Living in Grand Cayman

I have often mentioned Spotts Beach in past posts.  So here it is again 🙂

This time however, I brought an underwater camera.  I am really glad I had it with me, since I was in for a treat ; one that I hope you will also enjoy with the pictures below.

So here is this awesome (hidden) gem of Grand Cayman ; Spotts Beach. Not as majestic as Seven Mile Beach, but quiet and full of marine life as you will see.

So in the water I went, armed with that underwater camera.

It was not long before I started to spot a bunch of turtles. On this day I saw 6 different ones during my +-45 minute snorkel.  Note that water is never much deeper than 10ft (and sometimes less than 5) in this reef protected bay.

Here is what I assume a cute couple.

I managed to get some close up shots with this fellow.  S/he was not at all concerned by my presence. Note that for both of these shots I had to swim to the bottom to get level since it was having a sea grass lunch at the bottom.

Going up to the surface for a breath of air.  Note this one has a cleaner fish following it. You can see the tail of the cleaner fish at the bottom sticking out.

I also took a video of this one ; here you can also see the cleaner fish very well.

Here I managed to do a bit of an “artsy” picture with both myself and the turtle in the picture.  Not bad 🙂

Here is a selfie!  Also came out well.  These underwater cameras sure are a lot of fun!

This large Barracuda showed up all of a sudden very close to me. The picture is misleading, but it must have been 2.5-3ft long.  They are very “stealth” and indeed are known for showing up all of a sudden and are also quite curious.

Since this was already an awesome dive on a fabulous Cayman day, a stingray swam by me.  Of course, this is not Stingray City, so no touching!

Some brain coral with a few yellow fish

A lovely view from underwater and the sea grass.   The sea grass is what attracts all the turtles to this area.

And finally a view of Spotts Beach from a few hundred feet out.

That’s it!  I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

As my longtime readers will know, January is time for my annual visit to Los Angeles.

This year the list of things done is quite exceptional, so here we go.

First: A hockey game.  But not any game.  There was an outdoor game at Dodger stadium, part of the NHL’s “Stadium series games”.  It was nice and warn in LA, so was not sure how they would pull it off ; but they did.

Here is the ice rink in the middle of Dodger Stadium.

A better perspective with the upper deck seats.

Of course this being LA, saw some celebs.  Here is the creepy guy from “Desperate Housewives”

Wayne Gretzky & wife Janet.

Here is a funny one with Cuba Gooding Jr. The girl is a friend of my buddy who I went to the game with. I essentially “Crashed” her once in a lifetime picture with her favorite actor.  haha

So that is it for the hockey game!  It was a lot of fun.  Of course very different from any hockey game I had ever seen before. Total attendance was over 55,000 people. It was a sold out event.

That made the Los Angeles Lakes basketball game not as amazing.  It was certainly fun and entertaining, but not as awesome as an outdoor hockey game.

Next up … I had to go see Endeavor! The space shuttle was moved here in 2012.  What was amazing is how big it is. I did not realize how huge the shuttles are. Since I see a lot of planes with my travel, I estimate that the fuselage size is similar to a Boeing 747 in width & height. (shorter though)  I any case, I was awe struck by its size.  Very impressive and worth the visit. Endeavor is located at the “California Science Center” that is close to downtown Los Angeles. What was amazing is that entry is free!  In fact it is donation based, so a few dollars is more accurate.  🙂

Here is the actual “transfer” document.  Note the estimated price tag ; almost 2-Billion dollars.

So those were some of my evenings in LA.  Lots to do as you can see.

On my one full day off I did a road trip.   Nothing super spectacular, just a long and nice drive. Starting and finishing in Los Angeles, I headed out early Sunday AM,  north towards Bakersfield. Then across all the way to Barstow and then back to LA.  Just under 400 miles of lovely roads and some cool stops along the way, like a visit of the Borax mine in Boron and some other sites.  For US travel geeks, note the deviation between Barstow & Victorville on the right hand side of the map.   I took a secondary road for this part.  That secondary road is part of the old “Route 66”.  Route 66 is one of the original US highways and linked Chicago to Los Angeles.  Route 66 no longer exists (at least not formally)

Of course, having this brand new rental (a 2014 BMW 335) helped a bit with the driving enjoyment 🙂

That’s it!  Now I realize why I was tired when I left Los Angeles.  It’s certainly not my favorite place, but it certainly is a place where there are plenty of things to see and do.

Grand Cayman has a cold spell!!!  Well, not really.  The infamous “polar vortex” that had most of the US in a deep freeze 10 days or so ago did not make it all the way to our sunny islands.

That being said, the last few days have brought stormy weather and temperatures in the low 20’s.   Sweaters and long pants have been seen around town.  Not for this Canadian though; mid to low 20’s are a heat wave for us, right?  This weather system has also brought lots of waves to our shores; many dive operations had to cancel boat trips and also unfortunately some cruise ships had to skip Grand Cayman all together.  So no diving for me this week-end.  We did go to the brunch at Tukka in the East End though!

Anyway, my good friend Sean, who is an up and coming photographer (OK, it’s his hobby …) took a series of pictures of this stormy weather.  I must say they are really nice.  So here is a selection of them.

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

This last one is from another collection ; note the sunny skies.

It looks a lot like someone with their fist in the air, as if they just scored the winning touchdown or goal.  Kind of like the picture of Rocky Balboa 🙂

By mid-week we should be back to the high 20’s and more “normal” Cayman weather. That being said, i’ll take low 20’s over a polar vortex and minus temperatures any day!

The Sun in Cayman is so predominant in our daily lives, that I seem to forget its beauty and importance.  Maybe i’m getting a bit sentimental here, but we are so lucky to have an abundance of it here that we sort of take it for granted.

I read somewhere recently that the Cayman Islands get on average 300 days of sunshine a year; I have no problem believing that.

Anyway, so to keep on my sun theme, here are what i think are some really neat pictures I recently took of the sunset.  The first two were taken from what is becoming my favorite spot on the island ; Spotts Beach.  Even though the clouds were blocking the sun, the light came though and gave us an amazing show.  A note about Spotts beach ; the last time I went snorkeling there I saw 8 turtles.  If you want some awesome snorkeling experience, this beach is worth driving out of town a bit to.

At Rum Point.  This is a picture with Julie’s friend (who has since gone back home) taking pictures of the sunset.  This picture came out quite well.

On one of the days, the ladies made a pick-nick at Smith Cove. I joined them over my lunch hour.  Of course a typical awesome December day ; plenty of sun and calm sea.  Of course since this was during the week and it’s not yet peak tourist season, the beach was not busy at all. Gotta love the massive contrast ; ocean/beach and business attire! It looks like a picture they could use to get people to come live & work here.

My final though of this post about what is going on in the East End.

Here it is:

Cayman Health City will be opening sometime in February 2014.  This brand new facility (140 rooms) is a project by Indian doctor Devi Shetti, a world renowned heart surgeon. This facility will be for “medical tourists” from around the world to come to Cayman and have cardiac surgeries at better prices than in countries such as the US.   The building of the facility is definitely a boost for the local economy, not just for building staff, but for the island as a whole.  Medical tourists = individuals who will comes for weeks at a time, which brings in a lot more revenue than for example a cruise tourist.  In any case, it should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

A few posts ago I mentioned “The Reef Resort”.

Well, Julie and I had the opportunity to spend the week-end here, a sort of “Staycation”, a term used very liberally in the Cayman Islands.  Very nice place.  In order to give you some context here is where the resort is located ; all the way at the north-eastern tip of the island.  (Note the green “A” on the map below) Its a good 45 minute drive from George Town.  A lovely 45 minute drive might I add!

So here was the view from our room.   I think we can all agree that is was pretty awesome.  We had perfect weather the whole week-end we stayed here.  The beach is protected by a reef which is about 1000ft out. (note the while line of crashing waves in the ocean – that is where the barrier reef is)  Inside the reef the water is mostly under 10ft deep and great for snorkeling.  The best snorkeling though was near the pier where I estimate there were 500 fish hanging out.  Under the pier at the Morritts (the next door hotel) there were about 2x the amount along with a family of large Tarpons.  Lots of great stuff to see.  I also saw a stingray right near the pier.

On the pier directly in front of the complex (can also be seen through the palm trees above) a pelican landed for a brief visit. As I have posted in the past, there seem to be very few of these birds in Cayman for a reason I cannot explain.

These Sandpipers kept me amused while I was lounging in a beach chair 50ft or so from the ocean.  They would run up & down the beach in groups of 10-20 looking for food and quarreling amongst each other.  Not to mention i found them to be quite cute. Definitely lazy Saturday afternoon beach entertainment!

Julie was more amused by her Kindle than the sandpipers 🙂  Note that in the east end of Cayman it can get quite windy hence she covered herself up a bit.

A nice shot of the beach while we took a walk from one end to the other.

This was our first stay at The Reef resort and I must say it was very enjoyable.  At night the surroundings are pitch black and do not be surprised if you find yourself falling asleep early ; its also very quiet due to there being almost no traffic, music or any other source of noise outside of the waves crashing on the shore and the distant reef.   I have always liked the East End of Cayman and now having spent a whole week-end here like it even more.