We started off the day at the Turtle Farm, spent all morning there snorkeling in the little pond with the turtles and fishes. I could tell that H was absolutely loving it, floating there with the turtles, because he ignored me when I asked him whether we should leave (I was getting hungry). We had plans for lunch at Calypso Grill to try their huge shrimp, and I was super excited. We took K and E with us. It turns out that K and E know JCC, who we play dodgeball with! It's strange how we meet these people and never make the time to really know them... 

Also turns out that they only have that specific shrimp dish during dinner, but they had the “small” shrimp for appetizers:

It was super creamery and flavorful, maybe the freshest and most delicious shrimp I’ve ever had in my life.

H had the Wahoo Fish Burger, which really did taste like chicken (sorry! it’s the best way to describe it!), mostly because of the texture:

I had the alfredo with clams, al dente pasta and amaaaazing clams:

Then, the four of us shared their famous sticky toffee pudding:

This was irresistible. I was stuffed already, but I couldn’t say no to the perfect balance of melted toffee and cake and ice cream. There’s a very good reason that they’re famous for this.

We then visited the Observation Tower at Camana Bay, which really is not much of a tower, and offered this view:


Camana Bay was very touristy, and I found a nicer version of the Pineapple Cup that I had wanted to get from Indigo a few weeks ago:

Can you see how much this costs?

Island life is expensive.

Back to GCM Day One: GCM DAY ONE // JERK CHICKEN TOUR - Chicken! Chicken!

Continue on the Jerk Chicken Tour...

This was a once in a lifetime trip to the Grand Cayman Islands, with about 20 of my friends to attend VinJu’s Grand Celebration of Marriage (GCM haha). Ju had 20 of her family members there too, so to make all of our lives easier, they rented out 5 beach front houses on the north side of the island at a property called Ocean Paradise. Beautiful, isn’t it? 

Right after getting off the plane and after getting used to the fact that we’d be drenched in sweat for the entire trip in the humid climate of the island, we decided to get a quick lunch. The groomsmen had arrived a day earlier, so they knew a great spot for chicken, called Chicken!Chicken!:

It’s not hot inside the cramped restaurant, despite the open oven roasting all the chickens, probably because the AC was blaring.

We had the lunch menu. Left side contained the 1/2 chicken with rice, and on the right side, you can see the vegetable side option with a bit of the cornbread. The chicken was absolutely melt off the bone perfect, but I didn’t find the sides all that spectacular.

Off to 7 Mile Beach to chill:

Everybody was exploring the clear green water, and sinking into the sand. After half an hour more of sun, I was exhausted, and just wanted to head back to the house. Some people just have more energy in them for this type of frolicking by the water.

I’m not one of those people.

This was just the start of the jerk chicken tour at GCM.

We arrived at the Greyhound station close by Niagara Falls, and walked straight to the closest attraction from the Niagara Falls Adventure Pass package:

It was a chilly day, and the White Water Walk that we wanted to do first didn’t seem that busy. After taking an elevator down to the wooden boardwalk, we could explore the path along the Class 6 rapids. It was frustrating waiting for some of our fellow tourists to take their photos. How many different poses and angles of yourself do you really need? This was a nice 30 minute walk, with lots of breaks for photos and waiting for our turn to take photos.

We then went to the Aero Car that goes over the whirlpool at the end of the rapids: 

Usually, the Adventure Pass Classic that we got wouldn’t include the Aero Car, but because one of the other ones on the list were closed, they added this one for us instead. Score. Pretty sweet views.

We were pretty pooped by then, and thank goodness the pass includes bus fares for the WEGO bus. 

Hopped on the bus to the stop closes to the Best Western that we had purchased Groupons for to check in and rest before dinner. The Groupon included discount coupons for a few different restaurants in the neighborhood, and we ended up picking TGI Friday’s to use the $20 off coupon, because we thought there would be potential for a good plate of wings. Here, you can see the bone remnants of the 6 wings we ordered, and the alfredo chicken fettuccini + side of house salad:

Would you believe that this all came to $40 after the $20 coupon?! It wasn't even good, and the cup for the hot water I wanted was very dirty:

Tourist attractions bring together a lot of people of different cultures.

I try to stay open minded, but sometimes, people really confuse me. We saw a group of tourists of middle to elderly age, possibly doing a self-guided tour, because they had their own Toyota Sienna. Their hazard lights were blinking, while pulled over by the side of the main road, overlooking the White Water Walk. I don’t remember if it was a no parking or no stopping zone, but no other cars were stopped and there were almost no other vehicles driving along the road. The 6-7 tourists got out of their car, and were walking briskly to a clearing where they could see the rapids. They originally caught my attention because they were the only other people there, and they were talking loudly and seemed so excited, but then, they left a deeper impression as I walked by their van, and noticed that they had the car still running, with AC, doors wide open. It did not seem like they would be there for just a few seconds or even minutes.

Is it really that difficult to turn off the car and start it back up again, rather than spewing out unnecessary carbon dioxide and wasting fuel? Somebody explain this mindset to me please.

We woke up early on Day 4 to do some driving along the Golden Circle where all the tourists go. Cave tours on Day 5, then more driving to chase them waterfalls. Glacier tours on Day 6 (more on this later). Finally, horse riding on Day 7, and a quick dip in the Blue Lagoon before heading home to pack…

View from Skogafoss, which I want come back to for camping and hiking the full trail that goes behind it (Fimmvorouhais or Five-milestone-ridge):

Skogafoss (so grey from this view, but it’s actually very green and full of life all around it):

Seljalandsfoss:

Fish soup at one of the tourist traps to warm up after a windy adventure around Gulfoss and Geysir:

Picked this up at a grocery store to try at the Blue Lagoon:

Excellent yogurt! This apparently can now be found at City Market and other stores around Vancouver. Chock full of protein and flavour:

I actually was looking forward to going home. Finished reading this joyful book about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, while sipping on California red wine (H also bought a Spanish one that I just did not like) and eating Japanese ramen soup:

I almost lost my passport – after locking up the AirBNB house behind us, and before piling into the car, I checked for my passport one last time and realized the passport was GONE. Panic ensued at least for me for a good 30 minutes as we tried to break into the house (fish hook style twig, Go Pro stick with gum on the end, plastic bag tied to the end of a stick…). Finally, the owner came and opened the door for us. The darn passport was under the bed. How did it get there? H will know best, and I won’t talk about it anymore. Good thing I love him…

1. Lost luggage
2. Lost on the trail
3. Lost cellphone
4. Lost Altoids box
5. Lost passport

All found. This is the place to find yourself. There’s so much space to develop and grow. It was exactly what I needed.

1. Lost luggage

We arrived on the 24th after a 7 hour plane ride at the lovely KEF airport. I was feeling quite excited and refreshed, because I slept pretty much the whole way. H makes a magnificent pillow. We went through customs with no problems, met up with TPL, and went to grab our luggage. We all grabbed our stuff, and waited for T’s suitcase to come out of the chute. We waited and waited and waited for a black suitcase with a little red string on the handle. Where was it?!

As the rest of the crowd dispersed, we realized it would not make sense for us to keep waiting pointlessly, so T went to the counter to ask. D and TPL went to get the car, while H and I went to pick up alcohol at the duty free (it’s so much cheaper!). T eventually had some forms to fill out and was sitting near the conveyer belts, where one of the airport attendants was checking the remaining pieces of luggage left behind. There was a black one, a random stroller, some other bags, and a grey one. The airport attendant approached T, who was sitting forlornly by the belts.

“Is this one yours?” she asked, pointing at the grey one. “It has your last name on the tag.”

“No, it’s not, mine’s black, it’s probably somebody else’s.” T was sure that it wasn’t his. “If it’s mine, you can laugh,” he says, stubbornly.

“Pretty sure it’s yours, it even has the same flight.” The attendant starts laughing.

At least we picked up some good alcohol:

We dropped off stuff at the place we were staying (Airbnb is the way to go in Iceland – we each spent about $218CAD for 7 nights), and headed back out for what was supposed to be breakfast, now brunch. Went to Kaffi:

This place took a bit of hunting to find – had to ask a kind stranger for help. Food was great, maybe because we were all starving. It was pure vegan heaven. Too bad I’m not a vegan. We were now ready to continue exploring the rest of this quaint little city (town?).