As luck would have it the wedding lined up nicely enough that I could not only join the wedding, but spend two weeks on the island of Grand Cayman scuba diving in some of the best conditions anywhere in the world.
Grand Cayman is a small group of islands made up of G Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac that is located one hour south of Miami right under Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Read more here!
I spent the first week with Paul, Shannon and her family at the Hyatt using Shannon?fs points. We all stayed in the same room, and it was (ehem) slightly crowded, but nothing a few glasses of Havana Gold and some good people could not overcome. The days were spent diving, drinking and getting to know each other the best way I know how; by running into the room drunk and steamrolling the parents at 2 AM. Classy Guy.
Ironically, Shannon?fs father Tom is a world traveler with numerous contacts around the world, and has hooked me up with a contact in Peru who will help me set up a tour to Macchu Picchu in a month. This contact is the grandson of a former President of Peru, so I think I will be in good hands.
We moved to the other side of the island and into the Cayman Castle. Have a look at the website http://www.caymancastle.com to get a feel for the level of posh that went into building this thing. Very nice! The place is owned by a friend of Pauls and we got the friends discount making my stay in a 4 bedroom three story mansion overlooking the blue and green lagoon a bargain at $500 for the week. Its good to have friends.
Both families were staying in houses close to each other and there were about 35 relatives and friends on Cayman for the wedding. One of the houses sits just off of Julies Wall, one of the premiere dive sites in the Caribbean. Only a 7 minute kick out to the site, and you are on a wall that is home to lots of caves, hammerhead and reef shark, turtles, huge lobster, sting rays, moray eels and hundreds of thousands of colorful fish. Directly off the wall is a sea canyon that drops 6000 FEET! Thinking about what monsters live there down in the deep makes the diving that much more exciting!
Paul and I spent most days diving while the nights were epic parties with the families.
We all just could not get enough of that Big Black Dick. For those of you who don?ft know the story of Richard the Pirate, it?fs a good read. Richard was abandoned on an island where he learned to make Rum. Richard was a large colored man, and after he served his time for piracy, he went into business selling rum under his pirate name Big Black Dick. Go on, you say it! BIG BLACK DICK. There is even a song.
One day we chartered a boat trip to Sting Ray City, a small sand bar where boats can easily anchor so the guests can stand in the water and play with the dozens of huge sting rays that live there. Now I grew up in California scared of rays, and was told daily to do the sting ray shuffle when in the water so not to get whacked by the razor sharp bone barb on the tail of the rays.
One good way to over come that fear is to stand around 300 people in waist deep water while the rays fly by you looking for squid that the tour guides throw in the water from the double-decker tour boats that come from the cruise ships. One great picture on the photo section is of a Spanish grandma on one of those boats trying to get into the water with a LIFE PRESERVER around her waist thinking it was a floatie.
While in the water, you grab a piece of squid, wait for one of the 4 foot wide, 6 foot (head to tail) flying sharks to come by. You stick the food under their body so they can smell it, and them pull the squid up to your chest and they will literally HUG you. More great shots of our party members KISSING sting rays, what an experience that was!
The wedding ceremony was a beautiful event on the beach in front of the house at sunset. I fulfilled one of my life long ambitions to yell ?eEVERYBODY POLKA!?f and start the polish tradition of dancing the polka at weddings. After someone pushed me in the pool (or did I jump in?) we all sat down on the pirate cove drinking champagne until the early hours toasting the new couple and singing the Pirate song (ya ho ya ho ya ho?c)
My favorite part of the trip was getting to spend time with Pauls grandmother. She is 88 years old and this was her first trip out of Erie Pennsylvania. She raised 4 boys and was not afraid to tell anybody about how tough she is. Granny Rafalowski loves to dance, and the shots of her dancing with the bartenders is truly a quality blog shot!
Cheers to all of the friends and family of the Rafalowskis and the Ashbys for making me feel like part of the family!
And as they say in Cayman, Thanks Mon, I'll come back for sure!