Cayman Islands 2011, Day 7

The final full day of any trip always evokes melancholy thoughts. As much as I love the sun and diving, I am glad to be heading home. I miss my friends, car, apartment, and mild weather. All in all, I am just not cut out for perennial 85+ degree weather. Give me 70s with blue skies, and the occasional thunderstorm, and I am content. Also, the humidity is getting close to triple digits. And finally, I could really use time in the gym right now. The net result: I have enjoyed every moment of Cayman's 2011, but sure am glad to bidding farewell come 10am tomorrow morning.

The diving this morning was some of the best that I have done. Our first dive site was Shear Wall, and was 120 feet for 20 minutes. We dove down to the bottom of the anchor line - roughly 50 feet of water - and then followed James over the wall's crest and descended down to 115 feet of water. From there, we followed the wall observing various types of black coral. We then surfaced, and were greeted with a sea turtle gliding underneath along the bottom of the reef. Thus turned to be an omen for the next dive.

Caribbean Spiny Lobster: we saw dozens of these!

The next dive was at the reef of black coral forrest, for 30 minutes at 60 feet. When I first made my way to the bottom of the reef, I was greeted with two Caribbean lobster - one was absolutely ginormous! Another bit of an omen, as we saw upwards of 2 dozen lobsters in various nooks and crannies. The highlight of the dive - not to mention trip - then occurred. A hawkbills sea turtle came up to our group and started swimming with us! I rubbed his shell lightly, as did most of the group during the 15 minutes he swam with us, and he didn't spook! It was just so cool to be so close to such a tranquil creature in his own habitat. To finish off the dive, Nancy found another spotted drum. Then, while cruising back to the dock, a dolphin started swimming with the boat. By far the best dive day of my life!

Hawksbill Sea Turtle!

Afterwards, I gave the gear a thorough rinse down, before drying it out to pack. The afternoon was exceptionally lazy; I managed to finish my book and start another. Then James and the family - including Jolie - stopped over to say hi (and so James could collect for the diving). It was nice to see and catch up with her. Once they left, I packed up my diving gear, and we headed to Calypso Grill for dinner.

Calypso Grill, located in Morgan's Harbor, is by far my favorite restaurant on the island. It is consistently good, ever since the first time I was there back in 2002. They have this appetizer of mussels, steamed in a shallot-garlic-white wine-cream liquid. It is to die for, as they give you a basket of bread to soak up the liquid. Yummy!!! For dinner I had the Snapper Monte Carlo, which is snapper sautéed in this special garlic sauce, with shrimp and scallops, mixed vegetables, and shoe string potatoes. Desert was then chocolate bread pudding. What an excellent meal to finish such a good trip.

After dinner, we headed back to the condo. I quickly packed all my other junk, and then fixed myself a Cuba Libre. Tonight's cigar would be a Trinidad Fundadores. A medium bodied lancero, with a semi-oily wrapper and okay construction, it drew well but burned a little uneven. I think that was because the wrapper was too thin in spots. Still, the flavors were outstanding. Notes of sage, leather, and pepper. I would definitely smoke again, and it could have scored higher than the 93/100 that I gave it, had it been for better construction.

Trinidad Fundadores: One of my favorite Habanos!

Anyways, this will be the last blog posting from the Caymans for this year. It has been a marvelous trip, and I cannot wait to come back in 2012. Ciao!!!