Here in Grand Cayman we are having a very warm springtime. That does not help for water temperatures which ultimately impact hurricanes. We have been lucky in the last two years, no storms whatsoever (in the whole Caribbean); lets hope that continues. However, if this very warm April is an indication, storms may come rolling in sometime later this year.

It it spring time and this tree next to my office is in full bloom.  Funny thing I never noticed it before. I think that bright yellow only lasts a few days since you can see there is already a lot of it on the street.  Anyone know what this is called? Its spectacular!

So after work the other day, or maybe I should say, sometime in the afternoon during a workday, our group at the office had a very important meeting and made some critical decisions!  This meeting was held at Starfish point.  That’s not far from Run Point.  Is that not the coolest office meeting you have ever seen?  Boats, sun, sand and a few cold ones on a Thursday afternoon.  Love it!

So everything is perfect in Cayman right?  Well, not quite! 🙂  The price of gas has gone up globally and we are no exception.  Since its a small island and shipping costs are obviously going to impact the cost of anything that comes here, we are currently paying 5.51CI for 1 imperial gallon.  With some savvy math, that comes to 5.60$US per US gallon and 1.42$CAD per liter.  Ha … gas is virtually same price here than in Canada.

Now, I have wanted to do this for a while now.  Its actually quite trivial, but hear me out.   Those of you who are fans of the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away (I loooove that movie ; Julie cant stand it.   Willlllsonnnn!) will totally understand.  I have never tried to open up a coconut from its “natural” state.   So here I go.  The tool: a machete.  Hanks used some ice skates in the movie. I am not doing that.  haha

The tree. Plenty of them to chose from.

Here I cut down the biggest one I could find.  I used the machete to whack it down. I am pretty much standing on the tips of my toes so so made it fast.

Its now down, so I start hacking away.  Not as easy as it would seem … actually in the movie it seemed tough so no surprise I guess. The “skin” is incredibly thick.  Quite a protection nature have given this fruit.  Is it a fruit? At one point I clued in that I need to chop at a +-45 degree angle and not straight down.  Below you can see the messy job I did, but finally got to the actual prize I was looking for.

Nice and sweet coconut juice.  Very refreshing and fun considering I had to work for it.

Then opened it up. Mission accomplished.

Final thoughts on this Easter week-end. The Caymanians are out in droves camping on all the beaches on the island. I am still not sure where this tradition comes from even though I see this every year.  One thing is for sure, its very popular and there are many people on the beach this week-end.  Places with lots of shade are the most popular. I can assure you that we have no intention of trying this, especially that at this time of year there are often lots of mosquitoes come dusk.    In any case, its not “real” camping! 🙂  People rent a porto-potties, have a gas generator, TV’s, etc.  Its more like taking home to the beach. Here is the scene at Smith Cove this morning.