Living in Grand Cayman

Hi everyone,

Fantastic weather here! Virtually no rain, always sunny and 28-32 degrees and not to humid. Great stuff.

On Friday, a colleague of mine was going back to Canada and had organized an afternoon of golf at the North Sound Golf club. What better way to spend the afternoon of a work day than at a golf course with friends 🙂

This is hole number 11 and if you hit the ball too far it goes right into the ocean. (My ball landed right next to the green) 🙂 Beautiful setting don’t you think?

Along the way, the “beer girl” would visit us for periodic refills on her specially equipped golf cart with drinks & snacks. On a hot & sunny day, its important to stay hydrated 🙂 Here she is opening a nice cold Corona for a member of my foursome.

On this golf course, there are quite a few water hazards. Along these hazards, there are many iguanas as the two below. They let you get quite close and are not camera shy.

This one was HUGE ; virtually the size of a cat.

On Saturday night, we went to one of the most popular beaches, Smith Cove. There was one of the annual events on the island called “GimiStory”. Its basically a story telling festival where storytellers tell stories about everything and anything. For my French speaking readers, the expression “Dans le temps de mon Grand-Père …” comes to mind.

Before the show, volounters were preparing the fritters (dough cooked in oil) and fish which was free for all attending. As you can see, Julie pitched in and lent a hand to the effort. I joined after taking the picture for those thinking I am a lazy SOB! It was great fun and we got to meet some really nice people.

Here you can see the stage ; its right on the beach only a few meters from the water.

Here is a storyteller from NY who performed a very entertaining show where he told us a story about vampires at Christmas. Some of the smaller kids were afraid. haha

Finally, today at the beach. Look at that ship!!! Its the Octopus. This yatch is the 6th largest in the world, measures 414 feet long and belongs to Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. This yatch cost over 200M$ to make. There are 2 helicopters and even a small submarine on it. For more information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_(yacht)

Beautiful weather here in the last few weeks. The hot & humid days are gone till next June comes along. We can now spend way more time outside and at the beach.

It was a great day to do some chores outside and hit the beach. One of the things was to take down the hurricane shutters.  We figure its alright to do it now ; officially hurricane season end November 3oth, but there is nothing on the horizon and most of our Caymanian neighbors have taken theirs down in the last few weeks, I would say its safe!   So no more hurricanes (or risk of) until next season comes along in June 2008.  After  the shutters and while cutting the grass, I spotted this guy in the tree. These green iguanas are quite common on the island, but tend to stay closer to the water.

Our course, then came the traditional car wash 🙂

Then on our way to the beach we saw that there was a Cricket tournament. Seemed like a big event with sponsors, tents & all.

Finally, here is Aipa with her new water toy. Its a “Kong” that is attached to a yellow cord and that floats. We toss it in the ocean and she jumps right in to get it.

A business trip to Turks & Caicos is coming soon ; stay tuned for some pictures!

As you may not know, homes in Cayman (and in most of the Caribbean) are contructed much differently than in Canada and the USA.  In Canada, homes are mostly constructed in wood.  Here, a wooden home is virtually impossible to insure because of hurricanes.  Most of the wooden homes were destroyed during hurricane Ivan in 2005.  So here in Cayman, the homes are made out of concrete blocks which are filled with concrete and metal bars to reinforce the whole structure.  There is no insulation put, although concrete does a pretty good job.  On some homes, to enhance insulation from the heat,  they put a 1 inch think styrofoam layer over the concrete on the outside of the house.  It is then painted and looks quite good.

Here is a house the is being built on a street very close to where we live.  You can clearly see the concrete blocks.  Of course there is no basement.  I would say that 90% of homes here are all on the ground level with no 2nd floor. A house like this, in a nice area like ours, with single garage & 3 bedrooms will be on sale for somewhere around 500,000 – 650,000$US + 6% duty at purchase time. 

Here is another place being built a bit further away from our place.  They are building in a flood zone (remember those pictures I posted after hurricane Dean?) so the foundation is very high. This guy is protecting himself against 3 or so feet of flood water.

This is another house where the have covered up the concrete with a sort of “thick concrete paint” so that the individual blocks cant be seen.  Next step they will paint the house.

A final picture.  On weekends we usually go for 1-2 hours to 7-Mile beach.  Here is Julie floating around with a styrofoam noodle. The temperature of the water is great and you can stay in for a very long time and never be cold.

That tropical depression I mentionned in my previous post is now Tropical storm Noel.  Thats the bad news. The good news is that it has turned north instead of keeping on west towards Cayman.

Tomorrow I am heading to Miami for two days. Its of course a client visit, but also one evening of shopping.  Julie has a whole list of stuff for me although not as much has usual since we did buy lots when we were in Quebec.  A co-worker of mine also asked me to get a digital camera for her.  It seems that the word is getting out that I know my stuff when it comes to electronics. 🙂

 Here is Noel, looks like he is going to visit Fidel’s island. Good luck to them.  From the reports I have read, Noel seems to be dropping LOTS of rain wherever he has gone.

 Have a nice week everyone.  Please dont be shy to leave comments.

Just as I was mentioning in my last post that hurricane season was pretty much over, looks like we may get some foul weather afterall.  🙁

Officially, its not even a tropical storm yet, but it could very well become one.  In any case, we may get some very heavy rain Sunday/Monday.  I am supposed to fly to Miami Monday AM ; looks like that may be put on hold.  Stay tuned.