It was an early start with the alarms going off at 3:30am in order to get ready, finish packing and ensuring the bags were all evenly weighted (they’re all getting very close to the 50lb limit).
Our Ubers arrived on time and we headed out to JFK airport to finalize our check in and drop our bags. We made good time in getting there, got the bags tagged and joined the line to drop the bags. When we were almost at the front of the queue, we were then moved to another line and eventually after a lot of confusion, managed to drop the bags. We had prebooked a security clearance time and needed to wait 30 minutes but decided to ask and they let us in earlier. Security was then fairly quick and we grabbed a bite to eat before catching our flight.
The flight was smooth sailing and despite leaving a little late, made up time and got into Miami on time. We collected our bags from the baggage claim and walked around to Cayman Airways to check our bags for the second leg to Cayman.
The queue itself was not that long but there were a number of Cubans clearly catching the flight to Cayman and then onto Cuba and they had bags and bags and bags … bags for Africa! and some of them weighed nearly 100lb. Some had 10 bags per person – we know from experience they buy up in the US then take things home to Cuba for family and to sell there at a higher rate.
We waited over an hour to check in, but once at the front of the queue our check in was very quick. We cleared security and then had an hour or so to wait. We found an Empanada outlet, much to Greer’s delight, for a bite to eat. Eventually, our flight boarded and we waited a long time on the tarmac while they finished loading all the bags onto the plane. They guy behind us was concerned his bag wasn’t on as he saw them unloading some bags but he was assured they had all been loaded.
We arrived in Cayman just over an hour later and quickly cleared immigration. They have upgraded all of their immigration and installed machines like a lot of places now, but as New Zealand passport holders we were unable to use them, but there was no queue for us so it was quick. Time to collect the bags and we had 4 out of the 5 when they informed us that there were no more today.
We were missing Mark’s bag, much to his disgust. He filled out the paperwork and hopefully it will be here tomorrow. We then got our rental car and headed to our friends Bridge & Jules where we are staying for the next few nights. Unfortunately they are back in NZ visiting family so it is disappointing we don’t get to see them. They left us a generous basket of food and bottle of bubbles which was incredibly kind. The kids were into it straight away.
Mark went back downstairs to collect our bags and no sooner than he was there he heard someone yell “Cathro!”. It was someone we used to work with who is living in the same complex. No chance of staying anonymous then! Bags in the apartment, we headed into Camana Bay to get some inflated priced togs and flip flops for Mark for tomorrow. We then had dinner outside at Karoo, also in Camana Bay. The food was really good – we were definitely feeling like we were on holiday now. A quick visit to Fosters, our old local supermarket – although it has since been rebuilt and is huge – way more offerings and much more upmarket than when we were there, with the same highly inflated prices. Back home and time for some washing and bed.
