There are only 150 permanent residents on Little Cayman. As E, one of our dive masters, says “Everyone knows everyone”. During the stormy months of mid August to October, many of these residents choose to go off island. The supply barge sometimes can’t make it, so food and essentials start to run low. E will take this time to go to the US and then England to visit family and friends.
There are many condos and houses that are owned by non islanders and these folks come and go throughout the year. We dove with M, who lives 6 months on the island and 6 months in southern California. Not a bad life.
Conch Club Condos
There are a limited numbers of places to stay depending on what type of accommodation and diving is favored. We liked the condo idea and taking care of certain meals ourselves. The resorts on the island all included meals. For the amount that Murray and I eat, I think our method was the less expensive option.
Our dive crew from Conch Club divers will have our business again as they fit our style of diving perfectly, plus we happened to get the whole boat to ourselves that week. The week we were there Reef Divers, out of The Little Cayman Beach Resort, was running 4 full boats every day. Ouch.
View from our dive boat
There are a few non dive activities to partake in for a break from diving. Bicycles are easily accessed and the island can be circumnavigated. We rode around one end of the island on our last day and it is easily doable, although rather HOT. The bikes are in questionable condition. There were three mountain bikes in our condo and all had rusty chains, gears that wouldn’t shift and rubbing parts. Functional but I wouldn’t ride the Tour de France on one.
We saw a group of people riding scooters around the island. A good option for the non bike enthusiasts. A couple of hardy types were kite boarding in the protected waters in front of our condo. The waters would be good for wind surfing too, I think. There is fishing, but you have to fish outside the marine park. Bird watching is a big thing on the island, as there are boobies, frigates, ducks and other avian creatures for interested birders.
As Murray mentioned in another post, the food is expensive but we managed to come home under budget on food by eating breakfast in, most lunches on the boat picnic style and having supper at one of the two bars on the island. The lunches we purchased were shared, to keep the quantity of food down to a reasonable level. The bar food was quite tasty with a choice of burgers, quesadillas, salads, ribs and such.
As we were leaving the island, we agreed that this is a destination that we would like to return to.
Fireworks on Murray’s Birthday!