There are few reasons not to choose to go to Sri Lanka. Whatever one wants from a holiday can be found there. Here are a few images I took on a visit there in July 2014. Please enjoy and encourage others to visit this wonderful country. There are photos here of photos from the Tsunami museum.
Farming turtles is a topic that gets a lot of press and opinions that broadly can be guessed at. In Cayman news today is not surprisingly that the water at the turtle farm contains pathogens that equally guessable can cause infections to visitors if hands do not get washed. Having been to the turtle farm now for two successive years I can only add my very small opinion. There are plenty of sanitising posts at which one can clean hands and visitors are always encouraged to do so, both by staff and by signs.
Turtle farms will always engender opinions. Our visits however have been nothing other than pleasurable, if a little expensive. Who knows whats best?
Results of an online poll in a great website
http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2013/02/15/Online-poll–Few-eat-turtle-frequently/
Tell us that only 9% of the Grand Cayman population eat Turtle frequently, which is actually 9% too many and 5.6% used to eat Turtle but no longer do so. The debate is complex as the article says. For me however having swum with the turtles it a cruel and obscene idea to eat these beautiful creatures. Here you can see some photos I took last year at the turtle farm.
In the UK and EU we are just starting to get used to the idea that horse meat, presumably from old and debilitated horses, has ended up in burgers, lasagnes and other minced beef products. Turtles do not fall into this category and despite the argument that it is a tradition to eat Turtle we should recall that it has also been a tradition to murder witches and hang/draw/quarter criminals and innocent. They are an endangered species and we should no more eat them than eat next door’s pet cat, dog or horse.
There is an inherent danger in listening to people. People have differing and sometimes odd views on any topic. Our plan to go to the Turtle farm was challenged when we heard rumours that visitors were almost forcibly encouraged to eat Turtle burgers ( they are on the menu here), that there was rampant cruelty to turtles and that it would cost 50$ each ( presumably in Cayman Dollars, so US Dollars 60$).
Over a large and some might say excessive breakfast, we decided to go as we have the hire car ( and they are not cheap) and we would take a chance. We were right. The turtle farm is a great place to go. No-one cared if we went anywhere near a restaurant there, the total price for 2 adults and a child was 92$ US ( and that trust me is cheap for Cayman Islands and is about the cost to watch a Brentford home game) and we saw nothing to worry us at all regarding turtle management. What we did see however was amazing.
A huge lagoon with depths and shallows was nicely set up with various land areas to allow swimmers, with snorkels and masks ( free by the way) to swim around if we wished from 11 am to 2.30pm. One swims with turtles and loads of fish. The turtles swim close to you. My worrying finding was that turtles swim faster than me. So my chances for Rio Olympics have gone, but maybe those for the turtles remains. This was the best 2 and1/2 hours of my holiday. Then there were education centres, pools where the turtles could be watched and handled.
Lastly if you plan to go this is the only place on Grand Cayman that asks for Photo ID when using a credit card. An unusual but occasional occurrence abroad. For some unspecified reason using an American Express card gave a 20% discount. So a positive plug for Amex
Turtles
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 