Well, its about time!!!
In all the time I have been in the Cayman Islands (or should I say Grand Cayman), Little Cayman had not been visited … until now that is. What an awesome little place 🙂 I took a large volume of pictures and struggled to keep it to a reasonable number for this blog. Here goes.
First: Owen Island. Its a deserted island +-500 meters from shore on the southern coast of the island. Its a fun and relatively easy kayak paddle out. Note the first picture below : I felt like a kid and that i was going out to Gilligan’s island ; the resemblance of the island used in the show is quite strong.
Once on the island … the view back to Little Cayman. Not a single soul to be seen on the island.
On Little Cayman, they have the native “Little Cayman Rock Iguanas” They are very similar to the Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, but are not blue. My uneducated guess is that they are somewhat related due to the very close resemblance. As you can see, they have right of way on the island and are cherished.
Here is one that was outside the home of a friend of mine. I was told this iguana was very friendly. So I approached very slowly and then petted him/her! As you can see on the picture, the iguana enjoyed it and even closed its eyes. This was a great experience with such a beautiful animal.
Here is a very large specimen I spotted resting along a coral fence at a remote part of the island. Must have been over 4ft long from tip to tip.
Now to Point of Sand. An awesome beach with great snorkeling just meters offshore. The day I was here there was not a soul to be seen (Note: end of summer is low tourist season in all of the Caribbean)
One thing I noted was how many Conch’s there were while snorkeling anywhere on Little Cayman. Here is a lovely specimen. Note that the shell is not empty and it is inhabited by the Conch. Its great to see since in Grand Cayman the population is much smaller due to more people hunting them during Conch season.
Here, at the bottom of the picture is Point of Sand. As you can see, its quite a deserted area.
Getting to Little Cayman is half the fun. One must take Cayman Airways Express and one of their Twin Otter airplanes. Its a +-25 minute flight from Grand Cayman. The airport is very interesting. Here, note that the airplane needs to cross the road (yes an active road accessible to cars) and then enter the runway. There are also no fences around the runway. Not something you would see pretty much anywhere else. Little Cayman is definitely like things were many years ago in most places ; and that is a good thing!
Here is the airport terminal and fire department. Very efficient use of space in my opinion.
Someone put this sign up on the side of the airport where we walk to the aircraft ; obviously someone with a very good sense of humor! 🙂
On one of the evenings, we had a fabulous sunset ; no clouds blocking the view and I got to see my very first “Green flash”. What that is, is that at the very last moment, just before the sun disappears 100% … it turns green. The phenomenon is something to do with the reflection on the ocean and atmosphere. It was my first time seeing it so was quite pleased.
So I hope you liked this post as much as I enjoyed going to Little Cayman. If ever you are in Grand Cayman long enough, I highly recommend taking a hop over to Little Cayman, even for just a week-end. You can ride a bike almost everywhere and chances are you will not see a single car while cycling around. There are only +-180 full time residents on the island which is 1 mile wide x 10 miles long.
So I guess a visit to Cayman Brac needs to be scheduled now. 🙂