Living in Grand Cayman

For the third year in a row, I am in Los Angeles for a week at a client.  I must admit, I do like LA a lot!  I would not live here though ; I prefer Cayman for that.  I always have a rental car when I come here and get to drive around and see some sights!  Speaking of driving around, I had a Dodge Charger as a rental; not my type of car but had a “bad ass” look to it!

Here at Griffith Park in Hollywood, a friendly fox was crossing the road.

An excellent view of the Hollywood sign.

Great view of the LA skyscrapers.

Another view … notice the haze from the smog. 🙁

Hollywood Boulevard … the walk of fame. 

The theater that everyone has seen in picture before. Well, here is another one! 🙂

I fly back saturday to Cayman … cant wait to get back to Julie & the pets.

(Note: I made another post just 2 days ago. See below)

Our visitors leave on Sunday, so on Saturday we took them for our favorite activity on Grand Cayman ; Stingray City! The boat ride takes us to three destinations in the North Sound : Stingray City, the barrier reef and a place called “Coral Gardens”. Its a 3-hour tour. Anyone who visits us can be sure we will take them on this tour.

Here is a Stingray passing right next to the boat as we arrive at Stingray City.

Here Genevieve and I are playing with a friendly stingray.

These are extremely gentle animals. Its a true privilege to be able to handle them in this manner, making sure to keep them in the water at all times. Their underside is as smooth as silk and not slimy at all. As you can see, any concerns about them being dangerous are totally overblown! Just to be clear, these stingrays are wild and I am not in an “stingray tank” of any sort. Stingray City is simply a shallow sand bar about 2 miles offshore. They are of course tame because people have been feeding them for years, but they are still 100% wild and must be handled with care. Do I look happy or what? 🙂

Here I am snorkeling at the barrier reef. Fantastic sea life to be seen here in this crystal clear water. Not to mention a perfect temperature to snorkel for as long as you want.

A final picture when departing back to land. Definitely a fantastic day with our guests and another brilliant day here in Grand Cayman Island.

A final note. I have implemented a post notification function. If you sign up (click on “register” on the right) you will automatically receive an email each time I make a new post. I promise not to send you any spam or any other message ; I dislike spam as much as you!

This week have have our first repeat visitor.  Julie’s friend Genevieve liked her visit last year so much (she was our 1st guest after we moved here) that she has come to visit us once again and even brought her mother with here this time.  She does not seem to miss the crazy amount of snow they are getting this year in Montreal. I for one don’t miss it one bit.

They have had nothing but spectacular weather every day so far!

Here are some pictures from Rum Point on the week-end

We now have a turtle dove nest right outside our dining room window.  Hope we get to see the little ones soon.

Finally, here is Genevieve and her mom at Smith Cove. A great place to snorkel and take it easy.  Its also a popular spot for locals, unlike Rum Point which is mostly for tourists & expats.

This picture is of the construction site just next to my office building. Can you see whats wrong? (the answer is below the picture)

If you did not see it, the answer is what you cant see : Graffiti. The contruction site is surrounded by white panels to keep people out. There is not one single poster, sign, drawing or graffiti on either side. I know for a fact that in any other place, those nice white panels would be covered with graffiti within a few days if not hours!

Since monday PM, I am in New York for a few days of work. One thing is fore sure, I am no longer used to the cold. Its not all that cold (I estimate 7-10 degrees C). However, I have been wearing my hat (tuque), gloves & scarf while the New Yorkers dont seem to be minding the cold and walk around with their jackets open and I even saw some women in sandals! Thats what I get for being so used to 30 degree weather in Cayman 🙂

It was nice to have some time in the evening to get some shopping done and to walk around the usual tourist places as you can see in the pictures below. I fly back to Cayman on Thrusday ; Cayman Airways now has a direct flight from JFK to Grand Cayman. Gotta love direct flights!

Grand Central station

The NY subway (used it to get to one of my clients near Wall St. in the financial district

Ground Zero (World Trade Center)

Times Square

This is the airplane I took back to Grand Cayman. Cayman Airways recently redesigned their planes with the coat of arms of the country, changed the font & changed the location of “Sir Turtle” ; in my opinion their plane looks great.