Living in Grand Cayman

Summer weather is in full swing in beautiful Grand Cayman Island. The sun is blazing, the water is uber warm ( I recorded 87 degrees on my second dive just south of the island this morning) and the fruit is ripe.

Here are a sample of local fruit that I saw recently. Lucky me, most of these trees/fruit are close to where we live and have access to them 🙂

Banana’s!  These are actually called “apple banana’s”.  They are about 1/2 to 2/3 the length  of regular bananas and a bit more stubby.  Taste wise, I find them 100x better. In my opinion they are a cross between banana and granny smith apples.

Bread fruit. These strange green things are the size of large grapefruits and you can see them all over the island. There are even some of these trees in George Town.  The way to eat these is quite peculiar. You slice them up in to the shape if french fries and then deep fry them.   They come out just like … you guess it, french fries. Quite frankly tastes just like them too.  I am sure there are other ways to eat this fruit, but have not identified any as of yet.  Uncooked it does not taste very good.

Mango.   The star of this list in my opinion. After hurricane Ivan, lots of people lost their mango trees or had them severely damaged. Well, 6 years later those that survived are producing lots of fruit now. Right now the trees are bursting with fruit and the are very sweet.  Mango overdose anyone? I have had 3 so far today.

The tree above has the “regular” mango’s like you find in most supermarkets.  The tree below has mango’s that are are bit bigger; I put them side by side to show the size difference. No idea what they are called, but in all honesty, with they way the taste, who cares?

To close, here is a property I had forgotten about.  It was built about 2 years ago and is on the southern coast, just after Frank Sound Rd on your way to the east end. This is probably a great house to be in if a hurricane comes by. It was made with poured concrete. In any case, I find it quite pretty even though I am usually not a fan of angular homes.

For anyone thinking about a trip to Cayman, here was my view from the front of the dive boat this morning. Amazing 🙂

I have been asked a few times by friends if the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will affect the Cayman Islands.  In short : it’s extremely unlikely.

Here is a current map I found.

As you can see, the main current enters the Caribbean near the Leeward Islands (St-Lucia, Dominica, etc) and then flows towards Cayman.  From there it passes between Cuba and the Yucatan and into the Gulf of Mexico.  Once in the Gulf, it flows east (“loop”) towards Florida (which is why they are unfortunately now getting oil on their shores) and then out towards the Keys and up the eastern seaboard.  The whole time it goes east, Cuba is sort of “shielding” Cayman.

I am sure many of you have seen the terrible pictures of those birds covered in oil.  So sad.  However, I am glad to say that Cayman’s amazing beaches and marine life are safe from the oil.

I have not been to this yet, but found this post on a scuba forum and am definitely intrigued and will for sure go to check it out.

Just off shore on the North side, at snorkeling distance, there are a few “hot water vents” … like volcano vents or “hot springs”. Who knew we had those! Best of all they are close to shore and in very shallow water.   Snorkeling anyone?

In any case, here is the location.   All credit for this information goes to a guy that goes by “Testudo” on Scubaboard.com.  This location is on the North side of Grand Cayman on the eastern tip. If you are not familiar, you may have to ask when you get to the area.

Here are some of his pictures.

More can be found at :

http://picasaweb.google.com/testudo92/GrandCaymanMemorialDayWeekend2010#

Also, its 3 days to … Hurricane season! 🙁

Unfortunately, a very active season is predicted. Lets hope they are wrong as they were last year.

In any case, just as a reminder to all who like to monitor Hurricanes but find that most Canadian/USA news outlets don’t cover Cayman  & the Caribbean enough, here are some site that us locals use:

http://www.stormcarib.com

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

I had read about this super yacht a while back in the local paper. It looked quite big in the pictures I saw on the website. Up close to it, it was HUGE and very impressive. While out diving along Seven Mile beach this morning, our captain took us for a close look at this gorgeous ship.

Ok, here is the story!  The owner of this boat is auctioning it off later this month in a no-reserve auction. Essentially, this boat could (technically) sell for 100$. I think we can all agree that’s not going to happen. In order to bid, you have to place 2M Euro in trust which if you are not the winner you will be refunded. Basically, they want serious bidders only. The current owner is the owner of the auction house that is auctioning off the Apoise,

Here are the pictures I took.   Quite frankly, they do not do justice to this massive water craft.  Its quite awesome how big it actually is.  A quick Google search tells me that its the 89th largest private yacht in the world and is 220ft long. Oh, and the gas tank takes 190,000 liters (just over 50,000 US gallons) of diesel fuel.   It can also accommodate 12 guests and 19 crew.  I was told that it could fetch 50M$ at the auction.

Here is the website for the auction and to some inside pictures. The auction will take place at the Ritz in Grand Cayman on March 30th!

http://www.rbauction.com/theapoise/pics-videos.jsp

If any reader of this blog intends to buy this boat, I’d love to go for a ride sometime! Please, I’m a really nice guy! 🙂

The Cayman Islands, unlike some other small countries around the world (or even some large ones …) are a successful democracy with government that is elected every four years.  The system is quite similar to that of the UK & Canada which is based on seats / riding’s where the party that has most seats has control of the legislative assembly. Key positions are Ministers and the head of the country is the Premier.Our current premier is the Hon. McKeeva Bush (no relation to the former US Presidents).

In most countries, your chances of actually seeing the leader are quite slim. Here, you can see him at the grocery or at any number of public events. The shot below is quite telling in my opinion of how small Cayman is … its his parking slot behind the main government building.

Admit it, you would not expect to see “President” on a parking slot next to the west wing of the White house!

On another note of how Cayman is small (this is a good thing!), is the following picture I took this week. I saw this while driving to work one morning and just had to stop to take a picture. This cow is essentially staying right next to the Cayman National Bank right in George Town where there is a vacant lot next to the building for parking.

By way of comparison, its as if there was a cow on Bay St. next to the Royal Bank or next to JPMorgan Chase in lower Manhattan.

Finally, lunch at the ever popular Sunset House. If you have not been, I highly recommend it on a sunny day. Great view of the ocean and a lovely place for a quick lunch. These guys below were hoping to get some of my fish & chips. They essentially stayed there the whole time we were eating, hoping for a handout.