stingray city...

So I thought maybe it would be a good idea to update the site with some pics of stingray city- especially also of when Lee's folks were here with us. Picture this... The island is an L shape, lying on the long side. The whole area of water between the end of the long side (western tip) and the tip of the short side (North-eastern tip) is a reef-protected bay called the North Sound (go figure). Anyway, so this is a shallow body of water, pretty big and enclosed with a reef that runs the full length from one side to the other. Theres one spot close to the reef thats waist-deep and is pure white sand... beautiful. This is where, in the good old days, the fishermen used to stop and gut the fish and turtles cos the mosquitoes were like a plague on the island. So the stingray and some fish have been coming to this sandbar for years and years to feed on the fishy remains.... Hence the name Stingray City and Sandbar. Now the mosquitoes are controlled by a plane that fumigates.... and only tourists like us frequent stingray city and sandbar! The sandy waters around the area houses millions of beautiful conch shells, all inhabited by squirmy conch... one of the favourite local dishes, after turtle soup, of course. This is a picture of the Lighthouse, which is now a restaurant and serves the best-ever Pina Coladas!

Botanical Gardens of Cayman Islands...

So once again the ladies took to the road in the open jeep, sunnies and peaks adorned to journey to the east side of the island for some exploration. We started at the Botanical garden for the Orchid show which was pretty sweet, but small and definitely better than we had anticipated... so all was good. The orchid display was almost the size of my mothers green house in the back garden, although the blooms were somewhat more exotic... we even had a few seashells thrown in for good measure. Its the Caribbean... of course there will be seashells in any display. We had a walk in the forest- it made for a wonderful change from the flat and rather barren lowlands of the rest of the island. We saw rare blue iguanas and the nests of the Grand Cayman Parrot. No parrots unfortunately. We also saw some other birdlife, which again is definitely worth mentioning as very few birds inhabit this island. In fact few creatures inhabit this island as the locals eat anything. (hence the rare and almost extinct blue iguana!) We ambled along until we found a small lake, pretty to say the least, which led to the colourful garden.... which was superb and reminded me of home a little. Except that all the beautifully lush and overgrown foliage was in bloom with rather exotic flowers. It was a real change from George Town and well worth the trip.

And the beers and lunch at the resort on the beach en route home was also well worth the trip. Overall a great day out.