Catching Rays with the Stingrays

After an incredibly busy spring, David and I decided to start off summer right with a week to ourselves in the British West Indies.  It had been two years since we’d been on an extended vacation alone … not since the Maldives had we relaxed on a beach for days, just the two of us. 

Now that we’re back in Texas, the warm waters of the Caribbean are closer than ever.  We chose to visit the Cayman Islands because we’d never been there before, it was just a two hour flight from Houston, and we’d heard great things.

We drove down to Houston on Memorial Day to fly out of IAH, and landed in Georgetown early Monday afternoon.  We checked into the Westin Seven Mile Beach with plenty of time left in the day to relax by the sea. 

Seven Mile Beach is absolutely gorgeous … a seemingly endless stretch of pure white sand bordering azure water.  The water was so crystal clear that on Saturday afternoon, as we were lying on a float out in the ocean, we could see the stingrays and fish swimming below us. 

Most of our vacation time was spent hanging out on the beach.  The Westin hosted different activities throughout the week, including a Flick ‘n Float on Monday night.  Unfortunately the movie was The Blindside and while it’s a great film, it is way too sad to watch on holiday.

Every day, the hotel featured live, local bands and happy hour drink specials at sunset.  So David and I made it a habit each night to be on our chairs next to the water, sipping cocktails and watching the sun go down.  We saw some really beautiful sunsets throughout the week.

We got very lucky with the weather, because even though hurricane season was right around the corner, it only rained off and on for a few hours during a couple of days.  Even then, we hung out on the beach under our umbrella or swam.  We were wet anyway, so the rain wasn’t going to hurt!

The Westin is also home to some great restaurants, like Ferdinand’s, known for having one of the best Sunday brunches on the island.  We ate lunch there one day, and the creamy mango mousse for dessert was out-of-this-world good. 

David and I immersed ourselves in the cuisine, and tried specialities like conch chowder, West Indie vegetable curry at beachside restaurant Tortuga, and crispy fish tacos at a small tiki hut down the road called The Sunshine Grill.  The Sunshine Grill is run by a British expat, and David and I spent the dinner quizzing each other with the vintage Trivial Pursuit cards at our table.  With answers like The Soviet Union and Twiggy, our scores weren’t the best!

Eats Café and Yoshi Sushi across from the Westin were favourites with the hotel crowd.  Both restaurants look like hole-in-the-wall joints from outside, but inside, they offered yummy foods like coconut-crusted shrimp and tasty dragon rolls. 

To work off all of the island food, one day David and I attempted to swim out to a small reef in the middle of the ocean.  However, the hotel staff was having none of that and actually sent someone out on a jet ski to call us back in when we were nearly there!  Oh, well. We saw plenty of cool fish and other animals close to the hotel, and at Rum Point reef.

One of the main land attractions on the Cayman Islands is the Turtle Farm.  Christopher Columbus named the Caymans ‘Tortuga,’ or turtle in Spanish, when he first arrived, as he saw so many turtles from his ship that he thought the island was surrounded by small rocks.  Sadly, this is not the case anymore and we did not see one wild turtle the entire time we were there. 

The farm was built to change that.

Since its foundation in 1968, the farm has released more than 30,000 yearlings out to sea.  At the farm, turtles are raised and bred for release, and a small portion is also harvested for its meat and other traditional island customs, like jewelry.  This ensures local traditions are kept alive in a sustainable way. 

One overcast morning, David and I took a break from the beach to visit the turtles and get up close and personal with a few little ones.

That afternoon, we rented a couple of paddle-boards and decided to try our hand at the popular activity.  People in Austin are obsessed with paddle-boarding on Ladybird Lake, but I wanted to try it, and fall off into much cleaner waters, before taking a crack at it in the ATX.

It was definitely not as easy as it looks, especially in the ocean with strong currents pulling me out past the safety buoy, but I managed to stay on the entire time, and steer myself back to land!

David also tried something new when we signed up for a jet ski tour out to Stingray City.

Our guide was fearless, and he assumed we were, too, so once he gave us a quick overview on how to operate the jet skis, he flew past us, going at least 40 mph!  I couldn’t believe how fast we were going, even getting airborne over the waves, so I started off a bit slower.  Luckily, another couple hit a wave going too fast and it pushed them both off.  This was my chance to catch up!  After that, I became a bit more fearless and really pushed it.  At one point, I even made it up to 50 mph! 

First stop on the tour was Stingray City.    

Stingray City is a shallow sandbar where throngs of wild, southern stingrays congregate.  Tourists began showing up to view the stingrays, and feed them.  Now, the stingrays swarm the area and the swimmers looking for their next meal.  They are incredibly friendly, and the moment we pulled up in our jet skis, they swam over to say hello.

From there, we visited a beautiful reef near Rum Point, and stopped at Starfish Beach. Fun fact! Starfish can actually roll themselves over if they somehow find themselves upside-down.

We ended our tour at a small beach shack called Kaibo for a midday snack.  If anyone is planning a trip to Grand Cayman, we highly recommend this excursion.  It was such a fun way to explore the waters around the island.

From stingrays to turtles and snorkels to jet skis, our week in the Cayman Islands was a sun-filled, relaxing escape.