[09.01.2016 Saturday]
At 7:15 we get up and go for breakfast. Since we have to get off the ship early tomorrow I start packing, 9:15 we meet up with the group. The island of Grand Cayman is extremely flat unlike the other islands, it should be a more relaxed bike ride than the last. In addition, the island is very small, it is considered the Switzerland of the Caribbean since no taxes have to be paid, every large company has at least one branch office or “mailbox” here. It is not possible to go directly to the island with a cruise ship, we have to drop anchor and tender again 300 meters before. The main attractions for tourists are stingrays that swim in the shallow water and can be stroked, water sports and beach and a turtle farm.
We ride in a small group and are only seven cyclists plus two guides. The people from the AIDA Aktiv team are all very relaxed, this time “Fifty” is our guide. We ride along the water and enjoy the beautiful weather, stop at a rum cake stall, look at a fire department and then end up in the town of “Hell” at the Hells Post Office, so the post office from hell 😉 The islanders have realized that this is a small tourist attraction and you can have your picture taken with the devil, browse the two souvenir stores and buy funny postcards and also send them. We manage in the twenty minutes stay just so seven postcards to write and send, hopefully you can read the postmark well:-D
We continue to large mangrove forests and then to a golf course. The golfers have to share the course with quite large iguanas, which looks very interesting.
At the 7-Mile-Beach, a white beautiful sandy beach we have 90 minutes stay and enjoy the water. We reach 15 o’clock the port, and have only 30 minutes until the last tender boat goes. I want but absolutely still to the Hard Rock Cafe that should be near and under quite rushing and stress, we find it yet, but hardly have time to look properly.
At the harbor we stand with hundreds of others who also want to get back on the ship.
In the cabin, we fill out travel documents necessary for our entry into Jamaica tomorrow and head to the officers’ shack for a few cocktails on our last night.
I buy the film that was made of our trip, it is of course overpriced, but at least we are in the film and it is a nice memory.
After dinner we gamble away our last coins on the pinball machine and watch Tommy’s Primetime again, which is particularly funny today. Tomorrow it’s time to pack up and get off the boat.