Needless to say, we didn’t sleep well. At 5am, I called lost luggage and they were helpful as a hat load of a-holes. Customer Service is not a specialty for American Airlines.
We had a day to kill in LA, so we did a half day tour of the sights. The best thing about waking up in a new city is the chance to experience sights, smells and culture that you have never seen, felt or embraced before. We jumped on a tour bus and started hitting the sights. Our driver Gary (Gazza) looked like an older version of Owen Wilson and he was actually really good. He didn’t crap on too much and didn’t talk about where to get the best lunch deals for hours on end like the similar style of tour we did such a long time ago to Niagara Falls.
We passed via Marina Del Rey, at the time, a $22 million investment for the largest man made built harbour. The harbour now grosses over $40 million in revenue for moorings!
We then headed over to Venice Beach. Venice Beach used is well known for a number of things. From the eighties where muscle men used to do weightlifting on the beach to woman not wearing a whole lot rollerblading along the paths. But perhaps most well known of all is that this is where Baywatch was shot. Interestingly, it's name is devrived from the town of Venice, Italy and it had a number of canals. Only five remain today.
We then went to the beach with Dan doing his best Pam Anderson run along the beach and got some shots of the towers that were used.
Venice Beach has an area that is designated for graffiti artists and it is well utilized with everything from the rubbish bins to the palm trees getting a workover. 
Even being fairly early in the morning there were quite a few people around including some local art and craft stores and some bums who had some signage we thought was fairly amusing. 
We then drove to the affluent area of Beverly Hills to the well known street of Rodeo Drive and its many expensive and overpriced stores. 
Rodeo Drive itself was fairly small and really, not that much to look at. All the shops including Versace, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, Prada etc were there. 
One of the girls on the group, an Aussie from Toowoomba, summed it up well with her comment “I feel like such a bogan with what I’m wearing on Rodeo Drive”. Still it was interesting to see where some of the movie Pretty Woman had been shot.
Next stop was the Manns Chinese Theatre and Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held. Outside of the Manns Chinese Theatre were heaps of hand and footprints and names of actors and actresses imprinted into the concrete. Along the sidewalk were the names of stars who had been put on the walk of fame such as Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, John Wayne (very small feet) and Marilyn Monroe.
Interestingly, the front of the Kodak Theatre was being set up for the Oscars that will happen in less than a week. We say the big gold statue lying down and other small Oscars in another room.
Dan had his photo taken with Marilyn Monroe! 
And we saw the famous Hollywood sign. 
Next we headed to the Farmers Market for lunch. We parked up in the sun with a cup of coffee and tried again to ring American Airlines with no luck to find Dan’s bag. 
We had enough of American Airlines sheer incompetence and decided to head to LAX and search for the bag ourselves and of course, there it was sitting amongst a pile that obviously noone had bothered to look through. At least we were going home with our belongings. Dan gives them the big thumbs down. 
Having got to the airport so early, we checked in and headed to the Qantas Club to feast on some nice nibblies and lots of champers, always a good way to end a trip. The blog was updated and after nearly four hours our flight was called. 
We boarded the almost full 747 and bid our adventure goodbye. An eleven and a half hour flight took us to Auckland where our layover gave us enough time to head to the Qantas Club and a hot shower and then back on the plane for another three and a half hours to Melbourne where we will spend a week before heading home to Perth.
Our travels have taken us to eight new countries and provided us with opportunities to see and experience so many new things and meet great people along the way. However, all good things must come to an end and this marks the end of “The Adventures of Dan and Tan” blog. We’ll reactivate the blog on our next round of travels. So we will end with this quote, a favourite:-
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments and places that take our breath away.
We had a day to kill in LA, so we did a half day tour of the sights. The best thing about waking up in a new city is the chance to experience sights, smells and culture that you have never seen, felt or embraced before. We jumped on a tour bus and started hitting the sights. Our driver Gary (Gazza) looked like an older version of Owen Wilson and he was actually really good. He didn’t crap on too much and didn’t talk about where to get the best lunch deals for hours on end like the similar style of tour we did such a long time ago to Niagara Falls.
We passed via Marina Del Rey, at the time, a $22 million investment for the largest man made built harbour. The harbour now grosses over $40 million in revenue for moorings!
We then headed over to Venice Beach. Venice Beach used is well known for a number of things. From the eighties where muscle men used to do weightlifting on the beach to woman not wearing a whole lot rollerblading along the paths. But perhaps most well known of all is that this is where Baywatch was shot. Interestingly, it's name is devrived from the town of Venice, Italy and it had a number of canals. Only five remain today.
We then went to the beach with Dan doing his best Pam Anderson run along the beach and got some shots of the towers that were used. Venice Beach has an area that is designated for graffiti artists and it is well utilized with everything from the rubbish bins to the palm trees getting a workover. Even being fairly early in the morning there were quite a few people around including some local art and craft stores and some bums who had some signage we thought was fairly amusing. We then drove to the affluent area of Beverly Hills to the well known street of Rodeo Drive and its many expensive and overpriced stores. Rodeo Drive itself was fairly small and really, not that much to look at. All the shops including Versace, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, Prada etc were there. One of the girls on the group, an Aussie from Toowoomba, summed it up well with her comment “I feel like such a bogan with what I’m wearing on Rodeo Drive”. Still it was interesting to see where some of the movie Pretty Woman had been shot.Next stop was the Manns Chinese Theatre and Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held. Outside of the Manns Chinese Theatre were heaps of hand and footprints and names of actors and actresses imprinted into the concrete. Along the sidewalk were the names of stars who had been put on the walk of fame such as Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, John Wayne (very small feet) and Marilyn Monroe.
Interestingly, the front of the Kodak Theatre was being set up for the Oscars that will happen in less than a week. We say the big gold statue lying down and other small Oscars in another room. Dan had his photo taken with Marilyn Monroe! And we saw the famous Hollywood sign. Next we headed to the Farmers Market for lunch. We parked up in the sun with a cup of coffee and tried again to ring American Airlines with no luck to find Dan’s bag. We had enough of American Airlines sheer incompetence and decided to head to LAX and search for the bag ourselves and of course, there it was sitting amongst a pile that obviously noone had bothered to look through. At least we were going home with our belongings. Dan gives them the big thumbs down. Having got to the airport so early, we checked in and headed to the Qantas Club to feast on some nice nibblies and lots of champers, always a good way to end a trip. The blog was updated and after nearly four hours our flight was called. We boarded the almost full 747 and bid our adventure goodbye. An eleven and a half hour flight took us to Auckland where our layover gave us enough time to head to the Qantas Club and a hot shower and then back on the plane for another three and a half hours to Melbourne where we will spend a week before heading home to Perth.Our travels have taken us to eight new countries and provided us with opportunities to see and experience so many new things and meet great people along the way. However, all good things must come to an end and this marks the end of “The Adventures of Dan and Tan” blog. We’ll reactivate the blog on our next round of travels. So we will end with this quote, a favourite:-
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments and places that take our breath away.
We dipped our toes for one last time in the Carribean, had a leisurely breakfast, packed and regrettably we were off. 
The plane left on time and the highlight was flying over Rum Point from the air. We had to do the usual ridiculous collection of our bags in US Customs to get back on exactly the same plane to Los Angeles. By the time we cleared customs there wasn’t much time other than a few sips of champagne in the Admirals Club (American Airlines version of Qantas Club). We boarded the plane to LA for a 5 hour and 20 minute flight.
We left and took a few more obligatory shots of some of the buildings in the town and then bailed. 
We were contemplating on going to the turtle farm though first we stopped at West Bay. Here is one of the best shore diving locations in the world. Two large walls just drop deep into the ocean 150m off the shore. There was a man made channel with some huge fish, up to 1m long, swimming in the outlet. Brown matter resembling “Bondi cigars” was floating in the water which the fish were feeding on. We ended up chatting to some American students (with their chocolate Labrador called Hershey) studying on Grand Cayman who told it was $55 each to visit the turtles and the channel was actually on outlet from the turtle farm (not the turd farm!!)
The snorkeling here was really good. Initially I swam out to find some small fish congregating around some rocks but as I swam across I found some submerged ledges teeming with fish! Diving down and sticking your hand under ledge, scared the fish out which you could then chase. It was lots of fun! 
Afterwards, we went for a spin on the gravel tracks but the little car and the pot holes didn’t match. On one of the beaches I found the one star sun lounge (complete with sea weed). 
We had to return to West Bay, to a café / bar where the divers embarked for the ledges. It was really nice, moderately priced, and we were even cooled by a passing weak sun shower. 
It was time our little red car needed some fuel. We used KY$10 (Cayman Dollars) worth of fuel in two days.. wow. As a token gesture, as we were leaving, a random chicken decided to walk through the petrol station! 
Passing through George Town yesterday, I saw a local fish market propped up on the beach and I was keen to see what they had on offer. When we arrived, a guy was cutting up a fish head into quarters for a Jamaican lady. We saw what appeared to be like Coral Trout and Nannygai or Redfish for sale and some massive Wahoo. If we had one more day, I would have been out there catching them ourselves!!
George Town, like all of the other Caribbean destinations have a strong pirate history and George Town had “Richard du Noir” (Richard the Black) who later became affectionately known as “Big Black Dick!” 
We settled back at the hotel, where we lounged in the sun and the non-eventful sunset. 
I had to have my last Pina Colada of our Caribbean adventure while Tan settled for an exceptional mango dacquiri.
More driving and we stopped to look at some mostly demolished houses on the coast from all of the recent hurricane activity. I found the most prickly 40 cornered jack which dug into my skin at all different orientations. I was more impressed by the way it dug than the pain it inflicted.
In Bodden Town, we visited the Pirates Caves. 
Part zoo with “exotic” animals and a traditional pirate cave where they stored their booty centuries ago. There were some caged animals including the Cayman Parrot (national bird) and a cocky who Tan teased with a piece of paper.
The blue iguana, different to the ones we saw in Mexico, are a endangered species that only inhabit the island. We chased them around for a while too. 
We hit the dark and eerie Pirate’s Caves which was a Disney Land style mock up. Lots of skulls, cemented in coins and the pirate sculptures. A bit kitsch but in reality these caves were actually used by pirates centuries ago so from that side it was interesting.
More exotic animals were present including goats, ducks, turtles and a horse.
The highlight was Percey the Pig who was quite lack luster until our taunts got him fired up (to eat). It was a nice warm and sunny 28C day and poor old Percey was thirsty so Tan gave him a shower and a drink which he seemed to appreciate. 
This chicked in the water bowl flew off in a ball of feathers when we approached. One thing we have noticed about this island is the prevalence of roosters and chooks. They are walking wildly(?) everywhere and we nearly run some over. 
We have seen quite a number of macaws on this adventure through Central America, but these two we saw were quite nasty. They wanted to have a go at anything even remotely close to the cage. Repeated strikes with their upper hooked jaw made us want to sitr them up (so Tan did).
The lady that runs Pirates Caves was quite nice, from England, though she has been on the island for three years without leaving. It is a beautiful place but like outback mining towns there isn’t much in the way of choice for shopping etc. (for women). For blokes it is a fishing paradise and you wouldn’t want to leave!! She said there were some people that come the cruise boats that visit who are so ignorant about everything. There was a container of plastic replica pirate coins on the bench near the till and one guy asked if that was the currency of island (and was serious about it!).
Rum Point is a delightful place. Sun lounges in the white sands over looking the turquoise waters under the shade of casaurina trees (yep.. the Australian trees are everywhere on the island). Tan relaxed while I went out snorkeling. The wind was a bit gusty and it made it hard to snorkel under the pier (especially as I haven’t snorkeled with flippers for a fair while). The fish were good but not spectacular and the water was nice. 
Rum Point is adorned with many signs, such as a city/country locator post, history of cyclones and just plain old interesting information signs. 
Like the Pirates Caves, Rum Point also had a macaw who was just as nasty!!!
The fibreglass iguana, like this one, are dotted around the island’s beaches.
On the way home we stopped at the Blowholes which weren’t too bad.
We tried to race home for sunset but without a good map we missed from our hotel and ended up on a beach near George Town. 
