You Say Nerd Like It's A Bad Thing: Reefs, Turtles, and Hell: All At Grand Cayman

Our second port was Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is a lot flatter than Jamaica. You can also drive the whole island in like an hour since it is only 22 miles long and 8 miles wide.

It is a lot flatter than Jamaica!

The first thing we did on Grand Cayman go see a shipwreck in a semi-sub. It was cool! I learned that you never transport rice in a boat with a leak. The rice will swell and sink your boat. It's a funny tragedy. How did your boat sink? The rice got wet. Hahahaha!!!

Here's the semi-sub we rode in. It was named the Nautilus.

Cheeseburger Reef has some awesome coral that look like brains!

The ship that sank because the rice got wet!

I can't remember how the second ship sank. It wasn't as interesting as the rice ship.

The shipwrecks were fun! We also got to watch a fish feeding on Cheeseburger Reef! The reef is so named because the local Burger King got the fish addicted to cheeseburgers. The diver fed the fish hamburger buns from Burger King. It was kinda cool!

I think it's safe to say that this is a fish mugging.

After exploring the reef, we stopped by Seven Mile Beach which is one of the best beaches on the island. Unfortunately, we only stopped for a few minutes.

The water is so pretty!!!

A dock on Seven Mile Beach.

Pretty!

I wanted to go sit at the end of the dock, but alas, I did not have time.

After the stop at the beach, we went to the turtle farm. It was so cool! And there were so many turtles! And they were huge!

Look at the size of this sucker!!!

Turtle Pile!

Turtles are like puppies. You rub their bellies (in this case, neck) and they calm right down.

He gave me a good wallop when they first handed him to me but I soon calmed him down.

We're friends now!

The turtle farm was interesting. They had a big breeding tank where all the large turtles were. They ranged in age from 75-150 years old and the pond has a ratio of 3 females to 1 male. Good odds for the male turtles, don't you think? The younger turtles were separated by age too. So one tank had the 4 year olds, another had the 5 year olds, etc. The turtle I'm holding is a seven year old. They don't count the turtles mature until they reach the age to reproduce which is somewhere between 25-50 years old.

The breeders are huge! They average 300 pounds a piece. The largest turtle weighs ~630 pounds!

These turtles are 7 months old! They are considered the runts and are carefully monitored.

Mom holding one of the runts.

Isn't he so tiny and cute?!?

I wanted to take him home with me.

This little old man and his wife were so funny. He kept fishing different turtles out of the different tanks. He wanted to hold as many different ones as he could.

See the light colored turtle at the top right? He's an albino which is extremely rare.

Here is a massive iguana! They were everywhere!

After the turtle farm, we went to Hell. Literally, we went to Hell, Grand Cayman. It's a group of limestone formations that are all twisted and sharp. Hell is said to have gotten it's name because the limestone bed is what most people imagine what Hell looks like. It was pretty cool. One of the best things about Hell is that it has a post office so you can send a postcard from Hell. It was fun!

The sign at Hell.

The limestone formations. They do look a little Hellish.

They'd look even more hellish if there wasn't so much green.

Mom and Dad at Hell. Dad doesn't look too happy does he?

Me and Dad at Hell.

I forgot to get a picture in front of the Welcome to Hell sign because I was too busy filling out postcards to people. So I snapped one on the way out.

I guess you can't visit Grand Cayman without stopping at the rum factory. At least they had a cool truck for those of us less inclined to imbibe alcohol.

But where has all the rum gone?

After the rum factory, we were dropped off at the port and had some time for some shopping. We were also able to get a good group picture with the cruise ship in the background.