Day 3 - Thursday, December 5th, 2013 - Grand Cayman Island

Totally meaning to brag....just saw the news - it's about 23 degrees for the high in Omaha today with a snowstorm coming through. It's between 79 and 84 for the high here and 74 to 79 for the low..all week.

Got up early for sunrise again. Rachel and I went for a walk around the area, took pictures and one of the neighborhood dogs accompanied us. Had a nice breakfast with eggs, bacon, english muffin and some green tea and orange juice to drink. We went back to bed for a little bit, then were planning to go to the turtle farm.

When we went down to go though, Drew asked us if we wanted to dive earlier and Rachel and I decided that would probably work better than our current plan, and it would save Drew from doing an extra dive that day.

We got ready and again went off the dock at Cobalt Coast and did a 45 minute dive with a few skills tests involved. The water was choppy and there was a slight current, so the swim was pretty tiring. We practiced an out-of-air ascent scenario. Then we went on our guided dive. Rachel brought the GoPro camera and took some video and still shots underwater. Saw a lobster, more sea turtles, some lionfish and plenty of other beautiful creatures.

Came back to the hotel and had lunch. I had a falafel pita and Rachel had a jerk chicken wrap. Both were excellent. We regrouped and and rove down south a bit to another location owned by the same company. The place was called Lighthouse Point. We did a giant step entrance off the dock there and did our final certification dive. We had to practice some compass skills and do a full mask removal and clear at about 40 feet. The wall was amazing, (coral) saw beautiful everything and enjoyed it very much. Huge expanse. We regrouped and filled out all of our certification paperwork, and we are officially certified! With high fives all around, we celebrated with a beer and went back to the hotel.

After a shower, Rachel and I walked to Hell. A 20 minute walk to a local bar in a town called Hell, GCI. There were cool paintings on the buildings having fun with the name. There were devil bodies that you could put your face in and take pictures and we eventually got to Hell Bar. It was a small bar with a pool table, dance floor, one bar, and a small deck and outside area. We met some staff and locals, but there were only about 4 people there when we arrived.

The bartender was a nice young Cuban woman and there were a few other Caymanians, one was John, another Michael. Rachel and I smoked our Cuban Cohiba cigar to celebrate our scuba certification and had some beers. John asked me to play pool, so I played the first guy and barely won. Then I played John and won. Evidently I was looking pretty good because I was getting compliments and drinks from people. There were about 20 people there by this point. Everyone was calling themselves and me “nigga” as a term of endearment. Rachel had met a friend as well, Danya, who invited us to her house for food. We smoked some weed with about 3 different people and I played my last game of pool. I sunk 3 stripes on the break, then made 4 in a row before it was my opponent's turn. Chris missed, then I tried to knock his ball away from the 8 so I had a good shot on it, but accidentally sunk it instead and lost. I almost ran the table, then ended up losing! Went from one of my best games ever to a loss... We got pretty tipsy and hung out a little longer, took a shot, then headed back.

 The walk back was fun I'm sure. Colin was bartending when we got back and we had a quick and chat with Colin before walking past the large crab in the hallway and going up to our room for the night. I was asleep before I hit the pillow. 

For photos from this trip click here.