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Grand Cayman After The Hurricane Season

One of the ports visited on our recent RoyalCayman, $13 in Cozumel and about $19 back in
Caribbean cruise was Grand Cayman. This wasthe Miami home port. Everything else like
an eagerly awaited port since I've been thererestaurants and activities were generally
before but wanted to take my girlfriend scubamore expensive than other islands.According
diving there. We were worried that we mightto other passengers who ventured to other
miss this port since the Caymans were hitparts of the island, the damage from the
pretty hard by the hurricanes and indeed,hurricanes was more visible with fallen trees
they had closed the islands off to touristand some buildings still not repaired yet. A
travel for part of the summer/fall.few of the organized tours by the cruiseship
Fortunately for us, Grand Cayman had reopenedwere also not available. We decided in
just about two weeks prior to our cruise atadvance to do some scuba diving off the shore
the end of November.Getting to Grand Caymanand Eden Rocks Scuba Center was a 5 minute
is by tender since it had a shallow harbour.walk from the port. There are two decent
This can be a potential problem in itselfshore dives right in front of their dive shop
because we were told that if the wind andand we spend the morning diving the site
waves are too rough, the captain would cancelcalled Devil's Grotto. Instead of paying $85
the port and spend the rest of the day atUS for a typical Cayman boat dive trip, I
sea. Apparently in the past, one of theended up paying just $8 US for a rental for a
tender boat workers had fallen and gottank.I didn't go to other parts of the island
crushed to death between the boat and theduring this trip but have been to the turtle
dock during one of the rougher wave days.farm, Hell village and Stingray City before.
This resulted in the cruiseships being muchThey are all worthwhile sites to visit. I
more careful in deciding whether to allowwanted to take my girlfriend scuba diving at
tendering or not given the conditions.Stingray City in the afternoon but for some
Again, fortunately for us, the weather wasreason, only the snorkelling sections of
picture perfect during the day we were inStingray City were available that day. So
Grand Cayman last week.The downtown areaafter returning to the cruiseship for lunch,
pretty well recovered from the effects of thewe went back ashore to do some shopping. We
hurricanes and the shopping was business aswould like to come back to Grand Cayman again
usual. There were four ships at port duringfor a longer stay in the future.In summary,
the day we were at port. Grand Cayman ismost of Grand Cayman appears to be back in
above average in terms of cleaniness and thebusiness again after the hurricanes. It is
attitude of the locals for a Caribbeanone of the nicer but pricier ports to visit
island. It is also one of the pricier islandin the CaribbeanClint Leung is owner of Free
though. Bargains can still be found though,Spirit Gallery ( an online gallery
especially in the liquor where there arespecializing in Inuit and Northwest Native
examples of certain liquors being even lessAmerican art including carvings, sculpture
expensive in Grand Cayman than even Cozumel.and prints.
For example, Malibu rum was $10 US in Grand



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