Back to school...

Tonight is our last night of carefree living here in the Cayman Islands, as tomorrow Barn will be starting his new job. Still, no point worrying about that now. Instead we are making the most of our last hours of "freedom" before we are sucked back into the real world (or at least as real as the world gets out here). Example below.

Having spent our first week on island finding our feet and doing all the usual boring admin jobs that come with moving house/country, in the last week we have been able to spend a bit more time exploring the island and starting to settle in to island life. Oh, and we have also moved into our new house (but more of that later...).

Last weekend we thought we had better expand our horizons and develop our cultural knowledge of the island by visiting the oldest building (and for many years the only stone building) in the Cayman Islands, Pedro St James Castle. Although it is now a fantastic museum, this simple but impressive structure on the southern coast of the island near Prospect was originally built by an English farmer and landowner in the 1730s as the main house for his cotton plantation. Over the years the structure has been used for many different things, having been the site where the first Cayman Government sat, the place where the abolition of slavery was proclaimed, a family home, a small holding to be abandoned and left to fall into disrepair, a romantic ruin and picnic destination, a tourist attraction, a dive centre, a bar and restaurant, a ruin once more until finally it was purchased in the 1990s by the Cayman Government who have restored it to its former plantation-era glory. It provided a fascinating insight into how the Cayman Islands have developed from the forgotten mosquito infested backwater that they were right up until the 1940s into a global financial centre and tourist destination, as well as what life was like on the Caribbean plantations in the 18th and 19th centuries.

While Barn was absorbed by the history, Bonnie spent her time making a new friend in the only donkey left on the Cayman Islands, who now lives in the grounds of Pedro St James Castle.

Bonnie also became an Auntie for the first time on Sunday to a gorgeous little girl and we both wish we could be back home for a cuddle but have been spending all week on Facebook trying to catch a glimpse at the next photo! Congrats to N & M and also to S & P who welcomed their little bundle into the world on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we decided to explore the Botanic Gardens, which we had heard a lot of good things about. As well as being a fantastic horticultural resource, they are also the home to the Blue Iguana, which is an endangered species, and until a few years ago there were only a handful left on the island. Thanks to a breeding ad conservation programme run by the National Trust, the numbers are now growing, and the gardens are a great place to see these beautiful creatures up close.

The gardens are a wonderful mix of indigenous plants, local Caribbean plants and more exotic species that nave been brought to the islands from further afield. They are set out in a series of areas, with the local species being displayed in the garden of a typical Caymaian cottage, a palm grove, a wonderful colour garden focused around an ornamental lake and gazebo and finally a woodland walk. Unfortunately, having remained bite free up to this point, the mosquitoes had their revenge and we both came away with one or two choice bites...

In between our cultural forays we have been to HELL and back (literally - it's a place at the NW of the island);

and spent a lot of time sat on the beach/by the pool topping up our tans and working our way through the large pile of books we picked up at the Cayman Islands Humane Society Book Sale (5 for $1 - bargain).
The second half of this week has primarily revolved around eating, drinking and moving.
Thursday was lunch with my new colleagues, and it was great to finally meet people I have been speaking to on the phone and over video conference in the flesh for the first time.

On Friday we picked up the keys to our new house. The experience was somewhat dampened when we received a call on the Thursday night from the estate agent to explain that unfortunately the repainting had not actually been completed yet, and we have therefore spent the last couple of days picking our way around the paint pots and dust sheets while the decoration has been completed. However we met one of the neighbours who seemed quite pleasant,

and have a palm outside our front door that seems to be growing something that looks like it should be from the film Labyrinth;

After some rain (you'll be pleased to know), the painters finally finished this afternoon, so now we are just waiting for our container (which arrived on Wednesday) to be cleared from Customs so we can start unpacking properly.
We finished the week with a Beer and Curry night at the Cayman Islands Brewery (www.cib.ky), which we had heard about last week when we went to restock our fridge. It was fantastic fun, and we met more than a few interesting people. We will certainly be returning for the next one.

Today we spent the day Skyping the folks, walking round the block to explore and then we headed into Georgetown for brunch buffet on the harbour where we ate a number of  dishes including goat, snapper, ackee, callaloo, rice and peas, conch fritters!! Not to mention the key lime pie, bread pudding, casava loaf and creme brulee!! (You only need one meal on a Sunday here!)

We also watch these chaps fish for their Sunday lunch!

Then we headed to our nearest beach where we snorkeled, sunbathed and watched a magical baptism service in the sea with full congregation and singing!

Anyway, now it is time for Barn to think about polishing shoes, ironing shirts, pressing suits, picking out ties and packing bags ready for his first day at the office.... Wish him luck!
Until next time.
Bonnie and Barny

We do like to be beside the seaside!

It's been a crazy few days. Although we have only been on island for 6 days, it seems as if we have been here much longer, as we seem to have packed a lot into the time.

 So far we've managed to; buy a car, rent a house, set up all utilities, meet some local islanders, get new driving licences, swim with stingrays, buy our first bottle of rum, get sun burnt, snorkel with moray eels, barracudas and parrot fish.

Interesting things we have learnt so far;
1) You will always find a great beach in front of a cemetery - one of the only places you can dig on the island is where the iron shore gives way to sand.
2) Chickens have no natural prey. Therefore they are good looking and breed like hell. They also have right of way. I found this amusing this morning...those of you quick enough will get why;

3) Cayman is the only place you can find a turtle 'farm' in the world. But they still eat them.

We have also learnt that George Town is there primarily for the tourists and the office workers. During the week it's full of office workers and on the days which cruise ships are in, is teaming with (largely) American tourists off the ships from Miami .
Cruise ships do not call at the weekend (to give the islanders a bit of a break), but outside those times there is not much call to go to GT, as everything has shifted to the hotel/residential district of Seven Mile Beach on the western strip of the island. We think it's a bit of a shame as the real soul of the Caribbean is in George Town and it could do with some more restaurants and bars.
You'll be pleased to know we still get rush hour, in the capital too -  at 5pm no less ;-)

Talking of cars, one of the first things we had to do on Monday was to visit the Cayman Islands Dept. for Vehicle and Driver Licencing to convert our UK Driving Licences to Cayman Islands Driving Licences. So now Barn has been legally been unleashed on the roads of Grand Cayman. Little do they know.... (those at our wedding can verify).

Once we did that we headed off to (recommendation) Tony's Toys and bought ourselves a new car. Something fresh off the boat from Japan. It ticked the critical boxes; good AC, good bodywork, right hand drive, 4x4, and girly enough for us both. Apparently the puddles created by the tropical rain can completely ruin a low riding vehicle and we wanted something we can throw a kayak or row boat on the top of.

Fresh off the back of our success in buying a car, we viewed some properties for rent. Whilst it may be part of the dream of moving to the Caribbean that you lease somewhere right on the beach (and indeed we were pretty swayed by the property that we are being put up in, whose living room opens right onto the sea), our criteria have been somewhat tempered by the stories we have heard and the photos we have seen of the impact (and aftermath) of Hurricane Ivan, which completely decimated the island in 2004. The destruction a hurricane can cause is still very apparent here on the island , with houses and hotels completed gutted and standing empty and windowless awaiting a buyer.

So, while we have viewed a few beach front properties, the ones we were really interested in were the townhouses in developments further inland. By inland, we mean 1 mile. It's only 4 miles wide! We viewed a few, three properties really caught our eye, but one in particular we fell in love with. So we rushed back with the estate agent to put down the deposit before it could be snapped up!

We signed the lease yesterday and as of next Friday we will be the proud tenants of a 4 bed town house, with a pool, 3 minutes drive from the office, 2 minute from the beach and 6 minutes from all of the action on 7 mile beach.

We also checked out our nearest beach...... bearing in mind this is high holiday season it's really quite amazing.

One thing we must stress, is it's incredibly efficient here. Every office, computer system, and company is simple, straight forward, friendly and takes about 10 minutes. Very surprising. Whereas back in the UK you would be passed from call centre to call centre and from customer service agent to manger and back again, here you speak to someone in person, and it is done in a matter of minutes. We got a car bought and insured within 1/2 day, Driving Licences within 10mins from walking into the building, bank account within 35mins, all utilities within 10 mins. Phone, broadband and mobiles within 20. Just our type of place - absolutely no phaffage and let's you concentrate on what's important - having a good time!!

Surprisingly as I'm sure you'll all be gutted to hear, the heat isn't too bad - it's about 35 degrees with strong breezes - best time of year apparently (end of winter) - the summer (Jul/Aug)is horribly hot - no breeze and lots of humidity.
It's currently a bit too hot to be outside between 12 and 2 but the sun rises at 6.25am so we get up and head out for a swim each day - although this routine plus the strong winds/rum/beer/sun means we are ready for bed at 9pm!!!

The food on the island so far has been fantastic! Lots of fish, (primarily red snapper) and lobster and local fish such as Mahi Mahi. My best discovery - conch, the prehistoric snail type animal in a conch shell. Pronounced Conk here, it's incredibly yummy and you can cook it a million different ways. The only way to describe it is a steak like calamari.

Lobster and Avocado starter at Guy Harvey's Restaurant, GT, KY

There is also turtle and dolphin "en menu" but not sure I can bring myself to try those. They also have Subway, KFC, Hard Rock Cayman Islands and Burger King,  but luckily we haven't had to grab any fast food quite yet!! The price is similar to London and wine starts at £7 a glass, cocktails are £8. However locals get a huge 50% discount on lots of things.

The supermarkets are expensive. There is a huge selection but due to the shipping/freezing process, it only lasts 2-3 days once you get it home so pre planning of meals is required! Meat selection is fantastic though - veal is very cheap and steaks the size of your head (from the US of course). Bizarre things like milk cost about £3 a bottle but a bottle of 2L diet coke is £1.50......not as nice on shreddies though.

Toiletries are INCREDIBLY expensive. So that's something we will be stocking up on when we are home. It's about £7-8 for each shampoo/shower gel etc. The cheapest chemical laden brands are around £5. Never thought I'd miss poundland.....

 On our shopping trip we did however pick up a couple of beer coolers.........say what you will about being cheesy/U.S.A influenced.

I'm sorry to say I used the word "gas" instead of petrol today and Barn used "cell" instead of mobile. It's started. Sorry, so very sorry. Barn has asked to be put down if he starts saying "trunk" or "sidewalk".....

Back to the adventure.

Today was a road trip to the tourist hot spot Rum Point (north cost) where we took a boat out to Stingray City.

There, we snorkeled with the stingrays, swam over coral reefs, met some bossy Brazilians, too friendly yoga loving Red-necks, and Captain Jimmy who enticed a Moray Eel from it's lair and allowed us to hold/feed 4 ft stingrays... that pasty white smiley thing below is indeed me.

the stingrays on approach were everywhere (yep that's the sea not a swimming pool)



We also kayaked for an hour over the reefs and now we are home, applying vast amounts of aloe vera over our now red pasty bodies and pouring as much 40% proof Cayman rum as we can into iced glasses of coke. It's been a good day.

So, there you have it. A (not so) whistle stop summary of our first few days on the island (and hopefully now you can see why we feel as if it's been longer than 6 days!)

Until the next time.

B&B

First impressions of island life

The last 2 weeks have been such a whirlwind. It seems like years ago that we were in Bar du Musee saying goodbye to all of our friends, but in fact it was only 14 days ago. And now here we are, safe and sound in Grand Cayman starting to settle into our new life. It's strange to look back and think just how much has happened since then...

Just a quick recap. In the intervening days we have:

a) both finished our jobs in London....

...and have been given great send offs by our former employers;

b) spent time with as many relatives and friends as we have been able to fit in - thank you for all your good wishes;

c) travelled up to Yorkshire (separately) so we could spend Easter together with both sets of in-laws in Yorkshire chez Finnigan, and introduce the Family R to the delights of God's own County. Needless to say it rained on and off (but mostly on) for the entirety of the period they were there...;

d) packed and re-packed our luggage to try and meet British Airways' very prescriptive baggage requirements (benefiting our local charity shops in the process);

e) said a somewhat moist-eyed farewell to our respective parents; and

f) boarded the plane for the 12 hour flight to Grand Cayman, and caught up on the backlog of new releases that we didn't have time to see before we left (him - The Muppets, J Edgar, The Ides of March, Drive; her - We Bought a Zoo, Lion King, The Descendants, Kinky Boots).

And then we found ourselves "on island" at long last, after what seems like years of planning but has actually been less than 6 months.

Our first sight of the island was about 10 minutes out, a tiny speck on the horizon out of the plane window. It was much greener than we were expecting, with much of the island covered in lush green palm and coconut palm trees, interspersed with a combination of LA style mansions and Cayman cottages which are build with wood, on stilts and have a corrugated iron roof.

Then we saw the famous 7 mile beach (actually it's about 5.5 miles, but who's counting?)....it looked alright.

Now we've been here a couple of days now, and we have already:

checked out Barn's new offices (by company limo no less)...

experienced our first Caribbean sunset (Daiquiris off camera to the left...)

suitably stocked the fridge (and picked up a loyalty card for the Cayman brewery in the process)

checked into our temporary home for the next two weeks. Back garden is rather nice....

had some downtime (and breakfast) by our pool...

had lunch in modern Caymana Bay - Cayman's only "mall". Barn love it. Bon thinks it reminds her of Canary Wharf..... kind of.

with the American sized portions we are going to have to watch our waistlines... yes that is a chicken Caesar wrap - Pret/M&S take note. And no the diet coke won't help.

and been to the centre of George Town, which is the Capital (presumably by default, it being the only "town" on the island...). Stingrays are a big thing here...

House hunting commences on Lundi and today we are meeting islander friends for lunch to ask them boring questions such as; what dentist should we register with, where's the opticians, dry cleaners etc. I hope they don't read this before we meet, they may cancel.....

B&B