Living in Grand Cayman

Today I went scuba diving with two good friends of mine and some of their friends (was great to meet you all!) on the “North Wall” of Grand Cayman.

The wall is that there is a “dropoff” and you basically swim along the wall.  The drop off is 4000+ ft deep.  Imagine swimming over the edge of the Grand Canyon; probably the best comparison.   You are basically swimming above an abyss ; its quite a strange feeling.  So much water below; I guess its the closest feeling to flying one can get!  Very nice.

The dive was spectacular ; turtles, eagle rays, lobster, moray eel, barracuda and all kinds of other stuff.

One of the three eagle rays. Quite big, very impressive sight. A definite highlight of the dive.

A very friendly sea turtle.  It swam near the group for quite a few minutes.

A quite large barracuda. Very sharp teeth … they generally do not harm humans though.

Some interesting coral formations.

Lots of fish

Me! 🙂

Here are also some YouTube videos of the event.  In the first one, we went down a cave. At the end of the cave, we are at the wall.  Below is the 4000ft drop. The second one are the Eagle rays.  (sorry about the beep sound in that one …)

Thanks Lee for letting me use your camera!

North Wall

Eagle Rays

Last of all … MANY more pictures at http://www.micho.org/gallery

There is a large mass of clouds near central america that has been “flagged” by the National hurricane center in Miami.  As of right now, its officially … nothing, but needs to be watched.   At the very least, this should bring us very heavy rains in the next few days. Weather Underground forecasts heavy thundershowers on Tuesday for Grand Cayman

We had a good amount of showers to this afternoon! I was supposed to head out for a stroll on Seven Mile beach and also meet a lovely couple who read my blog and who contacted me since they are on island (sorry … are you still here next week-end?) but decided to stay home.

I made sure my umbrella is in my truck ; looks like its gonna be wet!

Long time no post!  Some of you even sent me emails asking why I had not posted ina  while.  Thanks for worring about me. 🙂

Hurricane season is also back unfortunately. June 1 – November 30 for those of you who are not familiar with this period of the year. Interestingly, the “statistical peak” of the hurricane season is around september 10th.   Makes sence ; we had Ivan (2004) on Sept 11th, Dean late august (2007), Gustav late august (2008), etc.

Those that want to follow the hurricane closely, I highly recommend the following websites. Once a hurricane is forecasted to come near/close to Cayman, these sites are the ones I see on the computer screens of all my co-workers when I walk down the corridor.

http://www.stormcarib.com

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

http://www.stormpulse.com (collects data from the above site, but very neat interface)

Absolutely nothing on the horizon right now; lets hope it stays that way. 

The “gurus” of Colorado State University predict  11 named storms (Basically Tropical storms or stronger) , of which 5 will reach hurricane strength and 2 of them to be Category 3 of more (AKA : “Major Hurricane”).  They predict an “average” hurricane season, whatever that means.  Lets see how it goes ; most of the time forecasters have trouble giving us accurate weather for the next day, let alone a 6-month period.

We often go for sunset walks on Seven mile beach ; its a great place for a stroll and the sunsets are often breathtaking.

When we go for walks on Saturdays, there are usually one and sometimes two weddings going on.  Either we see the actual celebration, the photo sessions or the meal with tables setup on the beach.   I highly recommend this for someone thinking of having a wedding in the Caribbean or just want something different ; people seem to have a great time and the fabulous blue ocean and white sand make for great pictures.

In any case, as I was walking down Seven Mile Beach this Saturday evening, there was a rather large group of people, including a new bride and groom having their pictures taken.  As I walked by, some of them seemed to notice my Husky Aipa … bear with me, you will see where I am going with this.

Aipa & I kept on walking for 10 minutes or so and then doubled back.  As we approached again the wedding group, the groom left the picture session and came to see me asking if they could borrow my dog for some pictures!  Well, that’s a first!  Of course, I accepted, and here are the results.

Thanks to the photographer, David Wolfe, for sending these to me!  He does many wedding & corporate type shoots on the Island. He can be found at http://www.davidwolfephotography.com

I don’t know either the bride or the groom, but if they ever read this, wish them much happyness in their lives together and hopefully they have or will get a dog for their household.

In closing this post, I dont think this could have happened in a big city or the likes.  The fun and happy beach setting is perfect for this kind of encounter!

Happy Easter everyone!  Hope you have not eaten too much chocolate! In Cayman, we have a lovely 4-day weekend.  On that 4-day week-end, many caymanians hit the beaches, for the entire time. Let me explain …

There is a tradition (not sure how it started …) where the locals go camping from Thursday PM (or Friday AM) until Monday PM.  Whole families & groups of families find the best spots, bring tents, tarps for the rain, BBQ’s and the more sophisticated ones rent port-o-potties and even generators.  As for us, we’ll sleep in our bed with the A/C thank you very much! 🙂

Here is a small setup of just one test on Seven-Mile beach.

This seems to be 2-3 families and behind the tents was their rented potty!  They had a BBQ & lots of gear for the week-end, a make-shift shower, etc.

While venturing around today, we noticed that many cotton plants were … well, showing cotton for lack of a better term.  There does not appear to be any organized growing here in Cayman, since all the plants  we say today were on vacant lots.

Last but not least … I saw the largest snake I have even seen in Cayman and it was right on our front lawn. I estimate the it was 2.5-3ft long and the size of a garden hose at its largest. Here is a pic and a short video of the critter!