Grand Cayman Day 7: Happy Birthday Horseback Riding

Happy 60th birthday to Vi!

We had a lazy morning relaxing around the condo and after lunch, drove to Pappagallo for horseback riding in the ocean. We met the van and followed it down the road to the horse trailer. Then we walked a path to get to the beach where we'd be riding.

Vi was on a black horse named Cayman Time. Mike was a on a brown/white horse named Cinnamon and I was on a brown/white horse named Lady. Cinnamon and Lady had some obvious animosity towards each other and kept snickering back and forth. We had to keep them a bit separated.

We rode along the waterline for a ways then tied up, removed the saddles and our dry clothing, and got ready for the ocean ride.

We rode the horses into the ocean bareback, squeezing our legs together in order to stay atop. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. We went deeper and deeper until the horses were swimming. When they swam, they made a strange breathing noise. It was like a guttural, labored breathing. Mike and I loved this but Vi was terrified and honestly, I'm not sure how much the horses enjoyed it either. The swim lasted about 15 minutes and then we returned to shore and saddled up again to finish the ride.

For Vi's birthday dinner, we had reservations at a restaurant called Aqua in Georgetown.

We started with an appetizer of beef carpaccio to share.

Vi had the grilled lobster and shrimp.

Mike had the ceviche sampler of classic, baja, and cayman ceviche.

I had a medley of octopus with olive and avocado, tuna, and classic ceviche along with grilled tiger shrimp.

Of course, we had to sing Happy Birthday to Vi and she enjoyed a dessert of chocolate cake and ice cream.

After dinner, we went to Havana Club where Mike had a Cuban cigar and entertained us with karaoke (Wonderwall and Hey Jude). We stayed there a couple of hours, enjoying the drinks and the music before moving on to the Attic to play pool with the locals. We closed the place down and then made our way home to crash.