I've died and gone to heaven!!

After we got back from Galapagos, I had 2 nights in Quito. Vee left on Saturday night which was another sad goodbye as we had been travelling together for over 2 months. On Sunday afternoon I headed to the airport where I had my passport checked and was interrogated 3 times before I even got into the check-in line. I'm not sure if it's normal procedure or if I just look a bit dodgy! Arrived in Cancun via Panama and we were held on the skybridge while 2 beefy men with AK47s, 1 police guy and a cute dog made us put our bags on one wall and stand with our backs to the other while they tried to figure out which of us had attempted to smuggle something into the country! Then had to go through a special customs hall (for passengers arriving from Central America - can't think why!) where I got the red light and they wanted to search my bag. By this time it was about 10.30pm and my flight the next morning was at 7 so I was fairly desperate to get to bed! So, several backpack straps, clips and 2 padlocks later they were rifling through my exploding bag. Finally managed to escape, got halfway through the airport to the exit when I was told that you couldn't take the luggage trolley any further/ What?! So, what exactly happens if you have several bags? After a bit of huffing and puffing I loaded myself up and staggered towards the exit where the heat just hit me like a smack in the face! I needed to call my hotel to get the shuttle bus to pick me up, only to be told that the public phone was all the way back near the customs hall. Aaaargh!!!!! Anyway, not long after I was safely tucked up in my great hotel room - huge kingsize bed, big telly and great bathroom. Shame I had to get up in 4 hours!

The next day was a bit of an eye opener. Now I know that most Americans couldn't give 2 hoots about cultural sensitivity (most, I said, not you guys reading this!) and they all think they own Mexico but it amazed me that they don't even attempt to say 'hola' or 'gracias' to the locals but talked at full speed. The people I spoke to were flabbergasted to hear me even saying one word and they were so appreciative (even though I didn't understand what they were saying back most of the time!). Arrived in Miami (again, I'd forgotten how s*** American Airlines is - you don't even get a packet of peanuts or a biscuit and unless you take your own headphones, you can't watch the TV - it's worse than a budget airline). I was, however, finally in a 1st world English-speaking country where I could understand the headlines (finally found out about the oil slick - oops!), buy some gossip magazines (William is marrying Kate and Brad and Jen might be back together!) and flush toilet paper down the toilet rather than putting into a stinky basket! Taking off from Miami was beautiful as you fly over Florida - the water was crystal clear and you could almost see the fish swimming about (well, not really as we were 1000s of feet high but you know what I mean!).

Arrived in Grand Cayman for what was to be 5 days in paradise staying with Greg and Emma. Greg was in a meeting so Em picked me up from the airport which was a challenge as we had only met once and that was 4 years ago but the backpack gave it away and we were set. Within an hour we were on a boat with Em's sister and husband (Tara and Tony) and heading to Rum Point where we waded to shore in the most stunning water I have ever seen. Had lunch on the beach and then got back on the boat to go to a sandbar close to Stingray City where there were tons of huge stingrays just swimming up to us. They feel a bit like wet yoga mats or mushrooms and were so gentle and curious. Of course, no photos as I still hadn't got a replacement camera. Back at the house we walked all of 30 seconds and were on Seven Mile Beach - stunning white sand and crystal clear water right on the doorstep, so we had a civilised glass of wine on the beach while the sun set. What a great first day.

So, the Cayman Islands - first sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1503 who named them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake who landed there in 1586 and named them the Cayman Islands after the word for alligator. Until the 17th century the only people who lived there were pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition ("Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition"!), shipwrecked sailors, deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica and slaves. Great Britain took control over the islands in 1670. There are 3 islands - Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac but it's only really Grand Cayman that has anything on it, including people! It's area is about 76 square miles and the population is about 50,000 with a huge percentage of that being expats. The nearest neighbour is Cuba, 180 miles north, followed by Jamaica at 195 miles to the southeast and Miami which is 400 miles to the north. The islands are right in a hurricane zone and the season has just started (great!). They have experienced the most hurricane strikes in history. In fact, Greg lost his first house to a hurricane - 11 days after he'd moved in!

On Tuesday Em left me her car so I pootled around trying to get my bearings. As a British territory, they drive on the left but I got confused with the speed limits. The signs said 30 but I didn't know if it was mph or kmph. The car was in km but after driving a few miles at what was 20mph, I realised it had to be in miles! The people behind me must have been tearing their hair out. Most roads have a limit of 30mph which is bloody slow and the fastest road on the island is only 50mph! Still, probably a good thing considering how some people drive! She also got me a great discount on a camera (her firm owns the camera shop!) so I was armed for any underwater photo opportunities!

My whole week was very chilled out - I spent every morning on the beach out the back of the house, did some snorkelling, had a drive into the metropolis of Georgetown (the capital) to stock up on duty free stuff and tried to avoid the huge fat Americans getting off the 3 cruise ships that arrived every day!

On Wednesday Em went to Miami overnight so Greg and I headed out to a bar called Sunset, to watch the sunset - which I missed as I was too busy talking! We then had jerk pork and chicken which is a local dish, accompanied by festivals which are like deep fried savoury doughnuts (yuk!). Em, in the meantime, was doing some underwear shopping for me in Victoria's Secrets as my knickers are getting a bit worse for wear and there's no M&S in South America! Poor thing, she called Greg up saying it was a bit strange choosing and buying underwear for her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend! She also bought me some stuff which was so kind as it veered away from my sensible travelling pants!!

On Thursday I had booked 2 dives in the morning. I was a bit nervous after my last experience in Vanuatu when I panicked. Got on the boat and asked the instructors to keep an eye on me. Ended up being taken under the wing of Steve from Canada, who put me in his group and said he would look after me. I don't know what I had been worried about! I was absolutely fine, no jitters and descended no problem (with a turtle flying around in front of me!). I did my first wall dive and went to 107 feet (which is about 32 metres and I'm sure I'm only supposed to go to 18 on an open water certificate - never mind!). There wasn't a huge amount to see but it was stunning - crystal clear water and the corals looked like a garden. Beautiful. The 2nd dive was also pretty and we saw a huge stingray on the seabed under the sand and various other creatures. Steve, as promised, looked out for me and made sure he pointed out all the stuff to see. He had been talking to me earlier about night diving. I had always thought you needed to be an advanced diver to do a night dive so I had never considered it. I also thought it would be scary. He said it was his night off but if I wanted to go, he would come with me and be my buddy. Decided I shouldn't let up the opportunity so booked it. More on that later.

Greg took the afternoon off work so we headed out to lunch and then to a place called Hell! It's an area of land that has a load of limestone formations and there's a post office where you can get your postcard stamped from Hell! Hmmm. We then drove around the island for a bit before getting me back to the dive centre for my adventure. And, what an adventure I'm so glad Steve talked me into it. It was awesome (there's that awful word again!). There were 4 other people who went with one instructor and Steve took me on a private tour. It was a bit nerve-wracking at first as you put your head under the water and realised you were entering into an abyss but it was incredible. The colours were just stunning and you see very different stuff at night than during the day. At one point Steve told me to cover my light and he waved his arms around an anemone thing. All of these lights shot around like fireflies - it was some kind of luminous plankton - I almost swallowed my regulator, I gasped so much! I then felt something on my legs, looked down and there were all of these little maggot-type things - they are bloodworms and are attracted to the light. There were hundreds of them swirling around my torch. I put them near the coral and suddenly an anemone started eating them and they got sucked inside. Weird! We also swam to the wreck of the Oro Verde which is apparently the most photographed wreck in the world and appears in lots of videos. There were lots of fish hiding inside! Anyway, I had the most amazing experience and think I'm hooked so looking forward to my next night dive. I'll post some pics when I get them from Steve (which I will naturally pass off as my own!) so you can see some of the stuff we saw down there including a lobster, aero crabs (which look like huge mutant daddy longlegs!), cleaner shrimps, lots of fish, eels and so on. Amazing!! I'm just sad I waited til Thursday to dive as I would have loved to have done a couple more - still, Central America awaits!

On Friday night, we watched the sunset on the beach with a bottle of champagne, guzzled an exceptionally strong ginger martini, I borrowed shoes/bag/bangle from Em (and then struggled to walk as her feet are bigger than mine!) and we headed to a local Italian restaurant where we drank red wine followed by port. At some point I crossed the line from sober to s***-faced and Em and I were staggering around all over the place on the way home. Fairly early night as I had to get up at 5am for my flight to Cancun via Miami (plus I think I pretty much passed out!).

So, thank you Greg and Emma for a wonderful 5 days in paradise. I really felt as though I was on holiday rather than travelling and Cayman is a fantastic place to live - one day maybe I'll have that house on the white sandy beach......