Cayman Trip - Day 6: Sunburn and Coconut Water

I woke up on Wednesday and I was SO Sunburned! I had tried so hard to stay covered from head to toe in SPF 50 sun block that I was actually surprised by the day-glow red color that covered by shoulders and back. I decided that what happened is that I used the very last of the spray can of sun block and the last few sprays of it probably didn’t have the potency of the rest of the bottle (or it could have been that I was just playing out in the sun all day). Unfortunately, Matt was also the color of cooked lobster, so we decided it may have to be a non-beach day.

I took a walk that morning over to the gift shop at Rum Point and looked for a shirt I could wear while swimming, because I wasn’t going to let this sunburn ruin my entire trip. We also bought a new bottle of sun block – since I had used the last of it. They had some really cute stuff in the shop, and I made a note to come back and get more stuff later.

I did a lot of reading and relaxing, and then I decided it would be fun to go to the Botanical Park. We drove past it several times on our way to and from our blue house. I invited everyone, but only my Mom and sister Val wanted to come with us.

The park was located in the interior of the island, on the road that cuts up from the South to the North. It was a really hot and humid day, but I was armed with water bottles and Matt’s cool camera and I was ready to have some fun.

We started at the part of the park that was called the Forest Walk (or something like that). It went through a bunch of the island’s natural plants. There were palm trees, and poisonous trees, and bushes, and all sorts of stuff. One of the coolest things was the Blue Iguana. They were everywhere. Those things are BIG! We walked out toward a little lake and then made our way back around to the visitor’s center. On our way back we ran into some researchers that were tracking the Iguana. It was mating season, and they were tracking 3 dominant males. We happened to run into one of these males about this time, and I know why he was in charge. Mr. Iguana was very large. He had been following a girl that I think we scared away, so I was happy to get out of his way and let him follow her. Seriously big guy.

Around the visitor’s center there were flowers and gardens set up. We walked around and made it to a historical house. It was an old house from the island that they moved to the park. There was a yard and garden and small farm in the back. We were about to leave (to get back in time to go to dinner) when we heard a tour guide ask us to come over and see how to open a coconut. This is when we met our friend Hal. He opened the coconut with his Machete and then opened it for us to have a drink of the water and a piece of the meat. He also made a little boat for us out of the husk. He kept telling us that he was just off work and had to go, but then would take us and show us something else. We went back into the garden where he showed us a pineapple plant, and a banana tree (pretty cool – I had never seen a banana tree before). We must have appeared to be very friendly people, because it didn’t take long for him to start telling us about his personal life (and that of his family). I would go into what he said but it wouldn’t be appropriate for a family friendly blog. I was a little embarrassed (especially because my mother was there!). But he just kept talking as if he were still discussing the weather or the plants. Interesting. We spent some time with him and then he left and we followed.

This is Hal and a Banana Tree

We needed to stop by the store to get some more food before we went back to the blue house, and we had dinner reservations for 6:00 (see – we learned to make reservations!). We stopped by this little market on the way home. It was a small little place, and we were surprised to find out they only took cash! Luckily they took US cash and not just Cayman.

Loaded with food we made our way home and soon everyone was ready to go to dinner.

Our first plan was to go back to the Kaibo – but they had a private wedding and were not open. So we made our reservation at the Over the Edge. It was a longer drive, but very nice. The verdict on the food was mixed. I had a very nice piece of chicken. Most people enjoyed their fish (except my mom and Preston – they ended up with something that looked like scrambled eggs. Neither of them finished the meal). The sun set while we were eating, it was very pretty and really nice. We stuck around for dessert and had some delicious Rum Cake (Yummy!) and some key lime pie (also really good). I thought about going back just for the dessert.


Dinner was over and it was again time to go back to the house and get ready for another day of fun.

Coming Soon - Day 7: East Side