We had to celebrate Lisa’s last year in her 20’s with an epic trip and what better than a trip to the Cayman Islands.

Trip Information

• Time of Year Traveled: May 2016
• Total Cost per Person (Airline tickets, transportation, hotel, food, excursions, gas, etc…): $525
• How many days: 3 days

Tips:

• Rent a car.  The island is very small, you can drive around the entire island in about 1 hour.  You can take tours, but it is so much better to have a car and just explore.  PS. They drive on the opposite side of the road.  Thank goodness Lisa is such a good driver.
• There are a million roundabouts and we hate them.
• If you ask for GPS, the rental place will say it’s not worth it, just follow a map.  Again, thank goodness Lisa has a good sense of direction. I am very limited in my ability to help.
• Bring lots of sunblock.  Other than Cancun, the sun in the Cayman’s is extremely strong and even I got slightly burned fully slathered in sunblock. I couldn’t help, but show Lisa’s sunburn
• Everything is very expensive, so be prepared.  Everything is almost double the price of what is it in the US because most everything has to be imported.  A bottle of sparking water is $10.
• May is a slower month for the Caymans, so we had the beach to ourselves and it was not busy at Stingray City. We didn’t have to fight to take pictures with other tour groups or cruises and we could take all the selfies we wanted.  The hotel told us that September and October are the cheapest times to go to the Caymans since its hurricane season.

Excursions:

Blow Holes

I know what you are thinking.  What are blow holes?  The blow hole is just a special spot on the island where the waves hit a specific spot and it looks like a giant geyser.  It’s close to the botanical garden on the North Side.

Stingray City

My present to her was a trip to Stingray City and it is definitely worth it. This was an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone.  There were a few people scared to touch the stingrays, but we made them laugh when we were like no please stingrays come to us, we want to be photobombed by them.

Me and Lisa with our first stingray.  It was so fun and we even got to feed them.

The stingrays are very sweet and they are extremely soft to touch.

Here are a few interesting facts about them.  The male stingrays are tiny, I would say one-forth the size of the female stingrays. PS. They also have two penises as well.

Stingrays normally do not sting unless you directly touch where their stingers are, which makes them feel like you are attacking them.

We wanted a picture where the stingray photobombed us, but it was a fail.  Look at the guy’s hand all over the stingray.  We told him to add squid on us to have the stingray climb up, but he didn’t.

If you kiss a stingray, it’s 7 years of good luck.  I kissed two to double my luck.

After finishing at Stingray City, we got to go snorkeling in two different spots.

They will charge you $60 for the pictures, but I negotiated and we got ours for $30 by paying in cash.  What can you say, it’s the Asian in me.  Lisa of course took a selfie of my negotiating skills.

Queen Elizabeth Botanical Garden

The garden was $10 per person.  It is pretty, but it is definitely not worth going if you want to relax on the beach.  There was an orchid garden and we didn’t see anything, when we asked the guy, he said it’s there, but you have to hunt for them.

I didn’t pay to play hide and seek.  There wasn’t anything spectacular about garden and you can do the entire place in about 30 minutes.

Make sure to bring bug spray.  Poor Lisa got bitten all over her face.

Turtle Farm

The price for the turtle farm is $18 per person.  You can finish the entire park in about 30 minutes.

We went to the turtle farm in Isla Mujeres in Cancun and it was so much better. You got to hold baby turtles and you can see so many more turtles than this one and it is only $3.

Here, we only saw a handful of baby turtles and only a different type of turtles.  The only good part was taking some selfies with one of the turtles.  Some of them appreciated it, others did not.  Many of them knew Lisa was trying to pick them up and ran away.

Here is Lisa struggling to catch one.  They were like nope, don’t touch me, I hate pictures.

RumPoint Beach

This is one of the most famous beaches in the area.  It was very nice and in the summer I could see it being a very lively beach with volleyball, picnic tables, and plenty of chairs.

Seven Mile Beach

This is where a majority of the hotels are and the beach is so clear and calm.  For all those who know me, I can walk for hours on the beach. This beach was perfect, Lisa would lay to tan and I walked.

Bioluminescent Bay

I didn’t know this, but Grand Cayman has a bioluminsecent bay.  We got to do this in Jamacia. It’s a must do.  Here is the link for the tour.

***We didn’t get to do this because the moon was out, but we would have loved to.

Lisa loved the Caymans. It is cute, slow-paced and she would definitely come again.  I had a great trip and it was fun for a few days to relax, but I think once is enough because there are so many other places and islands to see in the world and so little time.

Favorite Moments:

• The first time we got in the car and realized they drive on the opposite side of the road.  Lisa and I just looked at each other and I said, just go slow, we are tourists.
• Typical day…on our phones
• On the first night, we were so exhausted, we both passed out by 10 PM.  Isn’t that sad, but we didn’t regret it at all.
• We tried to live in the moment by leaving our phones when we snorkeled.  The reef was so beautiful we had to go back and get it. Even though most of the underwater pictures turned out blurry, it made us feel better that we at least attempted.  I know, we are ridiculous.
• CNN is always a must everywhere I go.
• We ran into one of Lisa’s friends in the Cayman’s at our hotel.  She was a friend from Utah who now lives in New York.  What are the odds of someone coming down on the same weekend as us and staying at the same hotel?  Again, such a small world or maybe it always just happens for Lisa and I.
• 6 AM flights are always a struggle.  And this is how sexy we look getting up at 3 AM.
• Lisa can fall asleep everywhere.

The Struggle to Get Home:

There is always something that doesn’t go smoothly on the trip.  It happens to everyone.  For this trip, my flight got delayed due to maintenance.  Since there are so few flights that go back to the US from the Cayman’s, they kept saying that we will be boarding soon.  Well actually, the flight had an issue with a part and they had to fly the part in from Miami.  If I had known this, I would have tried to take the flight to Charlotte or Houston to get into the US and figure my way home.

After spending 10 hours at the airport, I finally got a flight into Miami by midnight.  Luckily they comped my food and hotel room, but I wondered what I did that only my flight was delayed out of all flights. I have never been so excited to go home…ever.

Well, everything happens for a reason and here’s why:

• I met two guys in line behind me from England and we became friends because we couldn’t hear what the lady was saying and I went up to ask on our behalf.  After that we continued to talk and a few clicks later, we are FB friends. So if you are ever in the states let me know and they have extended the same offer if I come to London.
• When I got to Miami, this guy in the front of the line for a hotel voucher started chatting with me about all the hassle and asked if I was from DC. We started chatting about our jobs, where I was from and he worked in banking, which we bonded over.  He then asked me what bank I used to work for and it turns out it is one of their favorite clients.  He asked me if I was looking for a new job and I told him I just accepted an offer, but you never know in the future, so we exchanged cards and said our goodbyes. As I was rushing through the airport, I actually saw him again, we talked briefly and hope to link up when we get back in the area.
• Reyna and I have been friends for about 2 years.  We chat here and there over text or Facebook, but she was in Israel for a while and then in Florida.  Originally my flight was supposed to just have a 4 hour layover and it was one of the nights she had to work and both of us were so sad.  When I told her my flight was cancelled and I had until about Noon to get to the airport, she came over right after her night shift was over and we spent the morning together.  I will tell you 4 hours flew by so fast and we laughed and shared stories over breakfast.  Even though we haven’t seen each other in years, there wasn’t a moment where one of us wasn’t laughing.  That is true friendship that when you get back together, it’s as if time never passed and it was funny. When Reyna and I first met, we hit it off immediately and luckily have stayed in touch ever since then.
• At the airport I was trying to look for Starbucks and I turned around and hit someone.  It happened to be my friend Von. I knew she was in Miami for the weekend since I gave her all the places to see, but I didn’t know when she was leaving and she didn’t know when I was leaving either.  We were laughing at the fact that the world is such a small place and she was texting her co-worker for a ride, I told her to come with me since I have my car there.  What are the odds of running into someone and getting on the same flight with a friend unplanned?

So everything happens for a reason, even when you think why, it’s to bring people together in very mysterious ways.