A different pace today.
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| Pirate ship we passed on way in |
We left early (alarm set for 6am), not only because of when
our tour was due, but also because we had to tender across to the Grand Cayman
pier.
This pier wasn’t a Royal Caribbean fabrication, but guess
what? The evil empire is about to build
one there!
Soon after we turned up, we were informed that the rain in
the night had washed away most of the 5 hour tour and we were left just snorkelling with
sting-rays – CRIKEY!
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| No Wake Zone |
So we ended up doing a 2 ½ hour tour entitled “A Taste of Cayman”. I’d actually had my eye on this as a possible
tour, so wasn’t too disappointed.
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| Typical Cayman fare - rum |
Our driver gave us some background on the Caymans. It is still a British colony, but has no
taxes -which is why it is one of the world’s biggest tax havens. 52% of its income is from finance and 48%
from tourism. Like Jamaica they drive on
the left side of the road. Unlike the rest of the Caribbean, it is one of the
safest countries in the world.
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| Piratey stuff on the pier |
Not as colourful as what we saw of Jamaica, but of course
all the tourist spots have oodles of pirate imagery.
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| Rebecca & Jack |
First stop was the only local brewery “Caybrew” – what else?
They gave us quite large samples which were a little tough to stomach at that
time of the morning, but were quite nice.
After a quick tour of the brewery we were back in the coach for a side detour
to...
...the conch house.
This took something like 35 years to build from 4000 odd large conch
shells.
Then to the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory. We sampled some variations
of this apparently famous rum cake (very nice) along with some of their rum –
variable. The pineapple and banan rums
were light and fruity, while the rum cream was downright gluggy.
Bought some souvenirs – naturally.
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| Rum still |
Last stop was the only distillery on the island where they
made – wait for it – RUM! We were shown
around by the owner who explained that their name “Seven Fathoms” comes from
where they age their rum – under the sea.
Apparently the movement of the barrels in the water ensures moe the
liquor touches the burnt oak and therefore infuses the rum more.
Of course we had to sample their many offerings – would be
rude otherwise...
We were left to our own devices so we went to a restaurant
nearby where I had Cayman style fried whole snapper and Rebecca had a jerk pork
burger. We’ve decide we want to cook
more jerk flavoured meals at home – delicious.
Oh, and we had a couple of cocktails...
More souvenir shopping followed. We found this neat place called Margaritaville which was the richest source of souvenirs so far.
Finally back to the boat for a much
needed lie-down. It was the heat (30s)
and the exercise, not the rum J
We had another disastrous quiz game.
Back to the room for Rebecca to change for formal night and
a few rounds of 500.
Then another disastrous trivia game, but the bartender knows
us now so got Rebecca a special non-alcoholic cocktail.
Off to Galileo’s for lobster night J.
This was cool.
It turns out that the executive chef Mark Wilson in charge
of 238 chefs is a Kiwi. He heard we were
dining from our waiter and came out and chatted with us for a while. Later on we heard that they were invited to
the galley next night for a tour. We’re
pretty excited as the logistics are amzing with 1000’s of meals produced every
night.
Lastly we went to a game show, which was alittle lame - a bit like Hi de Hi. But, it still gave some laughs.
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