My dear friend Maria Melchers is in
her final year of medical training and is currently two weeks’ into just over
two months’ training in the Caymans. It was sheer fluke that our ship visited
her island, and it was the very first spot that we stopped at! In the first two
weeks onboard there is a plethora of training sessions in safety, emergency procedures,
company policy, environmental training, company culture, attendance and
expectations etc, and it took a fair bit of crafty organization to get some
time off the ship at all.
In some ports, the ship cannot get
close enough to dock, so people reach the shore in small boats called “tenders”.
This process takes a lot of time, but we reached the pier at around midday. Maria
met Sam and I there and had arranged bikes for a brief cycle tour. We visited a
local supermarket, and had a picnic at a beach named “Cemetery Bay”. Our local
source advised us that this was the best spot for snorkeling. After a quick
swim and snorkel we had to head back to the ship. It really was a flying visit,
but was a great start to our time in the Caribbean. The water is an amazing
light blue colour and is so clear and warm.
Will post soon with more on our quick visit to
Cartagena, Colombia.
