dierenarts
Contributor
Flew in in between the thunderheads of remnants of hurricane over the Yucatan (but at least we missed out on the weird Nor'eastern that hit Connecticut the day after we left). No problem except massive down pour on the ride from the airport. Rented from Marshall's...small outfit but good service and nice cars. Stayed in a town house on the beach on Boggy Sands Road in West Bay.
Best snorkeling we found anywhere by far was off the shore of Boggy Sands Road in West Bay. Take a left at the four way stop and enter at the sea wall or at the public beach access at 88 Boggy Sands Road. Swim out to the first large bouy and head right. Nice shallow finger reefs with more fish life than you can imagine. Saw turtles, tons of parrot fish (princess, spotlight, blue, midnight etc.), several large green morays (one out in the open at sunset), spotted and goldtail morays, unfortunately also saw at least 1-3 lion fish each trip, but I hear the groupers and snappers are acquiring a tatst for them as culling divers feed them the dead ones..nature will balance! Many French and Queen Angels, Queen triggers, Baracuda, file fish both scrawled and whitespotted, Mutton and Mahagony snappers, the usual french, stripped and black grunts, porcupine and balloon puffers, glasseyed snappers, glassy sweepers, scorpion fish, spotted drum, spiny lobster, large coral crabs...the list goes on and on at West Bay.
The larger bouy is half way between the shore and the line of bouys that mark the Kittiwake, it's about 0.5 mile off shore and a fairly easy swim out. It has moved about 60' further out and we could see the original sand groove made by the keel. We swam out with a nice bright swim bouy and it was definitely worth a snorkel out, but not sure it's yet worth a dive day.
Fair amount of damaged and bleached corals but the fauna seems abundant. Skip cemetary beach as that is where coral has gone to die and be buried. We tried north shore at the Queen's Monument as well as North Point. Conditions were rough and poor visibility but even beyound that I doubt it would be worth a trip based on what we saw. Also worth snorkeling is Turtle Bay Beach - you enter at the Cracked Counch's Macabuca bar and grill (free to use their ladder, swim out and to the left) as well as Cobalt Dive Resort (also free to use the ladder at the end of their dock.) On our one trip we saw:
Some schools of huge rainbow and midnight and also spotlight plus queen parrot fish, red octopus, squid, southern stingrays, hawksbill sea turtles, large barracudas, French angel fish, queen trigger, schools of medium to small tarpon, 1 rock beauty, spotted scorpion fish and spotted moray, scrawled filefish, honeycomb cowfish, trunkfish, balloon fish and porcupine fish, trumpet fish, squirrel fish, jacks, assorted snappers and grunts, peacock flounder, spotted butterfly, and the usual tangs, doctor, damsels, sergeant majors, gobies and wrasses, Spanish hogfish, yellow goatfish, etc.
We dove with Neptune's Divers...very nice small (never more than 8 divers) outfit with great owner (Casey Keller) and divemasters Anita and Jorge. They accomodated my wife's neck and shoulder issues, were very knowledgeable and aided us in minimizing our weight belts, certifying our son and showing us beautiful deep wall and shallow reef dives. Weather prevented North Wall dives, but that's something to look forward to.
We dove Easy Street and Eagle's Nest both great wall dives, also Aquarium, Green Gold, Chain and many other sites. None were disappointing. Fish of note were tarpon, spotted drums, large rainbow parrots, 1 nurse shark, and the list goes on and on.
Also snorkeled Wreck of the Cali (not worth a dive) by entering for free at the Hammerhead Bar's ladder. Too rough to do Eden Rock so I won't comment on that.
Restaurants - for splurges worth the price don't miss West Bay's Pappagallo, Osetra Bay and Calypso Grill..foodies and wine nuts will love all of them.
Lower cost alternatives would include Tim-Buc-Tuu and especially Macabuca (part of Cracked Conch) which also has a great BBQ on Mondays. My son also had some great meals at small local shack at the beginning of Boggys Sands across from the sea wall.
Non-Dive Activities - don't miss the Queen's Botanical Garden on the East End (wonderful and manageable walk of wonderfully laid out plants and trees plus see the Caymanian Blue Iguanas and Parrots) and while there check out the Blow Hole as well. Of course check out and mail cards from Hell (kitschy) in West Bay.
Things to avoid I would think are the Turtle Farm itself and the captive swim with the dolphins thing on principal.
Negatives:
The 20% US tourist tax as the Caymanian Dollar is $1.20 US, $6 gas, Not much on local culture, Island is rather touristie, resorts, shops, condos, Disneyfied feel to it, we're not much for loud night life and will probably try Little Cayman next time. Expensive food (but at times very worth it) and expensive local liquor (although on departure the duty free bargain of the whole trip was $10 liters of Stolis). Also negatives are the amount of plastic, rope, and glass waste we saw on n umerous occasions. Just a small slice of what we humans are doing to our oceans.
Hope this helps...feel free to ask if further details are needed.
Cheers!!!
Koen
Best snorkeling we found anywhere by far was off the shore of Boggy Sands Road in West Bay. Take a left at the four way stop and enter at the sea wall or at the public beach access at 88 Boggy Sands Road. Swim out to the first large bouy and head right. Nice shallow finger reefs with more fish life than you can imagine. Saw turtles, tons of parrot fish (princess, spotlight, blue, midnight etc.), several large green morays (one out in the open at sunset), spotted and goldtail morays, unfortunately also saw at least 1-3 lion fish each trip, but I hear the groupers and snappers are acquiring a tatst for them as culling divers feed them the dead ones..nature will balance! Many French and Queen Angels, Queen triggers, Baracuda, file fish both scrawled and whitespotted, Mutton and Mahagony snappers, the usual french, stripped and black grunts, porcupine and balloon puffers, glasseyed snappers, glassy sweepers, scorpion fish, spotted drum, spiny lobster, large coral crabs...the list goes on and on at West Bay.
The larger bouy is half way between the shore and the line of bouys that mark the Kittiwake, it's about 0.5 mile off shore and a fairly easy swim out. It has moved about 60' further out and we could see the original sand groove made by the keel. We swam out with a nice bright swim bouy and it was definitely worth a snorkel out, but not sure it's yet worth a dive day.
Fair amount of damaged and bleached corals but the fauna seems abundant. Skip cemetary beach as that is where coral has gone to die and be buried. We tried north shore at the Queen's Monument as well as North Point. Conditions were rough and poor visibility but even beyound that I doubt it would be worth a trip based on what we saw. Also worth snorkeling is Turtle Bay Beach - you enter at the Cracked Counch's Macabuca bar and grill (free to use their ladder, swim out and to the left) as well as Cobalt Dive Resort (also free to use the ladder at the end of their dock.) On our one trip we saw:
Some schools of huge rainbow and midnight and also spotlight plus queen parrot fish, red octopus, squid, southern stingrays, hawksbill sea turtles, large barracudas, French angel fish, queen trigger, schools of medium to small tarpon, 1 rock beauty, spotted scorpion fish and spotted moray, scrawled filefish, honeycomb cowfish, trunkfish, balloon fish and porcupine fish, trumpet fish, squirrel fish, jacks, assorted snappers and grunts, peacock flounder, spotted butterfly, and the usual tangs, doctor, damsels, sergeant majors, gobies and wrasses, Spanish hogfish, yellow goatfish, etc.
We dove with Neptune's Divers...very nice small (never more than 8 divers) outfit with great owner (Casey Keller) and divemasters Anita and Jorge. They accomodated my wife's neck and shoulder issues, were very knowledgeable and aided us in minimizing our weight belts, certifying our son and showing us beautiful deep wall and shallow reef dives. Weather prevented North Wall dives, but that's something to look forward to.
We dove Easy Street and Eagle's Nest both great wall dives, also Aquarium, Green Gold, Chain and many other sites. None were disappointing. Fish of note were tarpon, spotted drums, large rainbow parrots, 1 nurse shark, and the list goes on and on.
Also snorkeled Wreck of the Cali (not worth a dive) by entering for free at the Hammerhead Bar's ladder. Too rough to do Eden Rock so I won't comment on that.
Restaurants - for splurges worth the price don't miss West Bay's Pappagallo, Osetra Bay and Calypso Grill..foodies and wine nuts will love all of them.
Lower cost alternatives would include Tim-Buc-Tuu and especially Macabuca (part of Cracked Conch) which also has a great BBQ on Mondays. My son also had some great meals at small local shack at the beginning of Boggys Sands across from the sea wall.
Non-Dive Activities - don't miss the Queen's Botanical Garden on the East End (wonderful and manageable walk of wonderfully laid out plants and trees plus see the Caymanian Blue Iguanas and Parrots) and while there check out the Blow Hole as well. Of course check out and mail cards from Hell (kitschy) in West Bay.
Things to avoid I would think are the Turtle Farm itself and the captive swim with the dolphins thing on principal.
Negatives:
The 20% US tourist tax as the Caymanian Dollar is $1.20 US, $6 gas, Not much on local culture, Island is rather touristie, resorts, shops, condos, Disneyfied feel to it, we're not much for loud night life and will probably try Little Cayman next time. Expensive food (but at times very worth it) and expensive local liquor (although on departure the duty free bargain of the whole trip was $10 liters of Stolis). Also negatives are the amount of plastic, rope, and glass waste we saw on n umerous occasions. Just a small slice of what we humans are doing to our oceans.
Hope this helps...feel free to ask if further details are needed.
Cheers!!!
Koen
