Chris took this photo when we were in Brewers Bay, at the little stretch of beach below our villa for the week (the white house in the background peeking out of the trees). Some behind-the-scenes fun facts for you: the water wasn’t as clear as it was at other beaches, so in addition to being happy in this photo I’m also a little freaked out and nervous-laughing! Also? I’m totally wearing water shoes because I really don’t like getting in the water without shoes.
It’s Friday! And trust me, I’m totally thrilled about that fact alone, but I’m also missing Grand Cayman. I completely surprised myself by falling in love with the island! Maybe it was just that the trip was the perfect combination of idyllic weather, fun activities, and plenty of time to relax and unwind. I also avoided getting badly sunburned and I didn’t suffer many bug bites (only two!), which was icing on the delicious vacation cake. It was probably the first beach/island trip where at the end of the week, I wasn’t actually ready to go home yet. Usually after a week on a Caribbean island my skin hurts from being burned (no matter how vigilant I am with the sunscreen), I’m covered in itchy red mosquito bites, and on top of that I’m tired of feeling slimy from wearing various chemicals and lotions attempting to avoid burns and bites. Not to mention after a week of sun, wind, and sea, my hair is also ready to go home.
Perhaps I’m just getting better at island living. This time I wore rash guards almost all the time at the beach, and our villa featured a beautiful screened-in patio above the pool where I could lounge in the shade and hide from the mosquitoes. And I conditioned my hair even more frequently on this trip, such that my hairstylist noticed and said my hair held up well. But I also think Grand Cayman had some special properties of its own with the power to command my thoughts several weeks later. I keep thinking about giant, friendly stingrays who magically posed no threat to tourists, crystal clear waters that give you the illusion you’re in a giant salt water aquarium, and easy island-living that invoked instant relaxation upon arrival. Even Chris remembers Grand Cayman extra fondly, despite spending two days ill from food poisoning.
So while I’m reminiscing, I hope you’ll forgive me for posting another Cayman-related photo – it’s Chris relaxing on a pool float, as seen through my favorite sunglasses. I’d go back to the island (and stay in the same villa) again in a heartbeat. It was one of our favorites!
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.
Hi friends! Chris and I are back from spending an amazing week on Tortola, BVI. We’ve been planning this trip for a year, and were especially excited to go back to the Virgin Islands after last year’s trip to St. John was affected by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Issac. I was also really disappointed that our side-trip to the BVIs was cancelled due to the weather last time, so this year we figured we’d go straight to the British side of the islands to see what it’s like, NOT during hurricane season. We rented a beautiful villa above Brewers Bay called The Refuge, and spent the week visiting Tortola’s beaches, eating and drinking in fun little beach bars, and we even took a day trip over to Virgin Gorda to explore The Baths. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all week long – it couldn’t have been more perfect. Here are a few photos of the house, our view, beautiful sunsets each night from various beach bars, and our snorkeling adventures at The Baths and Smugglers Cove (and if you make it to the end of the post, there’s a video!):
So, I brought my SLR, a point-and-shoot, a GoPro Hero 2 AND my iPhone (overkill), but I actually ended up taking more video clips than still images if you can believe it! So (and please keep in mind that I’m a photographer and not really a videographer) here’s a short video I put together of our adventure:
Tortola 2013 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.
So here are a few images from our trip to St. John, as promised! Chris and I actually had a great time despite the fact that Tropical Storm/Hurricane Issac showed up to the party. The first few days at the villa were am-a-zing. The weather was incredible – bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, tons of sun, and visibility for miles. We spent our days hanging out at the house, relaxing in the pool or on the huge deck in the super comfy chairs (so many options!), and we spent our evenings trying out bars and restaurants, and then unwinding in the hot tub. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were just absolutely travel-magazine perfect. We were looking forward to spending time at the beaches later in the week, and going on a tour excursion of the British Virgin Islands on Friday.
But then the storm showed up on Wednesday, bringing with it a mixture of emotions – disappointment, excitement and fear. Living on the east coast, we are fairly used to hurricanes and we experience them regularly, but we’ve never encountered one on a tiny (tiny!) island before. It’s an entirely different experience. After speaking with some locals, we learned that it’s common for St. John to lose power because they manually shut it off to avoid any electrical dangers. We also learned that after one storm, the power didn’t return for six months. Can you imagine?! So as the storm approached and gained intensity, Chris and I briefly thought about flying home to salvage the remaining days of our time off from work, but unfortunately getting off of an island with an impending storm isn’t easy. The ferry wasn’t running over to the main island – they shut it down, so there’s pretty much no way to get off St. John unless you want to swim during 70+ mph gusts of wind.
The property manager for the villa came over and put all of the patio furniture inside the house (see iPhone photos below). And our trip to the BVIs on Friday was definitely canceled. So, what did we do with the rest of our time? We stocked up on batteries and drinks, hung out in the pool and hot tub on the rainy days, and on the really bad stormy days we just stayed inside relaxing, watching TV and doing a 1000-piece puzzle. The last day of our visit was clear enough to make our flight. It still turned out to be a fun trip, even with the storm, so I’m calling it a success!
