Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Caribbean

Grand Cayman Snapshot

I thought it would be fun and maybe informative to do a recap of a few things from our travels, sort of a summary with superlatives and other details and photos that didn’t make it into the original blog post(s). I’ll try to go back and do similar “snapshot” posts for a few past trips, but for now I’ll start with Grand Cayman, and then I’ll write this type of post for future travels as well.

Best Moment

With all of the amazing adventures we had on Grand Cayman this is a tough decision, but the best moment was our tour with Fat Fish Adventures where we rode jet skis to the Stingray City sandbar and interacted with giant stingrays, and then snorkeled at Coral Gardens in Rum Point. If you’re on the island for even a half-day and can work this tour into your schedule, I highly (highly highly) recommend them! I’ll post a separate detailed review soon.

See that big shadow in the water? That’s a Southern Stingray! They were a lot bigger than I expected, but just as friendly as everyone says they are – I’ll never forget the feeling of them brushing up against my legs under water, begging for food.

Worst Moment

Chris woke up on Tuesday with a bad case of food poisoning, which wins the title for worst moment on this trip and maybe even for all of our trips. He was sick on the hour every hour, and he spent the day convalescing while I hung out poolside feeling guilty! Of course I checked on him every half hour or so, but there wasn’t much I could do – he knew for sure it was food-related and it just needed to run its course. Thankfully by Thursday he was feeling better, but in the meantime we had to cancel our scuba diving adventure for that day. I’m grateful he didn’t discover the illness while diving though!

Funniest Moment

While researching the area where we were staying, I read about a beach with good snorkeling called Barefoot Beach less than a mile away from our villa. I read that the entrance from the road was fairly hidden, so when Chris and I drove to where I thought the entrance should be, we came across this dilapidated gate with a person-sized opening between the bars and I immediately thought ah-ha, this must be it! We parked our car, climbed carefully over broken tile and through the bars with all of our snorkeling gear in hand, and started to wander down a gravel road. We quickly realized that not only was this not an entrance to a public beach, but there were residences back there and we were probably trespassing. Oops! We scurried back out through the gate and drove away laughing. It turns out the path to the beach was just a few yards down the road. Every time we passed the broken gate while driving to and from our villa we laughed some more. And when we went back to grab this photo, we saw three confused people with beach towels tucked under their arms, also searching for the entrance to Barefoot Beach! I saved them the trouble of crawling through the gate and pointed them in the direction of the real entrance, but I was glad to know we weren’t the only ones to make that mistake.

Best Meal

We both agreed that our favorite meal was at Tukka, where we ordered two courses recommended by Chef Ron Hargrave. We enjoyed the Tukka Brochette – mixed grill skewers with beef filet, lobster medallions, chicken, and king prawns served with whipped potato, green beans & twin sauces – followed by the Warm Walnut & Date Pudding, which I normally wouldn’t be drawn to, but it was the chef’s special so I decided to give it a try and oh-em-gee, I’m glad I did, despite knowing that I’d get a bit of a bellyache from the ice cream. (Being lactose intolerant I try to avoid dairy about 95% of the time, but every once in a while I take a chance if it seems worth it, and this time definitely was!) If no one had been watching, I’m pretty sure I would have licked the dish clean to get every last bit of the decadent sauce.

Note: I rarely take photos of my meals, and I need to get better about this! Usually I’m too hungry to pause and snap a photo, but this time I just happened to take a quick iPhone snapshot because the brochette was so unique and impressive. It’s a little blurry and crooked because I was trying to be quick and discrete – several other patrons were staring at us and ooo-ing/ahh-ing over our the presentation of meals, so I was trying not to be even more of a spectacle!

Something We Learned

Fish and coral identification! I’ve mostly been using Florent’s Guide To The Tropical Reefs in order to ID the fish and coral we’ve spotted, but we also picked up a handy waterproof guidebook while snorkeling with Tortuga Divers. On this trip we saw brain coral, star coral, so many sponges, stingrays, eagle rays, angel fish, butterflyfish, tangs, sergeant majors, surgeonfish, several types of parrot fish, trumpet fish, spotted trunk fish, bar jacks, a teeny tiny jellyfish, and this little guy, who I think is some kind of drum fish, maybe a high hat (screenshots taken from video):

We’re Thankful We Packed

Our rash guards. The sun is strong in Grand Cayman! For the amount of time we were outdoors, sunscreen just doesn’t cut it for our fair skin. We each brought long-sleeved rash guards and used them frequently. Sure, we miss out on most of that post-beach-vacation tan, but we also (hopefully) miss out on sun damage, painful burns, and potential skin cancer.

We Didn’t Need To Bring

Swim tights. I thought if I wear a rash guard for my back and arms, why not also protect my legs? So I purchased and brought a pair of full-length tights that are made for swimming. It’s a nice idea for sun protection and maybe even for skin protection against something like jellyfish stings, but I didn’t end up using them. (Just to clarify, I brought swim tights; Chris did not. I think he would want me to make that known.)

Trip Regrets

As I mentioned, we didn’t get to scuba dive, but we thoroughly enjoyed our snorkeling adventures. And of course we regret eating the meal that rendered Chris ill with food poisoning. It’s not something that could have been avoided though. We’re 99.9% sure he got sick at a nice restaurant & bar in George Town – it was clean with lovely decor and a beautiful view, so we just never suspected that it would result in an illness.

Also? I hate to bum anyone out, but I regret giving any money to the Cayman Turtle Farm ($18 each for the basic access). I found the whole experience disappointing. I can see why families with kids enjoy it though, for the opportunity to interact closely with these beautiful creatures. As adults visiting without kids, we were just too aware that the turtles, an endangered species, are bred here for the purpose of consumption and it just made our visit sad. Yes, there is a conservation and research effort as well, and if it was conservation and research ONLY I might have been happier to visit and give them our money. Either way, some of the turtles are kept in dirty, crowded, boring conditions and it just broke my heart.

We didn’t even get to see any baby turtles – it wasn’t hatching season apparently, which they didn’t mention when we paid for our tickets. Chris and I also got kicked out of the snorkeling area because we hadn’t paid for snorkeling access. We were just standing near the outside of the pond people-watching, clearly not trying to snorkel. Meanwhile, the same staff who were standing around making sure people like us didn’t stand anywhere near the areas we didn’t pay for, did nothing to keep other people from breaking safety rules and holding turtles out of their tanks over the concrete walkways (if you pick the turtles up, you’re supposed to hold them over the water). So obviously they are more concerned about making money than for the well-being of the turtles. I think we stayed for a total of ten minutes and that was ten minutes too long.

Reasons To Go Back

We definitely need to go back to Grand Cayman to dive! It’s frequently recognized as one of the top diving destinations in the world, so if we do get into scuba as a hobby, I’d certainly love to go back and explore more of the island’s underwater world, which is a total 180 from how I usually feel about the ocean! The crystal-clear waters made us feel like we were in a giant aquarium, and all of the fish we encountered seemed friendly (or scared of us) so I’m totally feeling more at-ease in the water. That’s even despite a sting I felt on my ankle at Starfish Point – I’m pretty sure it was a jellyfish and the sting lasted a few hours, but it really wasn’t that bad, so I might even be able to get over my fear of jellyfish. Well no, I won’t get over it completely, but I feel slightly less terrified of them now.

Favorite Photos

My favorite photo from the whole trip is one that I think Chris might have taken – we both shot with the underwater camera at Stingray City, but Chris took more photos than I did. I was mostly just trying to stand still and not accidentally step on a giant stingray. The waves were bigger than I expected and made it challenging to keep my balance!

And Chris’s favorite photo is also an underwater shot – he took this one of a huge angelfish while snorkeling at Sunset Reef. We chased this guy (gal?) all over the place so I’m glad he ended up with a great image.

May 19, 2014
Photo Friday – A Meteorology Lesson

Happy Friday, friends! In the interest of trying something new, every Friday I’m going to find an existing photo that I haven’t blogged yet or take a new photo at some point during the week, and post it with or without a couple of sentences. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m a motormouth, (my official nickname as a child), so I’m sure I’ll always post at least a few words along with the image.

So for today’s Photo Friday, a photo from Grand Cayman that I didn’t end up blogging – this circular rainbow we saw one afternoon. I probably damaged my eyeballs to some degree while taking this picture, but I’ve never seen a rainbow like that and wanted to make sure I captured it. Whoa, even more intense than a double rainbow, right?

Update 5/18 – I just learned this is called a 22-degree halo! The halo is formed when light from the sun or moon is refracted by ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds. Pretty cool!

May 16, 2014
The Great Debate – Tourists vs. Travelers

It’s no secret that Chris and I both have a fairly serious case of wanderlust – we both want to see and photograph as much of the world as possible within our means, and we have an extensive list of must-see places. Just a handful of cities and countries are highlighted on my bucket list page, but a separate list lives on my computer, begging me to plan and book trips. I’m constantly reading travel blogs and books and watching documentaries about travel, and in doing so I’ve noticed that there’s an ongoing tourist vs. traveler debate. You can even find tips on how to be a traveler instead of a tourist, suggesting that one is somehow superior to the other. (Just Google “tourist vs. traveler” to see hundreds of examples.)

My thoughts on that? It doesn’t really matter! And I’m not one to force anyone, including myself, into a label.

Chris and I tend to do a combination of adventure travel, relaxing vacations, weekend mini-trips, and traveling to visit family. And on any of these trips we might do both so-called “cheesy tourist stuff” as well as exploring off the beaten path on our own. We did several small group excursions in Alaska, for example – kayaking, whale-watching, zip-lining, and dog-sledding. Those were some of our favorite experiences of the trip, and I have no idea how we would have had access to any of that without a tour group. Stingray City in Grand Cayman is probably the most touristy thing to do on the island and it was one of the highlights of our trip. We are driving the Ring Road around Iceland this summer and we expect to discover tons of things along those 800-something miles, but we absolutely plan to go see the major tourist sites including the Blue Lagoon. We’re also planning to go inside the magma chamber of a dormant volcano, with a guide of course! I’m okay with not being the kind of person who would just mosey down into a volcano without someone official telling me what’s what, and most importantly, how to get back out. So whether we’re wandering around on our own or doing something with an organized group for the purpose of access or even safety, finding things randomly or using a guidebook to identify major must-sees, it’s all awesome to me. In fact, I love to strike a balance between the two.

I’ve also read several articles that suggest a true traveler is willing to give up all the comforts of home including a permanent residence and a steady career. Would I love to drop everything in my life, sell my house and focus solely on traveling the world? Sure! But Chris and I are so fortunate to have great jobs (knock on wood) and a home that we love. And our paychecks allow us to buy things like, you know, plane tickets, so I’m happy to just travel when I can. Does that make me a less serious/devoted traveler? Nah! When I can’t be out and about, I love to spend my free time reflecting on past travels in addition to researching and learning about places I hope to visit someday. I’m completely obsessed with Google maps for stalking places that are on my travel bucket list. I usually have the next half-dozen trips planned to some degree. (I like to know a certain level about my destinations, but I’m also excited to discover things while I’m there.)

quote by J. R. R. Tolkein

I say go be a tourist, a traveler, an adventurer, a beach bum, or any combination there of – just do whatever feeds your soul and makes your heart happy. Embrace it! See the world in whatever way possible if you’re fortunate enough to do so, even if that means just wandering to a new corner of your own town or city and trying to see and experience something new. In my eyes you’re lucky if you’re a tourist or a traveler because it’s amazing to get to travel, period. We’re all individuals shaped from our own experiences and we have varying-sized comfort zones.

There’s no “right” way to see the world, except to travel responsibly with an open mind and respect for other cultures and differences. I won’t judge someone who is wearing a fanny pack, taking a photo of their friend pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or if they duck into a McDonald’s for lunch, but I will definitely frown at someone who is being disrespectful as a visitor. Usually though, I’m just happy when we’re somewhere new and exciting, and not at all concerned about who is a tourist and who is a traveler. Oh, and by the way, I’m almost always going to have a camera with me (unless it’s inappropriate to do so) and I don’t care if that makes me a tourist – the one label I’m sure of is that I’m a photographer. 🙂

So what do you think? Do you label yourself as a tourist or a traveler, or maybe even a hybrid? Or do you shun the labels altogether like I do? Either way, happy/safe travels to all!

May 5, 2014
Grand Cayman 2014

Chris and I just returned from a week on Grand Cayman, and we are smitten! What a beautiful, fun island. When we first started researching a year ago, we were looking for an island with good off-shore snorkeling. The Caymans kept coming up in my search for snorkel sites, so we decided to give it a try. We’re so glad we did! The whole island is beyond lovely, everyone we encountered was so friendly (we met people from England, Australia, France, and India), and I only ended up with two bug bites – a Caribbean island record for me!

When and where it makes sense, Chris and I prefer to stay at a private rental if we can rather than a hotel for several reasons. I love having a home base where we can feel a little more like a local. We go grocery shopping for the week and eat a few meals at home instead of eating out all the time, so it’s a little more healthy. And most importantly, we enjoy having a quiet spot where we can enjoy the pool without listening to anyone yelling or screaming! And if you do some research, it’s not necessarily more expensive than a hotel – we tend to look just slightly into the shoulder season so that the rentals are much more affordable.

This time we ended up in an amazing villa in the North Shore area called Fish Bones. Long story short, the first two villas I picked were sold after I signed the contract, so we were offered a really great deal on this third choice. We couldn’t have ended up with a better house – the view of the ocean was mesmerizing, and we had an entry point into the water down some steps built into the cliff. Chris snorkeled there a few times and saw bar jacks, parrot fish, angel fish, various crabs, and we even saw an eagle ray and a southern stingray. I didn’t get in because there were a few spiny sea urchins hanging out by the steps and I’m clumsy! But I did spend quite a bit of time sitting on the steps, gazing at the water feeling peaceful.

Staying on the east end of the island on the northern shore, we were pretty far from Seven Mile Beach (about a 45-minute drive), but we did go visit that side of the island a few times. If you’re looking for a hotel or resort situated on a gorgeous beach with access to lots of restaurants, amenities and activities, this should definitely be a major contender for you. We ate lunch on SMB one day and enjoyed the soothing ocean views and fish-watching. The tarpon are huge! We also hung out in George Town a couple of times and spent an afternoon in West Bay.

Sadly, on Monday Chris got really sick from something he ate – we narrowed it down to some tartar sauce that accompanied our fish & chips at a restaurant in George Town. We tend to share everything when we eat out, but I am NOT a fan of creamy white sauces and didn’t eat it, so we’re 99.9% sure that’s what it was. So unfortunately, we had to cancel our scuba dive trip that was scheduled for Tuesday. I had mustered up the courage to try diving and Chris was excited about it, too, so we were disappointed, but it’s not at all safe to dive while you’re sick so it was necessary to cancel and we ran out of time to reschedule. We fully intend to try again on an upcoming trip – we have Belize and Vieques trips planned for next year, so one of those spots might work!

Thankfully, Chris was feeling a little better by Wednesday so we could do some gentle island exploring including the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park to see Cayman parrots and blue iguanas. The parrots were adorable! The one blue iguana we saw was lethargic, but interesting nonetheless.

We also explored Starfish Point which was super cute – we saw about a dozen sea stars, sprinkled throughout the shallow area of a small, secluded beach. They’re fascinating little creatures! Unfortunately, their numbers are dwindling in that area because irresponsible tourists take them out of the water for too long or even take them home which breaks my heart. I picked one up very carefully and completely beneath the surface of the water for a few seconds to take a photo, then gently placed him/her (?) back in the soft sand. It was a really cool experience, and I’m glad we got to see them before they inevitably disappear. I almost wish someone could stand on the beach all day and tell people not to remove them from the water. (I would love that job.)

We actually ended up driving the entire perimeter of the island throughout the week, but most of our time was spent closer to home. We poked around a lot in East End, Rum Point, and Old Man Bay. (Side note: Chris did most of the driving since he’s better at driving on the left-hand side.) There was plenty to keep us busy all week in those areas – restaurants and bars, a sculpture garden, various historical wreck sites, and we also visited some fascinating blow hole sites along the southern shore only 10 minutes away. If we have the chance to go back to Grand Cayman, we would definitely stay in this area again for the peace and undisturbed natural beauty.

By Thursday, Chris had recovered and was up for some adventure, so we didn’t have to cancel our trip to Stingray City – yay! It ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. Fat Fish Adventures took us out on jet skis for a thrilling tour of the island – we rode through the mangroves, stopped at Starfish Point and the Stingray City sandbar, and we ended the tour with a bit of snorkeling in the Coral Gardens area of Rum Point. I have to admit that I was nervous about this whole excursion! I had only ever jet skied on a sound in Florida where the water was calm. I read reviews of this tour that said you ride in open water where the waves were generally pretty rough, so I envisioned being flung from the jet ski into the ocean where I’d immediately be surrounded by swarms of jelly fish, sharks, and barracuda. (I do know the sharks and barracuda in the Caymans are typically harmless, but in my imagination they are not.) Chris was an excellent jet ski driver though, and even hitting waves at 50+ mph we never tipped over, so I had a blast.

I had also never jumped off a boat or other watercraft into open water, and knew that I’d be expected to do this twice on the tour, so that made me nervous as well. As I’ve mentioned, I’m pretty terrified of the ocean! Or so I thought – I think I might actually be getting over that fear. When we arrived at Stingray City, we saw huge shadowy figures in the water and I was shocked at how big the stingrays were! But somehow I got in the water anyway, and instantly became fascinated. Cautious, but fascinated. I opted out of holding one or getting a “back massage” from one of these magnificent creatures because I just don’t feel like we were meant to interact with them in that way, but I did gently pet one. They were, after all, brushing up against my legs like sweet, friendly kittens. We also saw a cute spotted trunk fish (see below – Chris took a great photo of it).

When our tour group got to the Coral Gardens site, I ignored my fears once again and just jumped in – I’ve never seen such a beautiful landscape underwater! The colorful corals and fish had me completely hooked, but we only stayed in that spot for about fifteen minutes. I wasn’t ready to leave and I ended up being the last one in the water.

We enjoyed the snorkeling so much that we decided to do one last adventure on Friday – we joined Tortuga Divers on a fantastic trip out to Sunset Reef where we snorkeled for well over an hour. I took more video than photos, but check out the trumpet fish below, and Chris’s stunning image of an angel fish!

I took a ton of video on this trip, so I’ll work on putting together some of my favorite clips. Stay tuned! And finally, I’ll end with the traditional toes-on-vacation shot from the pool. I could have stared at that view all day long, and sometimes I did.

Update: I finished a little video of the trip and uploaded it here! Again, I’ll add a disclaimer that I’m not really a videographer (I barely understand frame rates and all that jazz), and I definitely need more practice shooting video and photos underwater. But you’ll get the idea, and Chris was able to grab some really cool scenes of the rays at Stingray City!

Grand Cayman 2014 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.

April 27, 2014
Discovering Scuba Diving

Sometime a while ago when Chris and I were having one of our adventure/travel brainstorming discussions about what we’d like to do and where we’d like to go in the future, Chris said he’d love to try scuba* diving someday. Since we planned on visiting the Cayman Islands for a future trip, I began to research and quickly discovered The Caymans are one of the top diving destinations in the world, known for crystal clear waters and beautiful, friendly sea life. I’m typically unable to approach anything new on a casual level, so I immediately decided that if we were going to try scuba diving, we might as well (warning: upcoming pun) dive right in and get PADI certified. You can’t just go dive without some training anyway since there’s a lot involved to it! The certification course consists of three parts – classroom or online study, confined water training (typically held in a swimming pool), and open water dives. I signed up for the first two parts with a local dive shop, and planned to do our check-out open water dives in Grand Cayman since we had already planned to be there.

I have no problem with the idea of breathing underwater in the pool. That actually sounded fun, so I didn’t think the mechanics of diving would be an issue. But oh, wait…I seemed to have forgotten that I’m fairly terrified of the ocean. Jumping out of a plane? No problem – I didn’t even get the tiniest bit nervous until a few minutes into the flight. Jumping into open water filled with creepy creatures that want to attack me? Problem. I’ve been nervous for months ever since I signed up! And I have absolutely no idea where this fear stems from – I haven’t had any traumatic incidents in the water. I’m not even really worried about sharks when I’m at the beach. It’s the small creatures that freak me out for some reason. (I rue the day I watched a Discovery Channel special about irukandji.)

Slowly I began to worry more and more about my ability to handle all four of the open water dives required to become certified. So I thought maybe we should do the whole certification on the island and I booked the course with a dive shop that does all the initial training in the shallows of Seven Mile Beach. I figured that way I could gradually get used to being in the ocean. But my anxiety continued to escalate. My concern was that I wouldn’t be a safe diver considering my level of fear when it comes to jellyfish, barracuda and other stinging/biting things in the water. The one thing you can’t do while you’re diving is panic. The other thing you can’t do when you’re diving 30 meters under the surface is bolt back up for any reason – if you ascend too quickly, you risk decompression sickness (a.k.a., the bends). And I’ve been known to panic and bolt in the water! I bolted out of the water at the sight of seaweed on my very first attempt to snorkel in St. Thomas. Seaweed. The second time I tried to snorkel (years later), I panicked and made a beeline to the shore after seeing a stingray at least 10 feet below me at Cinnamon Bay in St. John.

In addition to my fears of certain ocean creatures, I’m also a really (really really) excitable person about almost everything. Especially animals. If I see a turtle while I’m diving, I’m pretty certain I’ll gasp and squeal and flail about just out of sheer joy. Gasping, squealing, and flailing are probably diving no-nos. I have no idea if I can stay calm while diving, and that’s apparently one of the key ingredients: stay calm, and breathe.

So I decided that the best thing for me to do was to first see if, in fact, I would be fine with diving in a pool. Our local dive shop offers a Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) class where you learn basic skills, equipment usage, and safety in a short classroom session, and then you practice in a pool. Chris and I signed up together (the class was probably unnecessary for him, but he was sweet to humor me) and we completed the class last weekend. Just as I expected, I had a ton of fun in the pool! Getting used to the heavy, complicated equipment was easier than I thought, and we did the basic skills with ease. We learned how to descend, adjust our buoyancy, clear a flooded mask, retrieve a lost regulator, and swim with fins. The only catch was that when our class arrived at the rec center, we found out the pool was double-booked, so the shallow end was already in use and we’d have to complete all of our training in the deep end! It definitely rattled everyone in the class, but it turned out to be easy and so fun (for most people). Chris and I were quickly comfortable at the bottom of the pool, and we hung out just breathing and practicing skills for nearly an hour.

Whether or not I can translate the skills and my comfort level to the open water is TBD, so we’re going to hold off on full certification for now since it’s a fairly big investment in time and money for something I’m not even sure I’ll enjoy! We are signed up for another DSD class in Grand Cayman, where we’ll review the skills in the pool and then go on an open water reef dive off of a boat. If I fall in love with it, I can go forward with the certification and I’ll already have some skills under my belt. If I hate it, I can at least say I tried. I’m excited and nervous, but I’m going to try to stay calm and not chicken out. I think the reef dive is about 30 minutes long, so it’s not really likely that I’ll get stung or bitten right?! Wish me luck!

*I do realize SCUBA is actually an acronym and was originally always notated in all caps, but after spending some time on dive-related message boards, it seems most divers commonly type scuba as a lowercase word.

April 10, 2014