Grand Cayman's unintentional wildlife encounter

The fabulous DISNEY MAGIC in GrandCayman

When you sail about a cruise ship all the time you tend to get a bit blasae about the ports where you call all the time.  In order to try and combat this I have taken to making an effort to get out of the tourist trap areas and see more of the places and island that we stop at.  On one such expedition I met up with this amazing lizard - 'fairy dragon - and was enchanted.  I am pretty sure that for others he might have been dinner, but for me it was a chance encounter with a wonder of our world.






WHAT AN AMAZING TREE........... big and beautiful and old so must have survived several hurricanes in its time.

Lets get in a bit closer.....  hang on a minute - what is that behind my head????

Isn't he just beautiful!!   We stayed and eyed each other for a long while and 'communed' then I left and he went up the tree into the greenery

Barbados sun break

Well I was a lucky nurse and got asked to fly to Barbados, have a day in the sun and then work my passage back to Southampton on the fabulous P&O AURORA. 

 Had a wonderful flight from Gatwick which is just a short drive from my home, to Barbados on a Virgin Flight.  Must say the team on board were as good as we have come to expect from Virgin service so I arrived refreshed and itching to get into the water.  Unfortunately it took quite a while to get all the airport and port agent formalities done so by the time I arrived at the Barbados Beach Club Hotel it was dark and I was beginning to wane.  So off to a supper of fabulous fresh fish and then to quite time.  

Barbados Beach Club

I awoke in the wrong time zone and went down to the beach for a meditate and had the whole of the sunrise to myself - glorious.  Swimming in the warm Caribbean sea was great and soul reviving but I wasn't going to miss out on anything on my 1 free day in Barbados so I went off to the swimming pool as well and swam and lounged and drank pina colada as one does....... 

Wednesday morning not only brought the Aurora into port, it also brought some rain.  Stood at the gangway for a while trying not to get soaked but at last signed on, met the team, did the safety briefing and got myself organised.  Lovely ship, with a great crew and very laid back passengers.  



We sailed across the Atlantic 'pond' in windless sunshine until we finally got to the San Miguel in the Azores where once again it decided to rain as we docked.  Perhaps the Aurora should hire herself out as a rain bringer???  Anyway after clinic we were away into the little town to drink coffee and eat fabulous Portuguese Pastel de Nate pies..........  if you have not eaten one of these then you should get yourself to Portugal as soon as possible as you are definitely missing out!!  

Another 2 dark and stormy nights across the Bay of Biscay and we were back in Southampton in a December winter.  Not bad but definitely could have done with a month on a Barbados beach!!  :-)