Living in Grand Cayman

(For those that have not been on the Blog recently, I made 2 posts this week.  See the other one right below)

got back from Turks & Caicos wednesday.  I spent 3 nights there.  Most of the time I was there, it rained. Feel sorry for those there on vacation and who paid 2800$ a week to be at the Club Med which was 500m from the hotel I was in.

Here is a picture of the hotel where i was.  It was actually a condo that they rent out when the owners are not there.  Very nice and roomy.

The hotel was on Grace Bay.  Probabably the nicest and most known beach on Providenciales, which is the name of the Island in Turks & Caicos where I was.

One of the most amazing places is not a beach. Its called “Chalk Sound” ; its a sort of bay with small islands and amazing turkoise waters.

Finally, with all the rain on the island, I witnessed the problem with not having any rain sewers (none of the islands have any)  Basically, when it rains too much, huge puddles form all over the place.  People with small cars (like i have with my rental car) have problems getting around.

Now back to Cayman.  On saturday morning, there was the annual “Humane Society Dog show”. I decided to go with Aipa and check it out. It was great fun. Below is a picture of some dogs being judged for one of the competitions.

I entered Aipa into two categories ; Best “First time entry” (dog who never were in the show before) and Best rescued (since we got Aipa from the SPCA we were elegible) Guess what???  For the “Best new entry” category ; there were about 50-60 dogs, Aipa got 3rd prize. 🙂

Finally, one evening Julie & I went with Aipa for a walk in another area of the island.  There was a horse in a field. We got a picture of the horse with Aipa.  Very cute 🙂

After many tries, we finally bought a car … online via the auction process I described a about 4-5 weeks ago. If you have not read about how we can buy a car via the internet, click on “February” (right menu) and then on “next page” at the bottom.  Check out the post “Leap of fait”.   This purchase is indeed a leap of faith ; buying a car with two small pictures and a report all in Japanese.

 Here is the car we “won”.  It should be here in 5-6 weeks by boat from Japan.  Its a 2002 Honda CRV with all the bells & whistles.  We really wanted a white one just like this one, so I am quite pleased. 

 I am in Turks & Caicos right now, but the weather is lowsy. If it gets nice before I leave I will take some pictures and post them.

Some of you have asked me about where I work.  I took a few pictures today to give you an idea of my work environment.  Our office is in the heart of Georgetown, about a 10 minute (if walking slowly) walk from the ocean & Georgetown harbour.

 This week-end we will probably go to the newly revamped Turtle Farm.  I will most certainly post pictures in the next few days.  Last time we visited it, in 2005, it was in pretty bad shape after the hurricane.  Now that have completely renovated it and created new attractions and even have a tank with (I am told) a shark.  Should be interesting.

 This is the building where we are located.  KPMG has 2.5 floors out of 4.  Very soon to occupy 3.5 floors out of 4.

My desk!  I’m a busy guy. 🙂

Here is a random sunset picture we took last week-end on Seven mile beach.

One of the great places in Cayman is beautiful Rum Point. It was Julie’s friend Genevieve’s last full day with us so we figured it was a great way to finish up her vacation.  Before heading out to Rum Point, Gen & I went to Eden Rock (in Georgetown) for a quick snorkel.  Eden Rock is like “jumping into an aqurium” ; there are loads of fish and they are not afraid of humans.  However, many humans are afraid of the resident familiy of Tarpons.  These Tarpons vary from 3.5 – 5 ft in lengh and not very pretty.  They are HUGE though and could easily be mistaken for a shark by someone who is not familiar with the local fish.  Tarpons are totally harmeless though.  Its amazing to be able to swim up close & personal with these giants (you can easily get to within 2 feet of them)

After the snorkel, we went back to Savannah (our house) to pick up Julie & drive to Rum Point.  Run point is about a 35 minute drive from where we live.   Rum Point is on the north side of Cayman, on the eastern side of the Sound (the Sound being the large U shaped bay which eats up about 1/3 of the islands surface.

At Rum point there beach chairs, a white sandy beach, shade, hamacks & the most amazing blue turquoise water you will every see.  The picture at the top of this page (the pier ; is at Rum Point)  Julie & I have been there quite a few times now and are always amazed by this place. Anyone who comes to visit us will for sure want to spend at least half a day here.  Its a great place to swim, snorkel, enjoy a Fish & chips at the outdoor restaurant or just read a book & take it easy. Here are some pics of our day.

 Standing at the end of the pier.

Here is Gen.  It was great to have her over. I am sure she enjoyed leaving the cold Canadian winter for a week! 🙂

Im back in Cayman now.  The flight back from LA was quite uneventful. On my last day in LA, I had my one & only “celebrity encounter”.  On my ride down in the elevator at my Hotel (Hyatt West Hollywood), I saw Mike Tyson. Needless to say I did not speak to him since I wanted to keep both of my ears.

While I was gone, Julie was holding the fort back in Cayman. When I got back, she had painted the guest room, corridor & dusted all the walls/ceilings.  Plus she started the garden and coordinated the whole dish installation effort. Funny coincidence, the day after she finished painting the guest room, Genevieve called up to tell us she was coming down and my friend Michel emailed me to enquire about coming to Cayman in April. Julie & I are pleased about the guests we are about to have.

 Since moving here, we had not yet installed the TV & satellite dish.  Since we are far from North America, we needed a very large dish to get the TV feed here ; the standard “pizza sized” dish we are used to in Canada & USA dont work here.  So we had a 6ft dish installed in the backyard.

Here is the picture of the dish with me to give you a better idea of the size. Oh yeah, it cost 1100$US to have it delivered, installed & hooked up to the TV.