Grand Cayman blustery today

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Tuesday 12/23/08 -- $30.00 for a bottle of rum liqueur! (guess I need to add some more scenic photos along the way as well)

Weather kind of stormy today, very windy, pretty cloudy, cooler and some sprinkles. After bkfst, DD and DGS did an early morning basking session in what rays were available - before 10 (they got up way too early!).

I am realizing that my blog about this trip is not very exciting for other readers. We don’t dive or party in the evening, so may not be much useful info for other folks. But maybe for families visiting for a week - just not the footloose and fancy-free younger set. We pretty much had a driving around day, since the weather was blustery. Got to several places that I wanted to check out and may not need to return to.

We headed north to West Bay and paused at the West Bay public beach. The Iguana statue there is GONE! Very sad - we were hoping to get photos of more of them this trip, with Figment (a stuffed dragon character from WDW - Walt Disney World) - have a photo of that one from an earlier trip. Maybe they’re not a thing anymore. It was busier at West Bay than we’ve seen it before, 4 or 5 big ships are in today. There was a roadside vendor with nice conch shells, and a coconut chopping guy. We tried stopping at the Tortuga tasting duty free shop, but it was thronged with small buses of cruisers - couldn’t even get in the door (at least it worked for a potty break).

We continued on following the atlas map pages to find the Pappagallo and Conch Point area - pulled off on a side “road” past Pampered Ponies and went out on the very windy beach to gather some old conch shells. Scored a milk crate among the flotsam which was handy for carrying some back to the car. We checked with US and CI customs and it’s supposed to be okay to bring a few back with us (it’s actually “open” conch season right now for harvesting some live ones - which we aren’t into doing. And out timing was really good because some of the horse groups were out riding, so it was fun to see them. R is looking forward to riding again on this trip.

We drove out the road into Barkers, but it all looks the same - a road bordered by low scrub. The road is very rough for a regular sedan; we saw several jeeps on a tour coming back out. Stopped by to look at the Pappagallo menu (it’s only open for dinner) - an interesting out-of-the-way location. We continued on to look for Morgan’s Harbour - there are a couple of restaurants there that might be handy for folks staying out that way; the menu I looked at looked good for lunch. It’s a small area and we may not need to go back there, but it’s nice to have checked it out.

We went back across to the West Bay (doesn’t take very long), saw some nice houses while we were driving around, and smaller ones. Did not do the stop at Hell again (been there, done that, don’t need the t-shirt). Stopped back by Cemetery Beach (a favorite spot of ours, but too windy today to hang out there on the beach) and ate our picnic lunch. Drove around a little more (by our resort for next week - construction is proceeding) and stopped by our current place to freshen up before proceeding on. It’s possible to cover a lot of ground in a short time here (because a lot of ground isn’t very far).

We headed out to find the Conch House - a little intimidating for the driver, dealing with the traffic and roundabouts, but we found it. It is no longer a residence, has some businesses in it, but tourists are welcome to stop by. It is an interesting construction and worth seeing once - shells and concrete - across from the CUC (electric company). Then we went on back around Dorcy Drive to more local type shopping near the airport (needed to get some more orange rum).

We kept heading south and east, looking for the other big Christmas light display house and the Caybrew place. Found the decorated house - it might even be more than the one we saw last night - hope to get back there in the evening while it’s still going. No luck again this year finding the brewery -don’t know what the trick is to find it - or if it even does exist! Oh well.

Headed on back through town; it was in the neighborhood of 4p.m.so ship passengers had returned to their vessels and it wasn’t busy in town. (There were more people at Smith’s Cove than we’re used to, tho). We stopped at the fish cleaning/selling place, but weren’t tempted - but it was an interesting stop. Also stopped at the glass-blowing shop; they were making figurines. Then back home for pool time (in the chilly wind) for DGS, and to fix supper. DGS assembled/cooked dinner and we enjoyed it on the deck - sorry we don’t have restaurant reviews, but we come here on a budget (and it still costs a bundle). Went for a walk on the beach after dinner; the weather has improved. Hope it’s still improved tomorrow, but we are now on leisure time - nothing we really have to do, although there is still some sight-seeing I’d like to do - but we have plenty of time.

We’re chilling!

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Photos

West Bay public beach
The concrete block sign describes the missing large iguana statue -- no clue why it's missing -- hope it's just being refurbished.

West Bay ramp
Conch seller and cruise ship tourists

Horses along Conch Point beach
Lots of old shells and other flotsam along here -- too windy to check out the water.