Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Grand Cayman

Photo Friday – Through the Lenses

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!

May 23, 2014
Jet Ski Tour With Fat Fish Adventures

Fat Fish Adventures gets consistently great reviews on TripAdvisor, and now I know why! Our jet ski safari with them was one of the brightest highlights of our trip to Grand Cayman, and an experience we’ll never forget! (Note: The watercrafts were Sea-Doos, to be exact. The Fat Fish website says “Jet Ski Tour,” so for the purposes of this post I’ll sometimes say “jet ski.”)

But as I mentioned in my Grand Cayman post, I was ~~a little scared~~ terrified of doing this excursion. I consider myself a fairly brave person in general, except when it comes to anything related to creatures – bugs, spiders, and certain fish. (I’m totally okay with reptiles oddly enough.) After reading reviews that said the waves were huge including a few accounts of riders flipping over, I kept imagining falling off of the jet ski into the water where I’d immediately be surrounded by all of my worst sea creature fears.

That totally didn’t happen.

Not only were the jet skis safe out on the open water, they handled well and I had so much fun on the waves! Yes, the ocean waves are a bit more choppy than the sound side of Florida where I had my first jet ski/WaveRunner experience, but I wasn’t remarkably sore the next day. And you really have to be goofing off to flip the thing over. Let me start from the beginning though – I’m going to go into a lot of detail simply because I had several questions I couldn’t find the answers to when I was researching this tour like, Do we wear flip-flops or water shoes while riding? Will my sunglasses fall off? Is there a chance I might be attacked by the one stingray who isn’t tourist-friendly? Is it easy to get back on the jet ski from the water? and I wanted to answer all of those things here (no, maybe, it didn’t seem likely, and sort of).

Since Chris and I were staying in East End with a rental car, the Fat Fish shuttle met us at a designated spot near George Town and we followed them to the dock where we’d get on the skis. The free shuttle service had already picked up the other people in our group from their respective hotels. At the dock, we were each fitted for snorkel gear and life vests, and were given a brief overview of how to drive the Sea-Doos (which is fairly easy).

Each Sea-Doo had two compartments for storing stuff – one larger one that held our snorkel gear, and one smaller one where we stashed our camera while we were riding. We all left our shoes at the dock and rode barefoot. Chris and I both wore sunglasses in attempt to keep the water from spraying us in the eyes (and it worked until we were going 50 mph on some of the bigger waves), but we tucked them into the small compartment while snorkeling. If your eyes are super sensitive or if you wear contacts, wearing a pair of goggles might be helpful. Our sunglasses stayed on our heads while riding, but obviously if you hit the waves hard enough they can fall off.

Chris and I shared a jet ski for a total of $175, and that worked out well for us. There were seven other people in our group for a total of nine people plus our tour guide, Jordan, who was awesome. He was patient with the slower riders, but also gave enough freedom to those in the pack who wanted to take things at a faster pace. And just to squash any similar fears like I had, I never felt as if I would become lost at sea. (Is that not something you were worried about? Maybe I just have an overactive imagination). We could always see Jordan or at least another rider, and more importantly I could always see land no matter where I was on the tour. We were several miles out but I could still see the shoreline, so it’s not like any scene from Open Water. And the Sea-Doos were in great condition, although one rider’s jet ski did stop working toward the end of the tour so he had to hop on with Jordan for the return trip.

We left the dock and rode along the shoreline towards the mangroves where we entered and navigated slowly through the narrow waterways. To be honest I was still a little freaked out at this point, so if Jordan was giving us any background on the mangroves I didn’t hear him. Once we were back out in the open water, Chris cranked up the speed and we headed toward Starfish Point. As you can imagine, the further we were from the shore, the bigger the waves became. I held onto Chris for dear life for the first few minutes, but I eventually loosened my grip a little, trusting in my driver’s skills. Chris and I had already visited Starfish Point the previous day since we were close by, but this is a great way to see the fascinating little creatures (just please don’t pick them up out of the water!) especially if you’re staying in George Town. We spent maybe 10-15 minutes there.

After Starfish Point, we headed to Stingray City where upon arrival we instantly saw several huge, dark shadows gracefully gliding through the water below. I squealed like a banshee in poor Chris’s ear out of combined excitement and nervousness. The sandbar was flanked on one side by several different tour operators, various boats and groups of jet skis, but we still had our own little spot in which to interact with the stingrays away from the crowds. We hopped into the water and were surrounded by dozens upon dozens of rays, all gently swarming around the tourists begging to be fed bits of squid. Jordan brought food for us to feed the rays, and also gave us the opportunity to pet or hold a particular stingray if anyone wanted to do so (I opted to pet, not to hold). Mostly I just tried not to step on one, and we made several attempts at getting photo/video. The rays do brush up against your legs, but it’s sweet and not creepy, although I did squeal again.

Our last stop included a short time at a snorkeling site near Rum Point. I’m pretty sure the spot is called Coral Gardens and our time there could have been longer, but it was incredibly fun for the 15-20 minutes that we were given. I don’t know if they always stop at the same place, but this spot was about 15 feet deep, clear water with healthy coral. I didn’t get to take many pictures, but we did see parrot fish, sergeant majors, tangs, wrasses, and other juvenile fish. My understanding is that the afternoon/1pm tour allows for more time at each stop (plus a stop at at a bar & restaurant in Rum Point, pictured below – we went there another time on our own) and we had actually originally booked that tour, but we had to reschedule for a morning tour on another day due to Chris coming down with a case of food poisoning. Fat Fish’s customer-service was outstanding – not only were they able to accommodate us on another tour, they sent emails expressing concern for Chris and offered him well-wishes to get better! Oh and side-note, getting on and off the jet ski is easy enough at each of the spots – I did have to muster up some upper-body strength to climb back on at the snorkel spot where my feet didn’t touch the bottom of the water. If you’re worried about being able to pull yourself up, you could always ride with a partner so you’ll have help.

And just for some additional visual support, here’s a video of our Grand Cayman trip where a good portion of it shows our time on the Fat Fish tour. If you have any questions about any of it, please feel free to comment below or send me an email. I’d be happy to help!

Grand Cayman 2014 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.

May 21, 2014
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