Here's our original itinerary. A few weeks before we left, Nosy Be in Madagascar was changed to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean because there had been a outbreak of the bubonic plague. While we were disappointed not to visit Madagascar, we thought it was a good idea not to catch the plague.

I've provided photos of our local positions on some of the pages, but sometimes there will be a link back to this page for orientation.

Our first port is Georgetown on the Grand Cayman Island

While this is a popular Caribbean Island southwest of Cuba, we'd not been here before. It was a short day (10am to 5:30pm) and it was a tender port, so our options for exploration were limited. Also a note on this cruise: there are 800 4 & 5-star mariners, so the privilege of not having to get a tender ticket was suspended for the whole cruise.

 
We were early in line, but our friends Jack and Sandy were ahead of us in line and got tickets for us. We were on the first open tender.

A tropical church in town.

 
Astroturf was used to cover a traffic island, but weeds grow through it anyway. A larger than life-sized iguana was placed there for decoration.

 
Sculptures around town included a brass sailboat and another with labels, "Strength"; "Determination"; "Equality."

 
We caught a public bus with the original plan of going to the botanical garden, but ended up riding the whole loop up to the north and east ends of the island. Seymour, the driver, stopped to let us take photos of these cement sculptures.

 
Oyster shells decorate a fish that's been caught—the fishing rod is next to it.

 
A shell headdress for a mermaid.
Rudy and Trudy Agouti, Cayman rabbits. (Agouti are the largest rodents, which our bus driver said were native to the island).

 
We rode the bus for its entire loop run enjoying the people who got on and off. Back in town we walked along the shore-side road for about a mile to a seaside park.

We walked along the rocky shoreline (actually fossilized coral) for a while. There were 2 other ships in port with us.

Tough plants growing on these rocks ended up looking like flat bonsai trees.

 
Large fossil remains of coral reef organisms and odd formations made for an interesting walk.

 
The crab is just a shed shell, but beautiful anyway.

 
There was even a blowhole right in town. There were more famous ones that our bus driver pointed out on our ride around the island, but his one was fine for us. We liked this colorful rooster.

 
We continued along a shoreline road going south and we spotted this park with extra decorations for Christmas.

 
Little pink lights were twisted around every branch of this tree, which probably made a nice show when lit at night. The sheer beauty and elegance of its blooms were what really attracted us and the pollinators.

We enjoyed some of the pretty houses along the way.

 
The Dart Family Park, a National Trust location, was our destination on this walk.

 
Giant milkweed and another painted iguana sculpture.

We'd walked a mile and one half south along the shore and this shoreline park again had a coral outcropping with very little sand.

 
We walked back along that shoreline road back to the tender dock and were eager to drink some iced tea and to put our feet up.

A day-at-sea sunrise...

A day-at-sea navigation chart showed where we'd been and where we were going—Puerto Limón, Costa Rica.

Dean's Log—Grand Cayman