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Published: December 8th 2013
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From Scottsdale....to Grand Cayman...don't even try to ask me why...more golf, and some diving too obviously. But why Grand Cayman? The place is run by Brits...and inundated by Americans and Canadians. It's still thanksgiving week-end, so as you may guess, the place is packed.
So why Grand Cayman? Well, pretty simple. I needed few more miles to keep the right frequent flyer card color which allows you to keep in front of the crowds. My initial plan was New Orleans, but the flight paths were just too complicated. So I went straightforward for the itinerary which would give me the fastest transfer...some diving, some golfing, and a not so bad hotel, and Grand Cayman came in.
Let start with the airport...took me just short of two hours to go from the plane to the taxi...what's that for a place! Pure nonsense, I would simply fire the guy who runs this airport.
Than the taxi ride...7km from the airport to the Westin on 7 Mile beach...23usd, that looks ok, till these idiots put more people in the same taxi, and still charge the same fare. Taxis in Grand Cayman, are simple thieves, straightforward!
Than came the hotel, well, it's a proper 4 stars place, 100% occupancy for the week-end, I may have the right card, life in a hotel has seen better days. I guess it's Thanksgiving and the Caribbean mix!
My little room has a cute view, and the beach is pretty nice...but since when do I spend time on the beach? When I think people stay here a full week, I would never survive, but don't take me wrong, the place is nice. Got a nice happy hour drink, followed by a nice dinner by the beach and an early night....tomorrow is another day...
So next morning, the diving...and there, I got a little scared doing my research. Grand Cayman seems to offer some good diving for the Caribbean...I can confirm, it was not bad. The dive center at the hotel advertise a two dives morning...first one the wall, 100 feet deep, for 35 minutes, followed by an unguided dive at 45ft for 50 minutes...is that another commercial outfit who doesn't really care about the diving side? How wrong was I! I dived with Red Sails. The Brits running the place may
be quite "distant". The clients are your typical North American Caribbean divers...you know, 50++ and never saw a shark in their life, but 200++ dives and still exhausting a tank in less than 30 minutes.
All this would have...or should have mean a nightmare for me, but it didn't. First dive went indeed nicely deep...and we were back after 42 minutes (I was the last one back on the boat), but my computer was happy with the profile. Second dive, they let me do my stuff, and a truly fun dive it was...58 minutes, you are not going to read me complaining.
How do you rate a dive? Just look at the pictures. You know my meaning...if you can pull out amazing pictures...how can you call this an amazing dive! There was not much to look at...but we had few very curious turtles around. On the second dive, something more fun happened. A nurse sharks followed us most of the dive. Since when nurse sharks do follow divers. He had the behavior of a pet...are nurse sharks pets? I can tell you, I was not bored!
After this, it was back
to my terrace for a little aperitif before heading to play the only proper 18 holes golf course in Grand Cayman. The North Sound golf course is just a 20 minutes walk outside the Westin, do not get me on taking taxis here! The green fee during the day is 175usd, including a cart...and trust me, it doesn't worth this! But by 4pm, the fee decrease to 55usd including the cart. That doesn't lleave you which much time to play as sunset is just before 6pm. But with a cart, and nobody on the golf course, I managed to go around the 18 holes...just don't ask me to look for my balls.
And it was already the end of a fun and busy day. Pizza by the beach, follow by some nice malbec and a good cigar...Grand Cayman was not that bad today.
Next morning I took the bus to visit downtown Georgetown. Well, they have more Burger Kings and KFC than lovely Caribbean architecture. They had 4 massive cruise ships in town...that was a fast round of downtown Georgetown for me. Don't ask me to be a fan of place overrun by cruise
ships, not going to happen to me.
And as fast as I arrived in Grand Cayman, I was on my way out the same evening. The island doesn't have much of a soul, at least for what I have seen. Happy to have dive and golf here, and the sunset was a pretty nice affair...but more fun was awaiting me...in a much colder place.
Enjoy the diving pics, I couldn't have done better in two dives. And when the DM asked me what I thought about the diving...my answer was pretty simple...was a fun morning...but you guys, must be bored to hell diving here every day...
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
1994
We spent our Honeymoon on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac. We had such a good time.