Grand Cayman Day 2 - Driving to Rum Point

Day 2 - Driving to Rum Point

Waking up without the beeping sound of alarm felt so great....yes we are on vacation! Plan for today - driving to Rum Point; we originally scheduled a tour to Stingray City with Acquarius Sea Tours but they called us days ahead saying that the weather will not be good so we rescheduled to Tuesday. Today was Sunday and no cruise ship on port so it'll be a good day to Rum Point! While hubby was still sleeping, I went to the breakfast room to take some "grab and go breakfast" (free included in room price). The choices were limited but adequate for breakfast: muffins, bananas, cereals, oat meals, juices, yogurt, and milk. 

After the quick breakfast, I reviewed the direction to Rum Point with hubby and it was confusing with lots of rotaries. I went to the hotel front desk and grabbed some maps, the best maps I thought were from the Cayman Good Taste magazine and the Explore Cayman coupon book. We literally ripped the maps off from those books and marked the way according to Google Map on which exits to take on each rotaries!  Off we go again!

It was around 9 am when we left and early morning there wasn't much traffic which was great because we could drive slow. I was keeping track of each rotaries ahead and still we got off track when we were on Shamrock Drive but managed to get back on :) On Rum Point Drive, we saw a cute little marina and stopped for photos:

Continue on our drive, we arrived at Rum Point just before 10 so total time around an hour. There were plenty of parking spaces when we got there perhaps we were early. Got to have a picture with the landmark - Rum Point barrels :D

There were a few restaurants and shops there which owned the facilities so you can't bring your own food and drinks; that was fine since we planned to have lunch here anyways :)  Walking on the path to the Rum Point beach, I saw the colorful picnic tables with the gorgeous turquoise water on the background!!!

Here it was the beautiful Rum Point!

The colorful iguana, I didn't keep track of them though!

We got there just before people start to arrive so we quickly set up the tripod to take some photos of us! Aww the color of the water was too pretty, it looked just like in postcards!

It was a windy day so that was the reason why Acquarius postponed our trip to Stingray. But it was a perfect day for Rum Point! This place was so beautiful that I stopped at every few seconds to get some shots!

The hi-low dress looked great when windy hahahaha! Although it was windy but it was warm wind so don't need to worry about getting cold! It was so comfortable!

I told hubby to take a photo of me watching the beautiful turquoise water.....I wish that's the scene I see each morning waking up! 

The birds picked a great place to live, I am so jealous of them!

They wouldn't let me to come close LOL!

I spotted a couple went off snorkeling:

Yes...relax, you are in Cayman Islands!

Time for lunch at the Rum Point Wreck Bar & Grill, their menus were tied with a coconut on the picnic table, pretty smart right?

First, we started with the iced cold mango smoothie and virgin pina colada (I have zero alcohol tolerance, one drop of alcohol would make me cry LOL)! Hubby's mango smoothie was delicious!

Hubby ordered the catch of the day, the fish was grilled and poured with a curry sauce, pretty good!

I ordered the fried chicken tenders with BBQ sauce pretty good as well! Having lunch with good food and awesome view.....priceless!

Total cost of our lunch with jaw-dropping view: $45 USD included 15% tips :) After lunch, a group of people came back from sailing and all headed to the restaurant! We continued with photographing the beautiful area!  More photos to share:

Look at the view....paradise! I don't want to leave!

I did a pano as well, blue sky, white clouds, and turquoise water!

Last view of Rum Point before we leave:

I really don't want to leave but must move on to next stop: Starfish Point.  Ummm.....we couldn't find the pathway to get there, all we saw was an empty beach area with tons of grass and trees, oh well save for the Stingray City tour!  We drove back and on our way we stopped at the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. I didn't want to go there since I saw some photos in TA posted by other people of snakes (I can't tell you how much I am afraid of snakes, I would seriously scream and my legs will freeze). I told hubby I will not go into tree area; I will only stay on the path and if we see any snake, he has to carry me and run!! Compromised so we went in. 

I remembered I saw a coupon in the coupon book which saved us $2 per person so it was $18 USD for both of us. A model of the park:

Heading out first we arrived at the orchid garden....no orchid blooming at this time of the year so sad...we were here for orchids! Warning....we forgot our bug spray, there were tons of mosquitoes in this swap/bridge area. I stand still for few seconds for a photo and got bit at three places urg!!!!

We were amazed by the gold-ish color underneath the water, don't know what they are but we quickly ran away since the mosquitoes were having dinner on us!!!

But as soon as we got out of the swap area, it was fine!! On the path to look for the island Blue Iguana, we passed many strange looking plants and flowers:

I love how this yellow flowers hanging down!

Next, we arrived at the color gardens where each garden has a theme..this one my favorite pink:

Hum..is this a tree branch or the tree trunk?

This exotic plant..don't know what it called...it's weird that the flowers bloom inside like a pot of grass!

We got out of the color gardens and arrived at the palm tree area/ lily pond.....no blooming lilies as well :(

More unique plants and flowers:

Ahhh finally we spotted a Blue Iguana taking a nap underneath the picnic table!

Hubby was brave enough to slowly and quietly come up close to take some photos, careful don't touch it since it'll bite!

Mission accomplished, we can leave now LOL!  Hubby insisted to walk to the iguana habitat to see more iguanas....NOOOOOOO!!! I was in high alert walking the trail to make sure I don't see any snake on the branches!!! Hubby walked in front first to check before I proceed hahaha! More plants of flowers on the way:

We saw a bird as well, it stopped and posed for us :D

A little lizard on the tree:

A toad climbing on the tree too!

We arrived at the iguana habitat, it was walled, and hubby peeked inside, no blue iguanas!! Alright time to run back!!!

We made it out of the park without seeing any snake yay!!!! Don't forget to check underneath your car before leaving :D

The drive back to the hotel wasn't bad at all, just follow signs to Bodden Town, then to George Town, then to Seven Mile Beach! It was so much easier than driving to Rum Point! We made it back to the hotel around 3 pm and rested a little before we headed out again for dinner. We picked Duke's for dinner tonight!

I haven't seen those oil lamps for a long time!

For appetizers we ordered the baby back ribs, they were delicious!

The garlic and butter shrimps were great too!

I ordered the Seafood Jambalaya, it was like the seafood parella, a little bit salty for me!

Hubby ordered the classic seafood steampot, it was ok only.

Total cost of the dinner with a coke and a mango smoothie: $95.31 USD included tips!  Pretty expensive but it's Grand Cayman! Duke's appetizers were much better than their main courses we thought! 

We had a wonderful day today, took a lot of great photos of Rum Point!! Good night Grand Cayman..see you tomorrow!

Arriving Grand Cayman

Winter escape to Grand Cayman

It has been freezing cold and snow is coming on its way but we escaped it (well at least for a week) to Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands where average temperature is mid-80's!!! I have been to George Town only half a day during a cruise years ago so it's great to be able to spend more time to explore the island. Usually weeks before my trip, I will start packing and having daydreams about my trip but this time I have been too busy with work to even think about it and then before I realized...it's time for vacation! Don't worry, I planned ahead for this trip and booked all the excursions :)

The 4 hour and 15 minutes flight felt so long but thanks to JetBlue's in flight TV kept me entertained. The flight attendants started to pass out customs and immigration forms; a hint that we are soon arriving the island! Each person has to fill out a white cardboard embarkation form, you must keep the bottom section till you leave the island! Only one blue (customs declaration) form is required per family with the same last name. I carried two pens with me hahaha prepared right? We finally arrived at Grand Cayman wohooo! The moment I stepped out of the flight oh boy I wanted to change my sneakers into flip flops right away....it was warm and humid! The airport is very small so you actually have to walk out of the plane via the stairs and then walk into the building. The passport control was slow then we claimed our luggage and headed out to car rental. The lady said go across the street and turn left....we found out it was actually turn left and walk to the end of the road and then cross the street!  It wasn't a long walk though!

I reserved the car weeks ahead on Expedia, the rate for one week for a small compact car is $128 included tax, not bad at all compared to the price of taxi from airport to hotel around $24! I also did my research from Trip Advisor and found out that a driving permit is required and it will cost $20 USD but someone said that an international permit will work so hubby went to AAA and got an international driving permit for $15 and it's valid for one year. Important to note that driving in Cayman Islands is on the left side.......and most of the cars' driver's side are on the right!!! Sighh by the time we arrived all the available compact cars' driver's seat are on the right and the only left side cars are the big SUVs which we don't want to upgrade.  Hubby took a few seconds to practice in the parking lot and off we go!! 

Warning...I printed out a map from Google map but it wasn't detailed enough to make it out of the airport area to Seven Miles Beach!!! We followed cars and generally guessing on the direction "right turn" LOL and there were tons of rotaries but we managed to made it to our hotel...Sunshine Suites! I highly recommended to print out a more detail map to show at least each rotary on which exit to take! By the time we arrived the hotel, it was almost 4 pm! We were upgraded from a studio to a one-bedroom suite; difference was a king bed instead of queen and addition of a sofa bed. I got a good rate from Expedia - $122 per night excluding tax, good deal for Cayman Islands! Our room was clean, it has all the amenities, the only down sides I could think of were the AC was loud and the bathroom was small.

Our one-bedroom suite with a spacious sitting area.

A large fridge to store drinks!

The king size bed, it was pretty comforty!

Small but clean bathroom.

As soon as I arrived in the room, I changed into my shorts and flip flops! There was an event tonight at Camana Bay - Parade of Lights from 6-8. I was thinking to take the bus to go since it will be dark when we come back and hubby wasn't familiar with the road nor diving on the left nor on the right side of the wheel! I checked with the front desk, the lady said best to take the taxi back since Cayman bus at night wasn't reliable...urg!! Hubby decided to drive! Venture off we go driving slow; speed limit was usually 40 mph! We passed Camana Bay when we were driving from the airport to the hotel was we know the way, it was straight down on Esterly Tibbetts Hwy, passed two rotaries. We safely arrived Camana Bay yay!!!!

We walked to the waterfront area to see if we could find a table with a good view for dinner but unfortunately all the good seating were reserved. We ate at The Waterfront Restaurant:

We got there early so it was pretty empty. The salt and pepper hahaha! 

 We ordered two appetizers and two main:

The Moroccan meatballs, it was alright but at $9 (Cayman Island Dollars) for 3 meatballs....pretty expensive!

 Calamaris were pretty good.

Hubby ordered the lime and chili shrimp pasta, it was the first time we had spicy pasta and it was good!

I ordered the steak sandwich, it cooked medium as I wanted and it was yummy! The total cost of the dinner was $74 USD (the bill showed both amount in Cayman Dollars and US Dollars, the restaurant automatically converted to US Dollars by $1 USD = 0.8 CI which is the standard in the island), ohhh forget to mention $74 USD included 15% gratitude. Most restaurants included 15% tips in the bill already so don't forget to check!

After dinner, we walked around to get a good viewing area and it was packed with tourists and locals.  We heard that the show actually starts at 7 pm. As we were looking for a good spot, we passed trees wrapped with lights and a big Christmas tree - the atmosphere was filled with holiday spirits!

The locals already reserved the best viewing area with their beach chairs and coolers. We walked pass the big Christmas tree, it was beautiful at night with the lights turned on and a lighted water fountain :)

This was the 2nd time that I associated shorts with Christmas tree, love the feeling!

 I went up close and took a pic of the beautiful Christmas tree, the clouds on the background made the photo dramatic :)

All the spots right next to the water were filled so we stand on the back row but it was unobstructed because people were sitting down in front of us. We waited and waited for it to start, the wait was so long we felt like. Then the lady in front of us told us it should start at 7 pm but it's already 7:06 right now but it's Cayman Island late is normal LOL! She was also nice to point us to the other side of the bay where the tents were for less people, greater chance to get a good spot, and the view should be better! We took her advise and walked to the other side of the bay where the tents, yep she was correct, it did offered a better viewing since the buildings of the bay is now the backdrop. The show finally started at 7:15 ish!!! 

The first boat was decorated as a Christmas tree with lights, you couldn't see from the photo but you could see from the water reflection:

The second boat was by the Glass Recycling with a lot of multi-colored LED lights:

The 3rd boat was Santa themed and Santa and Mrs. Claus were on the boat :)

Then the other smaller boats came out from the other side and didn't came over to our side so we decided to leave so we don't need to stuck in traffic to get out of the mall. It was a fun event but we weren't impressed. The tents filled with local vendors:

Driving at night was an adventure since it was our first night on the island, on the rotary, we took the wrong exit to Seven Mile Beach!!! That led us to West Bay Road instead of Esterly Tibbetts Hwy but it still work to get back to our hotel. We passed by many hotels along the Seven Mile Beach and then saw the sign Sunset Suites but we passed it LOL! We had to go around to the next rotary and turned back but we safely made it back to our hotel! That concluded our first night at Grand Cayman :) 

We checked the weather forecast at home and it was 90% of snowing so we escaped the snow hahaha or else the scene at home would look like this:

Can't wait for tomorrow!