar, Charlie took us to two more spots for
snorkeling where, utilizing snorkel gear provided by Captain Charlie,
we were able to see some amazing coral reefs and swim with all sorts
of multicolored tropical fish. We returned to Rum Point, tired but
happy after about a three hour tour.

We ate in this evening,
with David grilling the fish we had filleted earlier and fixed fish
tacos with a salad. My first experience with fish tacos but not my
last. They were very good – and amazingly, with no bones.

Friday,
1/10/14 – Our last full day on the island was spent soaking up the
sun and snorkeling around the Rum Point area. David and I walked
about a half mile down the beach from Rum Point to a private sandy
beach where we intended to swim out to the reef and then drift with
the current back to the beach at Rum Point. Anne and Sonja walked
down with us and carried our shoes back to the Rum Point beach for
us. David actually did make it all the way out to the reef but I did
not. I stayed fairly close to the shore since my mask kept fogging
up and I had to stop frequently and clear it. But I did see some
very interesting marine life as well as beautiful coral formations
all along the shore there. One thing I was surprised to see was lots
of conch shells on the bottom. They were a little hard to spot since
most had lots of algae or something growing on them but once you knew
what to look for they were pretty easy to spot. Most that I picked
up had live conchs in them but one did not and we brought it back as
a souvenir. David did snorkel along the reef to a bit beyond the
beach at our condos and had a long swim back from the reef to the
beach.

Dinner that night was at the Kiabo Beach Bar again.
We had intended to try the nicer (read more expensive) upstairs
restaurant there at the Kiabo Yacht Club but, after perusing the
prices on the outside menu, decided that since the food was all
prepared in the same kitchen, we'd just go to the Beach Bar again.
Another good meal and back to the condos to get ready for the trip
home the next day.
Saturday, 1/11/14 – Had breakfast at
the condos this morning and took our time packing up everything
since the ladies in the office had said there were no renters coming
in after us and we need not worry about a check out time. Our flight
home wasn't until 3:46 PM so we had plenty of time but we left Rum
Point around 11:00 with the intent of finding the Tortuga Rum store
on the way to the airport. David was driving one car and I was
driving the other with LeeAnne. At some point we got separated and
David went on to the airport while we did stumble across the store
and LeeAnne was able to get the rum cake she wanted. Discovered that
they did not sell rum there, only at the airport at the duty free
shops. As it turned out we could have bypassed the shop on the way
to the airport and gotten everything at the airport. We had planned
to eat at the airport but, after returning the cars, checking in with
Delta, and going through security, found the small waiting area
mobbed with people as a result of flights canceled and delayed due to
bad weather back home. Finally got a bite to eat at the one small
restaurant along with hundreds of other hungry travelers, finally
boarded our plane around 3:00 PM, departed just a little late and
made it back to Atlanta pretty much on time around 6:30. Called the
Days Inn and convinced the desk clerk that the shuttle driver had
told us he would pick us up at the international terminal, got
picked up, returned to the motel, said goodbye to everyone, picked up
our cars, and drove home, getting in around 11:00 to a cool house but
with cats happy to see Anne – and vice versa.

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