we've been here. We love the adventures and are looking forward to many more!!
Fact Of The Day: People are 20% more likely to have a heart-attack on a Monday than any other day of
the week. 'They' (the collective 'they' of course) attribute it to an increase, and
fluctuation, of blood pressures due to the stress of returning to work, and commuting.
(Thank goodness Im off tomorrow! And for all of you who aren't...Wusaahhhh)
(I spelt wusaahhh as best I could...I tried to web-spell it but there weren't any entries)
(WARNING: This is about to be a little history lesson. If you are not interested please scroll down
and just check out the pictures!)(Here Ill start you off with one....)
Today we went to Pedro St. James 'Castle', which was the first and ONLY stone building ever built on the Island. But it didn't start off as a 'Castle'. It was built by William Eden for his first wife...Ms. Bodden. (I accidentally forget her first name...oops) She had 3 healthy children but passed away while giving birth to her fourth. William then remarried some woman (I PURPOSELY didn't remember her name because the movie said she was a naggy bitch (not in so many words of course.) ) Blah blah, they had six more kids...he ran off (because she was SUPER annoying) to cut Mahogany (Mahogany, turtles and slaves were the main exports to their trading partners, Jamaica and Honduras) and was never seen again.
Williams son, 'William the younger' as they call him, sold the house to his brother in law. During these times there was no one governing the people, and due to trading practices and shipwrecks (which brought over many of the now permanent residents) the Island began to be becoming 'unruly'. The locals asked for help from their neighboring countries but no one would lend a hand. So they took it upon themselves to call a town meeting (which was held at Pedro St. James) and on Dec 5, 1831 the Camanians created their own laws. Ergo..(Yes I said ergo) Pedro St. James was the 'Birthplace of Democracy' for the Cayman Islands.
The house saw many changes...including the 'Slavery Abolition Act' in 1835. This, good of course for all of the slaves, was crippling for the locals. Many of them, including 'William the Younger' could not afford to run their plantations any longer and moved away to the Bay Islands. He sold the house to two separate families, one living on the first floor, the other one on the second.
One evening, during a Blistery rainstorm (can you use 'Blistery' to describe rain?) Mary Jean and William, (Two of the children from the family residing upstairs) ran outside with buckets to try and catch some rainwater and were struck by lightning. William survived, barely, but Mary Jane did not. That same lighting tore through the house and burned it down. (Well not completely...remember it was built out of stone) The house since then has survived 2 earthquakes, 3 fires and at least 12 hurricanes.
It stood crumbling and abandoned for many many years, until the locals began to have picnics on its solid stone foundation. It offered a beautiful view and a vivid history that at the time was a mystery to most of them. As time that passed more and more tourists began to frequent the Island, and they too picnicked on its vast property.
Finally one day the Camanian government realized that this building was an important piece of the Islands history and set aside funds to restore the (newly ordained 'Castle') to its original glory. They bought the land and rebuilt it, returning all the wood, windows and furniture to the house that had either been stolen or damaged throughout the years.
So with no further Ado...I give you...Pedro St. James Castle...
(This was the little history museum) ....
The Museum
The first airport.....was in the Ocean
That bottom part says that they didn't get electricity until the 60's! 1960's !!
Before we actually got to see the 'Castle' we sat in a mini auditorium and watched a 'movie' (which turned out to be a slide projector which repeatedly went up and down showing clips of what looked like a history movie..alternating with...stationary stage scenery that lit up every now and then. (Lightning = a small strobe light.....Fire = red lightbulbs flickering) But it was cute, and rustic.
(This is NOT 'Liquid hot Magma' Its water and a yellow lightbulb.)
This is Jack.......Ass...(Doesn't that stipe make him look part Zebra?)
I know...3 Pictures of the same Donkey Sara? Well I only posted this one because it looks like he only has on leg, which is def not the case...and look at how fat he is....HAHA he's a FAT-ASS...HAHAH..I just made that up!! GET IT??? I actually just laughed out loud to myself!)
A Pseudo name for this 'Castle' is "House of Rocking Chairs"...(there were about 20 total)
(They even had a "Potty" rocking chair..(bet all you sports fanatics would LOVE one of these!) )
"The Kitchen"
A newly adopted Aloe plant..
The 'thatching on the Kitchen' (Surprisingly water proof)
And then we moved onto the Bluffs. Our Certified tourguide told us about the 'Bluffs' which are the second highest point of the whole Island. He said that right over the edge the water drops to 800 feet deep and only a little further out goes down to 40,000 feet, making it the second deepest part of the ENTIRE world. (The deepest part is in the Philippines (I THINK) reaching over 80,000 feet below sea level.)(OKkk..So I looked it up and Chris was right. The Mariana Trench which is south of the Philippines is the deepest part of the ocean, but is only listed at 35,000 feet below sea level. The Tonga Trench, which IS the second deepest, lies near Cayman but reaches only about 11,000 feet. Still impressive though. AND I learned how to spell Philippines..(I just did that from memorization!)
There WERE cliff jumpers here just a moment before (CRAZY)
One of the best parts of the Bluffs is that you can see up to 15 different colors of the ocean. (Today of course it was rainy and cloudy, so we only saw about 4 of them...Yes...Im sure you feel bad for me!)
I am in LOVE with these flowers. They are all over the Island, although I googled them for about an hour today and still have NO idea what they are called. Boo.
(PHEW!!! I feel like a just wrote a paper. Complete with pics. Someone should give me an A!!)
(And Ill sell it to anyone who has to write an essay on Pedro St. James Castle)
Random Picture Of The Day: (Still a little hard to see)
Welllll for whatever reason my computer wont allow me to download anymore pictures so I guess there will be no more picture of the day. My apologizes.
Heres a joke I head the other day:
A man is sitting at a restaurant and another man comes over to him selling Lie Detector Robots.
The Salesman says, "if someone tells a lie the robot will smack them."
The man liked this idea, purchased a robot and brought it home.
At dinner he asked his son what he did that day while he was Supposed to be in school.
The boy replied "In school." The robot smacked him.
"OK," the son said" I was at a movie."
"What kind of movie?" the man asked.
"A comedy." The robot smacked the son again.
"OK ok," the son said "It was a porno."
"A PORNO!!" the man gasped "I didn't even know what porno WAS when I was your age!"
The robot smacked the father.
"Its ok dear" the wife said, "After all he IS your son."
The robot smacked the mother.
THE END
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