Living in Grand Cayman

As most of you know, we are taking our dog & bird.  Many tests & procedures have to be followed.  The dog’s “biggest” test was the RFFIT test.  Its basically a test that proves she has the rabies antibodies.  Cayman requires this since they are a “rabies free territory”.  Easy right?  NOT.  First, 6 months ago we had a microchip implemented into her ; its basically a unique identifier, similar to a tatoo.  Then we had to get two rabies shots 6 months apart.  Then after 6 months & two weeks, we had a blood sample drawn for the RFFIT test.  Once that is drawn, we had to ship the sample via FedEx overnight to Kansas State University.  Turns out this is the only place in North America that does this test.  So we had to get a small cooler (10$), order dry ice (55$) to keep the sample cold over night & more in case it got caught up at US Customs, FedEx this whole thing (130$) and pay for the test (50$).  Now, tell me I dont love our dog! 🙂  Oh yeah, the test results are great!  She can be taken to Cayman.

Now that the moving & container is pretty much aligned, we need to find a place to live.  Today, I contacted two agents for houses that I visited at my last visit to Cayman 2 months ago.  We made offers to rent for both ; lets see how that plays out!  The first one is a bit “in the sticks” but slightly bigger than No. 2 & 1km from a really nice sandy beach. The second one is a brand new house, double garage & on a really nice canal.   Both are are in great locations & are “high & dry” with repect to hurricanes. Which one do you prefer?  Both in our opinion are great choices. Please use the comments section above if you have an opinion 🙂

House 1.

 This beach is quite nice & quiet.  There is great snorkeling to be done.  Only about 8-10 mins of walk from the house.

House 2 on the canal:

Front (there is probably grass by now)

 The back of the house, the deck & canal. The water is really clear and you can fish from there!

Late last week, we were told by our vet that we needed a specific product to be able to comply to the Cayman imports requirements for our dog.  Turns out this product is not sold in Canada.  Doh!  So, today we took a treck to the lovely city of Plattsburg, N.Y.  So, 4h later, a stop at PetCo, Champlain mall, Exxon & a Big Mac combo, we are back in Montreal.  What would we not do for our dog!  BTW, feel free to leave comments by clicking on the comment section at the top.

Hi everyone,

Well, its been 3 weeks since I stopped working in Montreal and started working full time on the move to Grand Cayman. Quite honestly, I was never expecting this to be so much work! For all who think that moving to the sunny Caribbean is a walk in the park, you are so wrong! I am sure its all worth the effort though.
So far, we have done :

* Sold the house
* Sold the car (I have to walk now ; feels funny)
* Sold loads of stuff and load of useless stuff I did not even know we had
* Sold the fish & aquariums
* Started to cancel bank accounts, memberships, credit cards, etc
* Got the dog her shots
* Sent the dog’s blood samples to Kansas for analysis via overnight FedEx with dry ice
* Got the bird his examination & medication
* Got the bird placed under home quarantine
* Got the bird tested for a load of different diseases (tests negative) 🙂
* Placed tons of phone calls to USDA for bird & dog
* Reserved a 20ft container from Tropical shipping
* Contacted a gazillion movers to fill the container
* Contacted bunch of trucking companies to pick up the container & bring it back to get on the boat
* Contacted many insurance brokers to insure our stuff in the container while on the high seas
* Talking to agents in Cayman to reserve a house

Thats about it … for now. So, to all my ex-coworkers who think I am slacking at home sipping a Mojito as if I were on the beach, I am working just as hard as you are! 🙂