Day 28 - 12/17 - George Town, Cayman Islands

As we sailed into the tendering harbor there were three other ships holding a position and we joined them. There was a Royal Caribbean ship Adventure of the Sea, Costa Luminosa, Carnival Legend. Later in the day the Carnival Vista would show up making a total of 5 ships in port with around 12,000 passengers ready to experience Grand Cayman.

We got on the 2nd tender which was a double deck local tender and made our way to shore. There we joined the hordes in the confined but clean port area. The rest of our group came on the next tender about an hour later and we pointed Dan to the tour operators and he negotiated a $50/pp rate for the all day use of the van for the 12 of us using our agenda.

Del, our driver, first took us to the Mastic Trail where we hoped to see birds and/or other wildlife. Several of us went about a mile down this twisty mangrove trail and we saw a few birds and heard a few more. The foliage provided a welcome shade from the sun. Probably the most interesting thing about the walk was the limestone cave we encountered at our turn around point.

From the Mastic Trail, Del drove us to the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Park where only 3 of us paid the $12.50/pp entry fee and toured the gardens. It's offseason so not much was in bloom. We did also see several blue iguanas and some turtles.

Both of the preceding activities were on the east end of the island and our final stops were on the NW part of the island. So we headed there with a quick stop at the Pedro St. James Castle.

It was kind of a cheesy stop, but we all liked our stop at the Hell Post Office with its accompanying tourist stores. But out in back was a roughly 2 acre sharp volcanic looking formation. However, it's not volcanic. Rather it's limestone that's been weathered by microbes and water. I got some nice bird photos. We then paid a brief visit to a rum distillery and a dolphin training facility. Of course, after visiting Hell, a sudden rainstorm cooled us down.

Back at the port, I enjoyed a kabab to tide me over before we caught a tender back to the Volendam where showers help cool us down. We were able to book a 5:30pm dinner reservation in the Pinnacle Grill and enjoyed our dinner there. We finished dinner in time to watch the comedian, Mike Robinson, who was really good. He was so funny that we attended the 9:30pm show as well. We laughed as much as at the first show. He's the first comedian in over 550 sailing days that we've watched twice in the same day.

And so ended the day of our last Caribbean port. Tomorrow is a sea day. Stay tuned.  

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