Destination Blog

We have made it through yet another hurricane season without any hurricanes. Many people have the wrong impression about the Cayman Islands and hurricanes. Yes, we are in the hurricane zone, but historically we have not been hit the way other Caribbean countries and Florida have.

Cayman, for whatever geographical and meteorological reasons, lies just out of the normal path for hurricanes. We often get related weather conditions, such as waves on the beach large enough to surf, and rain for our gardens. But we rarely get storm effects. 2011 has been a good year for us.

 

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Cayman Islands Helicopters gives aerial tours of our islands which give fantastic views of the water and reefs and mangroves. Have you ever looked out the airplane window on arrival and wished the plane would slow down so you could see more from on high? A helicopter tour allows that.

Exciting news is that CIH has opened up a new launch and landing pad in downtown George Town. Previously flights were out of the airport. But now you can board the helicopter from the waterfront area. This is great for cruise ship passengers as the new location is just a few blocks from the cruise ship terminals, only a 5-minute walk.

 

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Fireworks are very popular in the Cayman Islands – they are routine at Pirates Week, the Christmas boat parade of lights, New Year’s and for many private celebrations such as weddings, grand openings and birthday parties. A friend of ours is the local fireworks operator and invited us to a private function recently for an insider’s view. The party was held at Pedro Castle, one of Cayman’s best tourism attractions, site of an 18th century plantation with great house and expansive grounds and gardens on the bluff overlooking the south coast.

 

 

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We were in Boca Raton, FL recently, on a vacation of sorts (visiting friends). It was interesting to notice the differences and similarities between Boca Raton and the Cayman Islands.

Boca, as the locals call it, is an affluent community filled with high-end living and shopping. Just like Cayman. Boca’s Town Center mall had Cartier, Tous, Swarovski, Tiffany, and MAC cosmetics boutiques. Just like Cayman. There was a wide range of restaurants from family diners and fast food to fine dining. Just like Cayman. Just a few miles south in Deerfield Beach there was a lovely public beach with easy swimming and picnic cabanas. Just like Cayman. There was also a wide variety of internationals in the population. Just like Cayman. And there seemed to be a mix in many places of professionals, families and tourists. Just like Cayman.

 

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We've been exploring ways to make sure our Voting feature is completely accurate and bug-proof. What better way than to tie it to Facebook. If you haven't already voted for your favorite dive operation, restaurant, spa or wedding photographer, do it now!

 

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We are in the process of tying our Voting feature to Facebook. One Facebook account will equal one vote – this will ensure that the votes are legitimate.  The previous function tied up the voting component to an IP address.  One IP = One vote but since the IP's in the Cayman Islands are dynamic, it just made more sense to tie up the votes with Facebook profiles.

Please be patient with us while we customize this new voting component.  We dont really have a time frame as this is the first time we are attempting to do it but we hope to have it done in the earliest possible time.

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Pirates Week is one of those events that is cool in spite of the clichés. On the surface it might look like just another themed festival. Over 30 years ago, some islanders organized this festival to help build tourism during our slow months. But over the years it has evolved into a deep-rooted celebration that is now part of the local consciousness. It is not just the tourist related businesses that get involved – it’s everybody.

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A few weeks ago, our local swimming association put on an 800m open water sea swim. Our sea swim season runs March through November and the association organizes a total of 6 swims ranging from 800m to 5k, all along Seven Mile Beach. This recent swim, sponsored for many years by one of our grocery stores, Fosters Food Fair, is used by many swimmers and triathletes as a build up race to the Olympic distance triathlon and the Pirates Week 5k swim, both held in November. These distance events mostly attract locals. But more and more tourists are finding their way to our sporting events. Indeed, some visitors come to Cayman specifically to compete in our premier athletic events. Competition here is very friendly and very easy. Bringing home an age group trophy is quite a memento for your Cayman visit.

 

 

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Many of you have responded to our notices about voting for the Top Ten in several of our categories. In fact, a whole lot of you have. We are using our Facebook page as a channel to bring in more votes. And it’s working – a testament to the power of social media.

At first we were suspicious of the results because the voting was so heavy we thought that readers might be cheating the system. We allow only 1 vote per IP address to guard against vote stuffing. So when we saw the dramatic numbers we investigated. We are pleased to say that our system is safe and that each one of the votes is authentic. It seems our readers really love their dive operators, restaurants and bars.

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TV show Another Shade of Blue is filming in Grand Cayman for their next episode. In addition to capturing Cayman’s myriad shades of blue water on film, Ty Sawyer, documentarian is also reporting on marine wildlife artist and Cayman resident Guy Harvey – detailing Harvey’s recent art and his on-going efforts to preserve marine life. Other items on the agenda – a dive on the Kittiwake and footage of the invasive lionfish which moved into the Caribbean recently and are decimating local fish populations.

 

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We’ve had hurricanes on our mind lately. H Irene was a reminder that you have to take mother nature seriously. Fortunately, H Katia never came close to land, tho she is still going strong offshore from New England, a powerful storm no doubt causing headaches for fishermen and other marine interests. Also, September 10 is what is known as hurricane spike day – the historical data shows a huge spike on this day indicating that Sep 10 is one of the busiest hurricane days in the Atlantic basin. Indeed our own Hurricane Ivan arrived on September 11, 2004. This date is inextricably linked to 9/11 in our minds, though our misfortunes were nowhere near as grievous as the numerous tragedies of that day in 2001.

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The two smaller islands of the Cayman Islands – Little Cayman and Cayman Brac – have distinct tourism niches in the Cayman Islands market. Cayman Brac appeals to dive-mongers and Little Cayman is known for utter solitude. Both have well-developed tourist services including diving, wedding packages, air flights, a range of accommodation styles and a range of restaurants. Cayman Brac also has the magnificent Bluff which has quietly attracted climbing aficionados for many years, while Little Cayman likes to boast about its bird life and the largest Red-footed Booby nursery in the western hemisphere.

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Interesting news out of Britain about sunscreen and coral. Someone noticed that corals are able to protect themselves from UV rays which are particularly strong in the tropics (some corals are exposed to direct air and sunlight during low tides, others remain completely submerged but still close enough to the surface to get direct sunlight). After some research scientists from King’s College London now believe that algae living on the coral create a substance that spreads to the coral and protects both the algae and the coral from sunburn. They also believe that the protective benefits of the substance are passed on to fish who feed on the coral and algae, so even the fish are protected. They (the scientists) are trying to isolate the substance and develop it for use in lotions and even pill form. What a beautifully harmonic irony this is after the recent news that traditional sunscreens are harmful to coral.

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Eco-friendly sunscreens have been developed recently, and along with this improvement comes data on how destructive regular sunscreen is to coral reefs. As most of us know, coral reefs are the lungs of our worldwide oceans, creating life, oxygen and ecosystems that are critical to the health of all ocean waters. On the local level, damaging coral reefs is detrimental to the nearby people who live and learn off these fascinating marine forms. In Cayman, for example, the coral reefs that ring our three islands are the reason for our scuba tourism which is a large part of our economy. On the international level, damaging coral reefs causes loss of life and health in the world’s oceans at large.The problem is that an estimated 4,000-6,000 tons of sunscreen is left behind in the ocean when it washes off people in the water.

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The Caymanian Compass, our local newspaper, reports today that Cayman has once again featured well in several tourism related awards. Scuba Diving magazine ranks Grand Cayman #9 worldwide for shore diving. Cayman’s reefs are very easy swimming distance from shore, so all dive operations located on the water have dive ladders and maps indicating the nearby dive sites.

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Yes, we are now well into hurricane season which goes from June 1 to November 30 each year. But hurricanes in Cayman are not as frightening as some people think. Hurricane season simply means that this is the time of year when the water is warmest, and warm water is one of the requisites for generating and feeding a hurricane. But Cayman is geographically lucky and sits outside the hurricane corridor.

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Some Cayman business owners are upset that cruise ships are bypassing our harbour. It’s a complicated issue, but the main points include the down economy, summer weather, and the size of the George Town port. The winter season is typically our busy season for cruise ship arrivals. So it’s understandable that tourists would seek cooler climates for their summer vacation – especially this summer with it’s well-publicized record high temperatures in the US. The more difficult issue is that the port in Grand Cayman cannot accommodate the new super sized cruise ships that are turning the trend in that industry. Vendors, residents and Government have been debating for the past several years whether the George Town port should be expanded. Tourism reliant businesses say ‘yes,' and the Government sees that logic. But environmentalists say ‘no,’ pointing out that the dredging required for such a project would be harmful to the reefs and marine life, so would be detrimental to the scuba and water sports businesses here. All parties are trying to come to agreement on this issue which affects our country in so many ways.

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