Voyage of Discovery 6

"It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there's not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality. The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination."
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A change of pace today on Grand Cayman, where we anchor in the bay and get ashore by tender boat.  We've booked a cycle tour of the island for a change, the bikes weren't available last week for some reason.

The island is ideal for cycling - i.e. mostly flat.  There's a group of about 15 of us and once on the quayside we're saddled up and ready to go.  Traffic's not too busy in Georgetown, which has the now familiar collection of bright pastel coloured low rise buildings with verandah's and balconies - this is the older part of town.  It helps that traffic's on the left, so we don't have to think too much about whether we're on the right side of the road!  Through the commercial port area we pass through residential areas and are soon in what seems like more open country, although it's a dual carriageway with quite tidy grass verges - a giveaway that we're not far from habitation.

Not too hot for cycling, about 28 degrees, and there are frequent water stops as the heat picks up late morning.  We also make an unscheduled stop to check out a huge Iguana - it must have been about four to five feet long - basking on the verge, which casually strolled off as we approached.

Grand Cayman is of course well known - notorious? - for financial services, but also has a thriving tourist industry, although for me it has limited appeal as I'm not a devotee of lying on a beach.  That said, they do have rather a long one - seven mile beach - fringed with palms, bars and eating places.  We stopped at "Hell", a limestone formation about the size of a football field I'm told, at the North-West tip of the island; long enough to top up the fluid and get some photos or send a postcard home from Hell. 

A short dap from here to the beach for a longer stop, there's a very popular bar and eating place, with hundreds of sun beds and parasols laid out along a 100 yard stretch of beach.  A nearby hotel has its private grounds spilling down onto the top end of the beach, notable by the absence of life.  Either side of this there's a few miles of relatively empty beach to choose your spot.  My attention was taken again by the wildlife - another Iguana wandering around where the scrubby woodland met the beach, that's the guy in the photo.  A couple of tourists got too close to it, whereupon it spun around and lunged in their direction, scattering them squealing in all directions.  Ah, the entertaining tourists.  The locals got as much entertainment from us of course; a group of youngsters descended on us, the smell of something a bit stronger than finest Virginia tobacco in the air, apologetic as we wandered off in search of fresh air!  K befriends an American visitor who's brought his dog with him on holiday, they are paddling at the waters edge, a family from Utah who've come here to escape the blizzards back home also want to check us out, the passengers on the ship with the "strange" logo on the funnel .  There's also a paramedic nearby, checking over one of our fellow cyclists - there were less of us on the return journey so I think the heat may have got the better of him.

I take advantage of the free WiFi to check messages - nothing urgent of course.  Our return trip on the bikes was mostly notable for K charging through a red light - but nobody seemed to notice so no points on her licence.  Fresh cold juice courtesy of the cruise line waiting for us back at the quayside, a nice touch I thought - and several passing locals enjoyed the hospitality too.  The sun was dipping as we headed back on the tender, the late afternoon colours noticeably warmer and richer than when we arrived.