Grand Cayman 2023
Day 7: Invasion of the turtles
I actually got to sleep in today and both the hubby and I were up at 6:30am. Imagine that. We sat out on the patio getting caffeined up and Sakari was up at 8am and ready to start the day.
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I decided to walk out to the dock to see what the "waves" were like today. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day out.
Today I made...over easy eggs for the hubby and Sakari. So why am I telling you this? Because I have NEVER made them before. I'm one of those people that has to have everything I eat cooked COMPLETELY...whether is be meat, eggs or whatever. NO PINK! I see over easy eggs as being uncooked and I...just...can't. However, the fam likes them so I thought I would surprise them with my creation and they turned out perfect according to them. Score!
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Everyone had their belly full and it was time to head out to our excursion I booked. Today we are headed to the TURTLE FARM! Even though we have swam with many turtles in the ocean, I still thought it would be a neat experience and it was something "different" to do while we were on the island. Also, there were no cruise ships in port so it would be the perfect day and not crowded. I had booked our tickets online and the cost was $45 US per person/adult and Sakari is a whole person now, so full price for her these days. We did get a 10% discount since we booked ahead online, so our total was $121.50 for some gosh darn turtle excitement today. :)
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Along the way, we were watching gas prices at the pump to see the best place to go on the way back. I didn't want to get too low and we had been doing a lot of driving all over the island. The prices were just all over the place and we would find that the cheapest place was located right across from the airport entrance.
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The Turtle Farm is located on the opposite side of the island in West Bay. They are open 7 days a week from 8-5pm. Parking is across the street.
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We arrived just in time for an entire bus of school kids to get ahead of us. These were the same kids that was at one of the beaches we were at days before. This has to be an awesome summer program for the kids. That would be so cool to have a summer camp type of situation while living there. I bet the kids love it.
Once inside, someone at the desk did motion us over and around the school kids, so that was nice.
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They tagged us up with a ring around our wrist, just like they do the turtles to keep track of them. Then we headed out to a rather large area that had super large turtles in it.
It was an area with Green Sea Turtles.
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Green sea turtles are the largest of the hard-shelled turtles and weighing more than 500 pounds! The largest Green sea turtle was recorded at 870 pounds. Can you imagine that? They are born weighing only 1 ounce. Green sea turtles mature and start producing eggs between 15-30 years old. They return to the nesting beaches of their mothers and grandmothers. Breeding season runs from May to October.
After viewing the Green turtle nesting exhibit we continued walking toward the turtle lagoon. We were told that if we had planned on swimming there, we might want to head there first because they close at 2pm and if it rained, it would instantly close.
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The lagoon was HUGE...like winding around everywhere. I guess I didn't expect it to be like this.
There was a booth that provided you with your snorkeling gear (even though we had brought our own) and snorkeling vests.
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We geared up and it was time to head out into the lagoon.
We would see fish here and there: Snappers, Bermuda Chubs, Black Durgon Trigger fish and so on.