SkyWatch Friday Scenes of Grand Cayman

Skywatch Friday

February 6, 2009

Scenes From Last Friday on Grand Cayman Island

Happy TGIF! The Local Microbeer is Called Caybrew

Look at this. You can go on a wooden pirate ship and pretend that is is 1500 in the Caribbean. We watched this pirate ship leave the dock and circle our cruise ship. Right after I snapped this still photo Jack and I heard a very loud cannon boom! Apparently they try to make this pirate cruise as authentic as possible.


This is a photo of the pirate ship from the seaside restaurant that Jack and I were visiting.
This is the Jamaican man working on Grand Cayman who gave us the commentary on our underwater sea tour that we took on a semi submersible submarine. Look below and you will see what we saw when we looked out the submarine's windows. What do you see? Lots of coral and fishes.

We really enjoyed this tour. We also got to see two shipwrecked ships lying in the waters off the coast of Grand Cayman.
And here is our deep sea diver who dived off the top of the submarine to feed the fish which allowed us to see lots and lots of fish all at once.
Jack and I saw stingrays on the ocean floor on the submarine tour but these stingrays are part of water fountain in the shopping port.
Grand Cayman is the island of bankers. Over 600 banks on this small island because they have top secret accounts. This is where Bernie Madoff was trying to ship some of his money after he finally got caught with his ponzi scheme. So what do the rich folks do here? Apparently many of them invest in jewels like diamonds, tanzanite, etc. There surely was an abundance of jewelry stores. Notice above the man rolling Cuban tobacco into cigars. You can not declare Cuban cigars legally on your customs form when you head back to U.S. soil but I bet a few folks had some Cuban cigars stashed in their luggage or else they were smoking them fast and furiously while on the island paradise. Beside our cruise ship in the Grand Cayman port was a fancy yacht. Someone on our tour suggested that maybe it was Tiger Wood's yacht since he and his wife own a home on Grand Cayman. Who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe it is Maddoff's yacht!

These are the Grand Cayman parrots.

Below you can see the little restaurant on the dock where we had a nice lunch of seafood and conch fritters. Boy, of boy those conch fritters were good!
And from our seats at this outdoor restaurant you can see our ship. If you click on the photo below you can also just make out two folks snorkeling in the water with our submarine in the distant background.

Here we are sharing a piece of Grand Cayman rum cake. Very good. We bought several to bring home for relatives and neighbors.

Grand Cayman island is a lot like Key West, Florida in that there lots of roosters crowing around the island. And where there are roosters there has got to be some little hens like this one who wanted some of our lunch.

This is a local church on the island that we toured before we reboarded the ship.

Plaques on the wall are for folks lost at sea and the mahogany ceiling beams are from ships lost at see.

Hey, it is Skywatch Friday. Please go now and visit some other great Skywatch bloggers by clicking here: http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Each Day We Went Thru Elevator Doors

Each day on Costa Fortuna we went thru the elevator doors to get to where we wanted to be aboard the ship. I became fascinated with 1940's style art murals that were on the doors. Take a look. You can see the middle lines where the doors meet. Now look at the people in the murals. I just loved their cool dressy clothes. We surely don't dress as well as folks did in the 1940's.

A lady in a white mink stole. You don't see that too often today. Today we are more animal rights conscious. Have you recently heard that Ashley Judd the actress is calling out Sarah Palin for shooting wolves while flying inside a plane? I once had a white mink collar on my good Sunday going to church coat. Today I wouldn't dare do that.

This lady in the slacks makes me think of Katherine Hepburn.

Here is a black tie affair. I can almost picture in my mind the scene in real life long ago which would have included a dry martini in one hand and a cigarette in the other. By the way, on the cruise ship I noticed that the Europeans are still into smoking big time like it is a glamorous thing to do.

Blog Correction

I want to list once again all the members of our Italian group that arranged to go to sea together on Costa Fortuna. I left a few folks off the first posting of the list. Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa!

To the best of my knowledge here is a list of all our traveling companions who were a real delight to get to know and to spend time in great conversation:

Joyce and Jim Blakeslee

Josie and Frank (Ray) Cilea

Rosemarie and Jessie Flanders

Anita and Alex Hambleton and daughter Alexa

Cindy and Ray Judway

Dr. Dennis Kondash and wife RoseMary

Cathy and Michael Leyden

Vita and Joe Mule'

Joe Mule's cousin Peter Vivonetto and his friend Eileen Renzi

Ingrid and Joe Torres

Anna and John Smith

Mary Ann and David Waelde

Special apologies to the folks I left all the original list and special thanks to Ingrid and Joe Torres who helped me correct this error of omission. And a great round of applause must be given to our travel agent Frank Cilea who made all the travel arrangements, showered us with additional appetizers for our dinners aboard ship and who acted as our mediator for any problems with Costa Fortuna Cruise Lines. Take a bow, Frank. Job well done and way above the call of duty to clients.

Come back tonight for my meme post for Skywatch Friday to see what we did on Grand Cayman Island last Friday.

Videoes of Jamaican Dance Rumble

Here are two videos of the Jamaican Dance Rumble at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Bar. The Jamaican dancers are the man in the red shirt with hat and the man in the green shirt with red hat. The Costa Fortuna dancers are the man in the green shirt and black figured shorts, the man in the white shirt with black and white hat, the man in the white shirt with green shorts, and the man in the green shirt and white pants. In the foreground is a French family from Costa Fortuna who are in enjoying the dance competition. Quite a mix of people and cultures. But I missed the best shot I could have taken on this Jamaican outing. There was a very modest Mennonite lady in Mennonite long dress with white organdy bonnet shopping right next door to Jimmy's bar. But I couldn't get her in the photo because she was by the bar but she didn't come in the bar. Now wouldn't that have been an interesting photo. A very modest and proper Mennonite lady in a photo with all these Jamaican and Costa Fortuna dancers.

I suggest that you click off my Playlist music by clicking on the little white megaphone so that you can hear the music that the dancers are dancing to with such enthusiam before you click on these videos.

Video of Dunn River Falls Climb

Click here to see how people climb Dunn River Falls. Watch the mother and father near the tree on the right stumble and then get rescued by the Dunn River Falls security man. Now tell me after you have watched whether you would do this climb?

We Really Liked Jamaica

We really liked our day in Jamaica. We had signed up for a bus tour of several attractions and began our ride up the mountainside thru an area known as Fern Gully. Alas, for various reasons the amount of ferns growing on the hillsides are decreasing but we did see some. As we climbed the hills overlooking Ocho Rios where we debarked our Jamaican guide told us that Mick Jagger has a vacation home on the top of the hill and that the locals say that they know when he is in residence because the place is smoking. Apparently smoking pot is not against the law in Jamaica. That must be why Mick chose this Caribbean island. By the way Ocho Rios means eight rivers in Spanish.Take a look below at this Jamaican that greeted our bus with a fan fare at one bus stop.
Now isn't he beautiful and proud.
Look at me.

Look at me he seemed to be crowing.
So we did.

We toured Coyaba Gardens and found that many of the houseplants in Virginia grow wild and lush in Jamaica. For instance, philodrendons and begonias. You can click on the this photo to learn more.
I love the seed pods on this palm but I don't know what kind of palm it is. I think colors used in home decor reflect their country's vegetation. For instance, Sweden with long winters and lots of snow has lots of white and cool blues in its decor. So Jamaica with its lush green vegetation and colorful red flowers reflects that in its decor and its flag colors.

Green palms and a moss covered mill stone in this photo.

If you click on this photo which I took at a little historical museum in the Coyuba gardens, you will learn more about the Maroons, the first freed black men in the western hemisphere.

This is a cassava grinder. I also saw an iron contraption that was labeled a man trap. I don't know what exactly that meant except I'm thinking man trap is that like a mouse trap? Oh, good grief!

Do you like reggae music? Can't discuss Jamaica without mentioning the King of Reggae, the late Bob Marley. No Man! No Man! (That means no problem in Jamaican English slang.) No Man, I have a photo here of Bob Marley.
Here is Dunn River Falls where the strangest thing occurs here every day with the tourists. What do they do? They don bathing suits and rubber swim shoes and then hold hands while climbing up the whole length of the falls while getting sprayed with water coming down the falls. Did Jack and I participate in this activity? You bet your swim shoes we did not. We watched though and I made a video of people climbing and falling and getting rescued by the falls security team. I'll post that later today in another blog post.

I think the secret of a successful climb was continuing to hold hands. The person above you helps pull you along and up.
How did we end our day in Jamaica? By going to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Bar for drinks and dance. This place was humming with a dance rumble between the local Jamaicans and our Costa Fortuna dance group. Both dance groups were putting down a challenge to the other group to show your best dance moves. I made a video of this wild and crazy dance rumble that I will post later today. What is in my shot glass? I don't know but it was strong and I sipped it very slowly although my waiter exclaimed that the tradition is to throw it back in one long gulp. I wasn't up to that but I did admire the "secret" ingredients that made the Jamaican flag in my shot glass: red, green and gold.
Have I mentioned that for the last forty some years I have been collecting menus from my travels and adventures and have been having them framed to hang in my house? After such an exciting afternoon at Jimmy Buffet's I asked to purchase a menu but they gave me one for free along with my shot glass. No Man! No Problem!

Then back at the pier to catch the ship we got serenaded one more time with some Jamaican reggae music. The man sitting on the wooden box is playing the finger pipes that are nailed to the box.

While Cruising On Costa Fortuna

While cruising on Costa Fortuna Jack and I had many opportunities to interact with many people from many places around the world. First of all, this was an Italian ship that the Rehobath Beach chapter of UNICO selected for its group cruise and club fund raiser. We spent each evening meal with this fine group of folks. Besides Joyce and Jim Blakeslee and the travel agent, Frank (Ray) Cilea and his lovely wife, Josie Cilea here were the members of this Italian group:

Vita and Joe Mule'

Eileen and Renze Vivonetto

Anita and Alex Hambleton and daughter Alexa

Cindy and Ray Judway

Dr. Dennis and RoseMary Kondash

Cathy and Michael Leyden

Anna and John Smith

Mary Ann and David Waelde

Costa Fortuna had open seating for both breakfast and lunch in the Michelangelo Restaurant so this is when we had a chance to interact with other passengers on the ship. We soon learned that the Americans were in the minority on this 2700 passenger cruise ship. The majority of the passengers were from Western Europe which made for lots of interesting conversations for breakfast and lunch.

As for the American passengers most were part of a U.S. dance group that meets for national dance instruction and social interaction. This group chose the Costa Fortuna for their January social outing and believe me this group loved to dance. Jack and I enjoyed watching them perform their "dancing with the stars" moves on the various dance floors but believe me we did not hit the dance floor once with these highly skilled folks showing off their moves. We just sipped our tropical drinks and watched. One suave young man we named The Dancer and we loved watching him dance. Every dance was with a different lady which I learned is good manners with this group whose motto must be dance with a variety of partners to get good at dancing.

Another group of Americans was a large group of Hasidic Jews that I believe were from New York City. You could spot the men in their yarmulkes, rabbi hats and side curls and the women with their long dark dresses and hats or veils. When I was searching for the Catholic Chapel I discovered their prayer room where the men were reading the Old Testament while wrapped in their prayer shawls. For a girl who grew up in rural Catholic Ohio this was really interesting and informative.

Now let me tell you about the majority group on this cruise: the Europeans and French Canadians.They were mainly German, Austrian, French, English and folks from Belgium. We had such a great time interacting with all of the Europeans that we met. Jack and I as well as Jim and Joyce felt like we were back in Europe once more.

Here are some of the folks we met last week:

A couple from Bonn, Germany which was the capitol of old W. Germany

A couple from Munich, Germany

A couple from a suburb north of Frankfurt, Germany where we once lived

A couple from Paris, France

A couple from Switzerland

A couple from Montreal, Canada

A dancer with Costa Fortuna from Toronto, Canada

A couple from Heidelberg, Germany

A couple from Belgium

A couple from London

A couple from Manchester, England

Now what was the first thing all these couples would ask us once they found out that we were from the United States? "What do you think of your brand new president? " We would say that we like Obama and we wish him success thru these tough economic times and thru the dangerous political crisises going on all around the world. They would reply that they felt the same way and that they were happy that George W. Bush was no longer in power in the U.S. I was on a relaxing cruise so I tried to keep the political talk on a light note. Many of them would reply that they were glad that George W. was down in Texas now.

I must mention two couples and two single women from the U.S. who we had time to chat with on the ship. The two girls were from Salt Lake City and the one worked for JetBlue the airline we flew to Florida and the other one was a 911 dispatcher. They were enjoying a break from their stressful jobs.

Then there was Robert and Virginia Sotak from Allen Town, PA and Venice, Florida. Robert was a retired chemical engineer and Virginia was a retired forklift operator (of all things) and this was their 27'th cruise since retiring 12 years ago. They had lots of info on various cruise lines and on how to get last minute deals for cruises.

Last of all we met a couple from Lake Mary, Florida near Sanford who has known my first cousin Richard Dapore for over 35 years! This would be Ken and Doris Stutts who also take advantage of the last minute cruise offerings. We were totally astounded to find out that they paid just $235 apiece for the same cruise that we paid $950 apiece! Of course, we booked earlier and had an outside cabin.But isn't it a small world sometimes. Who would have guessed that we would have run into a couple who knew my first cousin. But Ken who is a retired Army chaplain told me that you say his name different than me. You say Richard Day Pore while I say Dick De Pore. And I said anyway you say it Richard Day Pore or Dick De Pore he is still my mother's nephew and my first cousin!

The photo below is yours truly getting ready for our mandatory lifeboat drill on the second afternoon of our cruise. It was a long, long drill that was given in many languages while we stood in lines like on the Titanic waiting with life vest on to board our lifeboat:

First in Italian

Second in English

Third in German

Fourth in French

Fifth in Spanish

Sixth in Portugeese

Another thing about these Caribbean cruises is this. When you dock at the piers you many times share a pier with another cruise line. For instance, in the photo below we are docked alongside the Carnival Freedom. Later that day we happened to be chatting to a lady from the Carnival Freedom who was a retired police dispatcher in New Orleans. Well,wouldn't you know it that we learned that her sister lives in Haymarket, VA. Again it is a small, small world just like that Disney ride claims.

Cozumel's Mexican Cultural Lesson

Cozumel's Mexican cultural lesson at Discover Mexico Park at the port of Cozumel gave both Jack and I a good history/geography lesson on Mexico. In the course of two hours with our personal guide David and one other couple from Edmonton, Canada we had a chance to really understand and appreciate the varied 52 states of Mexico and her diverse ancient and present day peoples and cultures. Our tour began with a video and a huge map of the 52 states of Mexico that David explained to us. Did you know that Mexico has ruins that date back over 4000 years and that they rival the pyramids of Egypt? Above is a famous Mexican art design: the tree of life.

After the introductory video we toured an excellent art museum on the premises. Above is a sand painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe that is under glass on the floor and the sand is not glued down so moving the glass might disturb the painting. (You can just see the tip of the guide's foot in the upper left corner of this photo.)

This beautiful pot made of Mexican clay was made first and then all the outside designs had to be applied by hand very quickly before the pot's moisture was lost so many people gathered around the pot to apply these designs.

Look at the intricate designs on this pottery pot.

These are just some of the art works we saw in the museum.

After touring the museum we went outside where we got to walk around a minature village of replicas of all the famous Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Totonaca cultural ruins as well as cities of current day Mexico.

Take a look at these ruins.

This replica of a Mayan ruin from the Yucatan peninsula dating back to 600-900 years before Christ was amazing. The 91 steps on each of the four sides of the pyramid adds up to 364 and the platform at the very top makes it 365 steps. The number of days in our present day calendar. Now isn't that interesting.

David told us that the best place to rent a hotel room to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day on September 15 is here on the plaza in downtown Mexico City. Across the plaza is the royal palace of long ago.

A park in Mexico City that celebrates Mexico's revolution and independence.

Another freedom monument in Mexico City which is the most populated city in the world with over 35 million people.

All of these replicas of the original monuments and buildings are in a 1 inch equals 49 inches in real life so some of these actual ruins and buildings are immense in real life.

This was the first tour that Jack and I have ever been on that we stopped in the middle for a rest and a cold drink. When said we would like a Mexican Carona beer they suggested we try a local heavier beer called Negra Modelo.

So we tried it and it was good. It is lot like an Irish Guinness stout.

This is the replica of the Zacatecan Cathedral from 1729 in Zacatecas, Mexico that many claim is the most beautiful cathedral in all of Mexico. In the facade are hidden symbols of Aztec culture that the colonial Spanard construction masters didn't realize were being added to the Catholic cathedral.

This is a replica of the Cathedral of Guadalajara which was built in 1561. Near here is where Tequila the drink first originated.

Here you see what happens when you drink too much Tequila and then try driving! Oh---ohhh! Car crash!

This replica of the Mayan ruin at Chichen Itza on the Yucatan peninsula is a meteorlogical and astronomical manmade wonder. Click on the photo to understand. At the bottom steps are two snake heads. At the very top are two snake tails. One day a year the sun creates a dark shadow along the side of all the steps going from top to bottom that completes the body of the snake. I believe David said this occurs during the spring equinox. This ruin was created sometime between 600 - 1400 years before Christ. Now how did they gain the knowledge to do this? Amazing!