Living in Grand Cayman

All of you know I love to dive.  Well I am now ecstatic about a new attraction coming to Cayman.

Starting today, a dive operator just off Seven Mile beach will be offering shark dives.  In fact, just off the public beach and hotels, there have been many very large sharks sites, so that seems to have sparked the idea.

What they will do is attract them in close and let the divers go in and see them up close. During some dives, a few compelling pictures were taken with 16-ft bull shark.   Large tiger sharks were also spotted in the Seven Mile beach area.

Of course this has generated lots of excitement in the diving community.   Dives cost 40$ per dive and include the blood and guts that are fed to the sharks to attract as many as possible.

I cant wait to go diving with these massive sharks … next April fools day 🙂

PS : I have actually never seen any “real” sharks near Seven Mile beach (the below whale shark does not count).

A while ago I posted about a solitary pelican that could be seen on a lamp pole along the road in Prospect.

Here is that post:   https://micho.org/cayblog/?p=1901

In today’s paper was an article that made me very sad. I try to keep this blog upbeat, since its in my nature, but when things happen to animals it really gets to me.

So it turns out that this lovely bird was likely killed by some fishermen by being beaten with oars.   The bird was taken to the vet but had to be euthanized 🙁

If anyone has any information, there is a  number in the article (see link) that can be called to report these cruel people.

“According to the Department of Environment, it was likely this pelican was the same one people commuting from Prospect had been seeing in recent months, perched on top of a CUC pole in the central road reservation.”

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2012/03/26/Fishermen-beat-pelican-with-oar/

That is all …

Last saturday, a group of divers just off Seven Mile Beach had the experience of a lifetime.  Unfortunately I was not with them though, so this is all second hand information.

Although they have the name “shark”, they are much more “whale” if you ask me.   They eat plankton and are known to be extremely docile.  This particular specimen is estimated to be about 35ft long and stayed for a long while with the divers.  As you can see the divers in these pictures got very close and seem to even have been able to pet this gentle giant.  It must have been quite a sight.

I can only hope to see one someday ; they seem to be quite rare, but I think this is the second time I hear about a sighting off Seven Mile Beach.    From what I read, they can live an impressive 70 years! Amazing.

Pics taken from :

http://www.cayman27.com.ky/2012/03/19/divers-have-fun-with-whale-shark-at-kittiwake-site

Edit: There seems to be some discussion about the divers touching this amazing animal.   I cant presume to be an expert on this matter.   You can read more at :

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cayman-islands/414352-whaleshark-sighting-near-kittiwake.html

No this is not a rant about someone who cut me off while driving to work or something.

It is about having picked up some food at a place I have been telling myself for the longest time I have to stop and check out.   This place is the jerk chicken stand in Grand Harbor.  Its quite easy to spot when driving eastbound anytime after 4:30pm on weekdays ; there is a massive smoke cloud that comes out of the place.   For those less familiar with the island, if you drive toward the east of the island, at one point you have to pass the roundabout with Hurley’s grocery.  The spot is on the left, less that 1km  further (+-1/2 mile)  If you take just a quick glance you may think something or someones car is on fire.

Here is the spot.  See what I mean by “massive smoke”?

I wonder if Cayman has signed the Kyoto protocol for green house gasses? 🙂

Lots of food being cooked.  if you noticed in the 1st picture all the cars parked, well it was for this place.   When I placed my order, I was totally clueless so the guy with a thick Jamaican accent said he would prepare me a sampler of both chicken and pork jerk.   The place was kind of crazy with more people stopping ever few seconds, so I just went with the flow and agreed to his suggestion.

Here is the product, moments before it gets chopped up with that big cleaver.   Chop, chop, chop … all in small bits in just a few seconds ; real pros!  I would have totally lost a few fingers had I tried to do that at the speed it was done.

The final product and 12CI later … enough food for about 2  or 3 people.  The stuff on the left are “Festival”. Its essentially dough, sugar and deep fried.  Wow … talk about unhealthy, yet so tasty!

That was awesome … now I need to get on the treadmill to work off all those calories and prep for the 5km run on St. Patty’s day!

Last week-end, Julie and I, along with her parents who are visiting from Montreal headed to the Eastern part of the island. In fact, we headed to what used to be our favorite restaurant of the island. Let me explain. I made a post a long while ago about restaurant Portofino. Well, this place is now under new Australian (an Australian expat) management. It is now called Tukka.  This was our first time eating at the “new place”. Let me tell you that we were not disappointed and its stellar standing in our favorite restaurants stands!  We went for the Sunday all you can eat brunch!

Here is some of the food! Notice the sushi’s with the little Australian flag (bottom left)  Those are with Kangaroo meat.  Quite original (I liked it)

Some of the desserts.

From our outdoor table, a large Cormorant was hunting and was hovering over the water for a few minutes.  It was a good show.

Our group and the lovely view of the ocean ; Julie’s folks are on island.

In the main dining area, there is an aquarium with a few Lionfish.   As I have posted in the past, these are invasive to the Caribbean.   Tukka often has them on the dinner menu.  This is the 1st time I see them in someone aquarium.

In closing, we highly recommend this place.  It is about a 35 minute drive from Georgetown, but well worth it and it is a very enjoyable drive.  Once you pass the Savannah area, you will see very few cars and many lovely sea views of the southern coastline.