I LOVE Comedians with Guitars......You didn't tell me that part...COMPLETE 2/28/13 About This Page:

[rhinohunter]

Beautifulpix ofthe sunrise. Hope the red did not foretell bad weather. Enjoying your TR.

[chezp]

Love the photos of the sunrise. Looking forward to hearing all about your port adventure.

[mommapants]

looks like a beautiful day - can't wait to hear all about your port adventure.

[lauriep]

Wonderful shots around the ship! Looking forward to hearing about the excursion. I understand why they need to use the tenders, but hate that so many ports do it. It means that if you have a mobility handicap-- no going ashore. Boooo.

[pamcarey]

Your shots of coming in to port at Grand Cayman look very similar to mine! Can't wait to hear about your port adventure!

[jenseib]

Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily

I can't wait to hear about your next adventure!

Coming up!

Originally Posted by rhinohunter

Beautifulpix ofthe sunrise. Hope the red did not foretell bad weather. Enjoying your TR.

Nope, we had great weather, really the whole trip had great weather.

Originally Posted by chezp

Love the photos of the sunrise. Looking forward to hearing all about your port adventure.

Thanks. Working on updating now.

Originally Posted by mommapants

looks like a beautiful day - can't wait to hear all about your port adventure.

It was a beautiful day, we had a lot of fun.

Originally Posted by lauriep

Wonderful shots around the ship! Looking forward to hearing about the excursion. I understand why they need to use the tenders, but hate that so many ports do it. It means that if you have a mobility handicap-- no going ashore. Boooo.

I do think they had a ramp for wheel chair here if I remember right.

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Your shots of coming in to port at Grand Cayman look very similar to mine! Can't wait to hear about your port adventure!

I sometimes look at other peoples pictures and swear they have stolen mine because they look so similar.

[jenseib]

We had to walk through a bit of a vendor area and then out some gates.







Even though it was early, they were already trying to get us to buy their goods and direct us to shuttles and taxies that would take us to the beach, but we had our own plans and kept walking. I don’t get why they try to sell things to people who are obviously in a group with an excursion. Do they seriously think we are going to stop and leave the group to buy their things at that moment?







The walk wasn’t too far, but for those who have trouble it might be a little bit far for you. There was actually a guy that had braces on his legs and he seemed to have a bit of trouble keeping up and took a break once or twice, but he never complained one bit.





Of course the whole time we were walking I was taking pictures to the left and right. Not much thought in framing or how they would turn out, just pointing and clicking.





We saw this ship and a little boy told his parents that he could tell that was a “real” pirate ship.













Looking back from where we came.

[jenseib]

So, where are we going you may ask? Our excursion is the Shipwreck and Reef Snorkeling. When we found out that Grand Cayman was one of our stops, many people told us that snorkeling there is a must. I approached Lisa with the idea and she wasn’t too keen on it. She had never done it before, and it made her nervous. Once Brook booked the same cruise, we kind of talked about it and she said she would go with me as it is something she has always wanted to do. I told Lisa that I was going to do it with Brook and would she like to come and she decided to give it a try. That being said, I think she was still nervous about doing it.
We chose this particular one for one reason; it was pretty cheap compared to other things on the island. I think this port adventure cost $39 per person.
Our walk that we had been taking was leading us to the boat that would take us snorkeling.
And I must admit, we had some “pleasant” scenery awaiting us on the boat as well.



Remember that little patch of sand we had just past?



Those small steps there at the other end, …..That’s where we went down to get on the boat.

As we walked down the steps there was quite a bit of stones and shells there so I took a picture.



Or two



They told us to take off our shoes as they could easily fall off as we got on the boat and they weren’t about to go chasing after shoes. One other note, the sandy beach area was not even ground when you came down the steps, so that could be an issue for some people.

We loaded up and found a seat and waited. I took a few pictures while we waited. (like you are surprised by that)







Our captain.



And his mates.



I honestly can’t remember a single one of their names now, but they were all super nice and fun, but professional too. I think they all, or at least 2 of them had come from Australia. They had a passion for diving and sea life.

While sitting there I was finally able to get that picture I wanted.



We had to sign waivers and then got instructions.



By this time we were already on our way out to where we would snorkel. I was still in picture taking mode.









This guy gave us the basics and though he was serious and gave us good info, he also joked a little bit.



The seats that we sat on did open for storage. Not all could be used by us as they had ship supplies in them, but they had a couple that we could use and we threw our bags inside of that.

We were handed our snorkeling gear and then went over to get our fins. I had to get the extra big feet size. LOL! They handed me a pair at first that was supposed to fit like a 9/10 for ladies. I could tell right away that I wasn’t going to like those…and when I couldn’t squeeze my foot in it, I knew for sure they wouldn’t work, but they did have a bigger, so all was good.

So I am all set, and please take a picture of me looking at my absolute worst…I really want to post this for the world to see. The picture wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t scrunched back and added about 12 chins to my face.



Yeah, I’m all sexy like that.

One of the guys came over and took a picture of the 3 of us.





Don’t we all look fabulous!!

Time to get in. Now we were told to put our fins on right at the edge so we didn’t trip when we walked, but I seemed to have forgotten that and put them on right at the bench. LOL. But I was fine. I did the fin walk to the edge and got nervous. Not many people had gone in yet. We all were nervous about jumping in with the gear, but I decided what the heck and made a very ungraceful jump right in.

Brook and Lisa were not far behind.









And my first look under the sea.



This excursion was so much fun. My tip to you is that if you plan to snorkel, you NEED a underwater camera. It was so fun to be able to click away.



It took a little bit to get our breathing down and to be sure our masks were on our face right, but soon we were doing well, even if it looks like we are dying.



Brook wanted a shot of her with the ship behind her.



Lisa getting the hang of it.







Our guides had told us that there might be some very large fish down towards the bottom and they were NOT sharks and please do not holler shark as it will send everyone in a panic. We didn’t see any yet . We did see some Dory’s though.







Hi Lisa!



Hi Brook!





Lisa took some pictures of Brook.





And then Brook was going to take some of Lisa and I together.



But then one of the guides, who we thought looked like Owen Wilson came over and said he would take a picture of all 3 of us.



He then told us to hold our hands and make a circle and he would go down below and take our picture. This is one of my very favorite shots of the whole trip.



I wasn’t looking directly down as I was afraid of following him and then getting water in my snorkel. I then see Lisa and Brook go up for air and they are laughing. I guess the “Owen” guy was down there taking the picture’s and wasn’t paying attention and swam right into a rock. Poor guy. He came back up and scolded us for not warning him ….just jokingly of course.





More snorkeling.

[chezp]

I love all the underwater shots - very neat!

[pamcarey]

Great pictures from snorkeling!!

[lauriep]

Terrific shots of the snorkeling. I can't believe that excursion was only $39!

[jenseib]

Originally Posted by chezp

I love all the underwater shots - very neat!

Thanks

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Great pictures from snorkeling!!

Thanks

Originally Posted by lauriep

Terrific shots of the snorkeling. I can't believe that excursion was only $39!

I thought it was a good price too. It was perfect for us.

[jenseib]

We noticed the “Owen” guy swimming towards the bottom. I guess he went down to scare some fish into action.





And out came the big fish. He did sort of look like a shark when you looked at him from far away.























There goes a school of fish.



These guys came up pretty close.











We noticed that it was time to head back to the boat so we made our way back. We had one more destination yet.



Something you don’t see too often. LOL





As we went over to the shipwreck site we were given a bit of history. It wasn’t very far from where we just were either.

A little info about the shipwreck. “The Cali, built in 1900, was a 220-foot long steel-hulled four-masted barquentine that sank in George Town harbour in 1949. She was sailing from Ecuador to Cuba with a cargo of rice when she encountered bad weather and began to leak. She diverted to Grand Cayman but attempts to keep her afloat failed and she was run aground.”
Basically what we were told is she ran into shallow waters to avoid sinking, but she was full of rice and it expanded from the water and started breaking the ship apart. It sat there for many years and finally they decided to blow her up to sink her completely, but someone was a little bit generous with the dynamite and added way too much and she blew up BIG and pieces went flying all over and into town. Her remains are on the bottom and we could see quite a bit.

Time to get back in.















And I attempted a little underwater video.











This is kind of spooky looking.



I played with some of the ways I edited the pictures, so the water itself didn’t really turn to a different green or blue, just the way I edited it to see if I could get them clearer.









Another peek at our ship.



These fish just totally cracked me up.



They would swim right at me and then quickly turn away.





It was like they would say “hey let’s check her out … oh wait …… she’s scary, turn around quick”.

[chezp]

I love all the shipwreck shots - very neat!

[MayraLR]

Great underwater photos! What a great experience! I'd never do it though, as I'm a scaredy cat and I'm terrified of the water.