Leaving Grand Cayman

Monday Evening January 7, 2013
The Prinsendam has just pulled up her anchor and we are away from Grand Cayman after a wonderful, warm day on a tour. As more of the passengers hear about the blog I am hoping to include many experiences from them. Arnie and Elly are avid bird watchers so they have spent some time on their verandah watching nature. Off the coast of Cuba they saw several Red-footed Boobies circling well out to sea not far from a couple of Minka whales. They had a scope so to see them you needed a scope or high powered binoculars. Today they had hoped to do some hiking but ended up staying in downtown George Town. They saw magnificent Frigates and a female Peregrine Falcon that played in the wind off the side of the ship.
The Cayman Islands are under British rule and every four years the British send someone to be governor of the islands. There are no taxes and about 52,000 residents inhabit the island of Grand Cayman. The island has lovely flowers, and many animals but it has a mixture of old buildings and more modern ones. A popular attraction is HELL. It is limestone and other organic material which over many years created a jagged collection of stalagtites which look like lava created them. They are not particularly beautiful but very interesting. There is even a post office at Hell so if you get a letter from Hell you will know it is from Grand Cayman. The tour guide who was also the bus driver was so informative that keeping up with his knowledge was impossible.
Coming from North America this was the first time I experienced riding on the wrong side of the road. I kept seeing vehicles and they looked like they would run into us but I was at the back of the bus. The islands are known for the many banks, but it is that they are registered in the Caymans as they may have buildings on other islands. At the time I thought it might be similar to boats that are registered in certain countries due to legal and taxation restrictions.
We are on a coarse to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica now and we will be arriving there on Wednesday. We are hitting the water fairly hard as I hear it as the ship slaps against the waves. As I mentioned previously I may not post as frequently as I would like due to the internet connections from the ship.