Week 16: To Hell & Back Again!

Have you ever been to Hell and lived to tell about it? I have, and it was actually a rather fun experience; we even met the devil. No, not THE HELL, but Hell in the Grand Cayman Islands.  Our T-shirt for this week is from The Devil's Hangout in Hell, and will be the last one of the Cayman Series (Yeah, I bought a lot of t-shirts while vacationing there).

In this case, Hell refers to a large group of short, black limestone formations. They actually look like spikes rising to the surface (like some type of torture device) and growing another foot or two into the air. The rocks are called “Ironshore,” and are found in many locations on Grand Cayman Island.

There is a local gift store (where I got this T-shirt), a post office, and places where you can get that photo op for your facebook page. The Devil was the shopkeeper and cashier - sporting a red cape, horns, and trident. He even yells out phrases like “Who in hell is next?” and “How the hell are you?”

Per US News, “travelers say the town of West Bay, where Hell is located, is notoriously hard to find.” It is nowhere near George Town or the beautiful beaches, so I can imagine people having a hell of a time trying to find Hell. Thanks to the front desk at our hotel, we were able to get there by taking the local public transportation (they look like sport vans). This will also give you a sense of where the locals live. So, we got on in front of our hotel for a pick-up and got dropped-off in Hell. What a hell of a way to go.

Our visit was about an hour, but it is worth it. Where else can you send postcards from Hell? Although there is no beach or body of water close to it, I chose to get a diving t-shirt from the souvenir shop. I just love the message on the back. Don’t call that phone number though; the Devil may answer it!

Week 14: Deep Dive!

‘Still staying on (talking about) the Cayman Islands this week and somewhat cheating.  Since we were on the topic of diving last week, I thought this week we would take you on a deeper dive. Our shirt this week is unfortunately not a T-shirt. I bought a lot of T-shirts this trip, so we opted for a polo shirt for variety (hence the cheating).

My husband wanted to go on a deep submarine dive along the famous Cayman Wall.  The Cayman Islands is probably the only place in the world where one can take an excursion of this kind. The Deep Explorer is not the usual submarine that carries 35 people through 100 feet of water. This was a three-person research submarine (One guide/pilot and two passengers) and could go to a depth of 1,000+ feet below sea level.

The submarine itself was very small and rather confining. With my history of claustrophobia, I felt that my joining in might ruin everyone else’s experience once the panic and sweaty palms began. So I decided to go on a much larger submarine (30 people) and a shallower dive (100 feet).

Since my husband would be diving alone, Atlantis had to look for another person who would ride along as a “ballast” – so the small submarine would be more stable. They have a list of locals who normally do this sort of thing. In fact, they even considered me, and I could ride for free. I still thought that it was not a very good idea.

The three of them descended along the Cayman Wall to a depth of 1,024 feet, and then slowly ascended back up again. My husband attempted to take pictures, but the lack of light, artificial or natural, just could not do any justice to what he saw, since they only had the pair of floodlights of the submarine to illuminate the darkness of the deep. He saw beautiful corals, huge sea fans and sponges (some as large as a refrigerator!), graceful manta rays, and even ‘Mr. and Mrs. Squirrelfish,’ who found a way to make their home in the depths of the Cayman Wall.

My husband greatly enjoyed his submarine excursion. He said he felt like one of those deep ocean miners or researchers in the movie The Abyss. If you are interested in trying this deep dive or the shallower one, check out this article for some good info or contact Atlantis Submarines. If we go to the Caymans again, I may actually do this dive. #YOLO

Week 13: Absolutely Fabulous Diving at the Grand Caymans

Staying on the Cayman Islands this week. This week’s shirt is one of my dive shirts. In fact, I believe this is my first one. I only started collecting them on this trip.

Diving in the Grand Caymans was a fabulous experience. I just earned my Open Water Certification the year before (when we went to Tahiti), so I still considered myself a beginner.

Given that diving the world famous Cayman Wall (wall diving is an advanced dive) which bottoms-out at around 6,000 feet, we decided to enjoy shallower diving along the beautiful Seven Mile Beach, where one can safely dive in 40 to 60 feet of water, just right for an intermediate (my husband) and a beginner (me).

My husband and I really wanted a small diver-to-divemaster (or guide) ratio. Unfortunately, the dive outfit at our hotel did not offer that luxury. Since ‘tourist-diving’ is such big business here, most of the dive shops seem to book as many people as the boat allows, often with a ratio of 20 divers to 1 divemaster: not ideal for any diving experience, let alone that for a beginner diver.

We found a dive shop that offers small group dives: Absolute Divers. The owner and divemaster, Mark, had a cold at that time so he could not dive with us, but he was able to take us to several interesting sites within our diving experience.  Before each dive, he gave us a site orientation and reminded us of various safety issues.

Diving along the famed Seven Mile Beach was awesome! We saw a great number of fishes, beautiful coral, sea fans, and barrel sponges (never saw those before and some 2 or 3 feet in diameter), and great (100 to 120 feet) visibility. It also included my first wreck dive, The Oro Verde. The Caymans sport an incredibly prolific reef life: we saw beautiful angelfish, wrasses, goatfish, yellow jacks, conchs, lobster, and even a garden of eels.

Mark is a great guide and a wonderful person. In one of our dives, we lost our new underwater camera. He probably spent 20 minutes looking for it.  Unfortunately, we did not find it. We figure either the camera was on its way to Cuba or a tarpon had it for a snack. He also drove across town to say goodbye to us and bring me this T-shirt. It would be quite challenging to find that kind of personal service with another dive shop.

For more info on Absolute Divers, check out their website at http://www.absolutedivers.com. For more info about diving the Cayman Islands, check out the diving page in the Cayman Activity Guide.

Week 12: Getting Conched Out At The Cayman Islands

My briefly writing about mudslides from Florida last week reminded me of the mudslides and all sorts of Carribean food we had on the Cayman Islands. So this week’s shirt comes from the Caymans.

I probably had a mudslide a day during our stay. It was a yummy frozen concoction, similar to a milkshake, but with alcohol in it. Best part, you could not even taste the alcohol: just the chocolaty creamy goodness.

In addition to mudslides, we also had conch. For those unfamiliar with conch, it’s like a huge escargot and one of the staple of the Cayman Islands. We enjoyed different versions of conch: conch stew, conch chowder, conch ceviche, and conch fritters. Indeed, one can really get conched out. We even had “fresh-from-the-ocean” conch and lobster ceviche in one of our snorkeling trips. Our guide just collected and prepared while we were snorkeling. That was really yummy!

One of the places that we visited was the Cracked Conch – where I bought this T-shirt. With a name like that, you got to try the conch. We even had Thanksgiving Dinner there where we enjoyed the usual turkey, conch of course, and even turtle (as a stew). I tried the stew, and it was delicious. No worries, the stewed turtles were farmed, not fished from the sea. I only had one bite though -- I kept thinking of the cute turtles.

The Cracked Conch also had access to diving. The restaurant sits on the rocky shores of Turtle Reef, which is one of the few shore diving sites on the Grand Cayman. We had our first trial dive here. The entry at that time was pretty rough – must be the ocean conditions, and the visibility was not ideal. We still had a great time and got our bearings for the next dive (More on diving the Caymans on my next post).

My Sweetie really wants to go back to the Caymans: the food is great, diving excellent, and the people are very friendly. You just have to get used to driving on the wrong (left) side of the road or get used to their public transportation system which is a series of vans that beep to greet each other, not because they are angry at the other drivers; It’s like saying “Hi”.

Gives me a chance to look forward to more conch and mudslides.