Sigh. Just plain stupidly, daftly and ridiculously lucky.
First of all, we live on Grand Cayman - naturally, we think this is the best Caribbean island you can visit.
Yes, we do have traffic jams. But while we wait 15 minutes to get through these, we can smell the ocean, look up at open azure skies and enjoy either a view of the Caribbean blues or at the very least, the natural vegetation and palm trees that surround us.
Yes, it gets hot and humid. REALLY hot and humid. But that's when we jump into awesomely beautiful caribbean water which is no further than a 10 minute drive from any point on the island.
Yes, we have a hurricane season. But we are very lucky and usually only suffer tropical storms, which actually just wash off dusty plants and make every thing shine even more (never mind that glorious post-storm fragrance which is so head-swirlingly refreshing).
So all of the above (and so much more) is pretty awesome. But then, we also get blessed with days like these, when we seriously need to pinch ourselves to make sure it's real:
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| Looking at the barrier reef in Grand Cayman |
Yesterday was one of THOSE days. When, even as blessed as we are, we get treated with something even more special. Our boat trip to the Barrier Reef in Grand Cayman for snorkelling left us mesmerised - skimming over the waters you could actually spot the Starfish in the sea grass!!
And what is the first treat we get at the snorkel site?
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| Not one - but TWO - Eagle Rays playing at the Barrier Reef in Cayman |
By this point, the feeling of being Alice in Wonderland has got about as unbelievable as it seems it could get, but no. The snorkelling carried on to include a school of about 500 Blue Tangs, Trumpet Fish, each variety of Parrot Fish, Trunk Fish and an array of coral formations which left everyone breathless.
Our guests were pretty quiet with awe while moving onto the next stop - the world famous Stingray City Sandbar. After the snorkelling adventure just experienced, everyone seemed anxious that even this much anticipated attraction might be a bit of an anti-climax. How wrong we were......
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| Stingray City Grand Cayman |
We could not have been prepared for the beauty waiting there for us - the sun was glancing off the waters, giving it an "ombre" effect. With only two other boats there, the stingrays were only too happy to dance around us, eagerly looking for their squid treat, supplying cuddles and kisses. Nearly all of our favourites were there - Barbara, Snowflake, Frosty, Kim and Kisses ..... one young female stingray even swam straight into the arms of a guest and stayed there for an awesome 2 minute snuggle.....something that even Captain Mario has never experienced.
All good things come to an end, and hard as it was, the time to go on home came too quickly. However, the sunset that was the golden topping to an emerald day soothed the sadness and just warmed the memories even more.
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| Grand Cayman sunset - afternoon tour |
Like we said.....some days are diamonds.....but some are just pure Caribbean Emeralds!
