Coochas

Well, the subject heading is a bit deceiving....My wife and I spent the week DIVING Grand Cayman.

The island is only 22 miles long and I saw a Yellow (? Speed vs. Signal) 996, a Boxster, a Cayenne (white looks sweet here), and of course a Cayman S !! Nice p-car representation for such a small place.

We stayed on the East side of the island at a dive resort called Compass Point (www.oceanfrontiers.com). The accommodations were wonderful (basically nice condos) and the diving & dive masters were fantastic. They also provided a rental car for the week as part of the package.

Ahh, the car. It was a Daihatsu Charade – to say this car is small is an understatement - I am fairly certain I could lift it but I prefer to keep my hernia mesh in place. While I didn’t do any official calculations, I am going to guess I got about 40 mpg. Amazing thing was that when the car was running on 1/8th tank, a fill up was less than 6 gallons! The only gas at the station was 93 octane and it was just under 4 Cayman Dollars per Imperial Gallon (about 4USD/gallon).

The car was RHD and driving is on the left on Grand Cayman. Fortunately my prior experience driving Australia and experiences in college while driving when I shouldn’t have both prepared me for the left side experience. I thought it was odd that the speedo was in KPH but the island (UK) speed limits are in MPH.

This was a wonderful vacation. We’ve been scuba diving for about 2 years and are up to about 40 dives…it has become a part of our lives. For those of you who dive, you understand. If you haven’t tried it,….you simply must. And if you’re wondering about your conditioning, if you can fit in a 911, you can dive.

Here are some pics!!!!!!!!!!!

Here I am next to my Daihatsu beast:




This photo demonstrates that you can enjoy wings and beer just about anywhere. Note that I am sporting a Speed Yellow Porsche T-shirt and my RS Spyder chronograph.



This is a pic of Irene cuddling a Sting Ray named Freckles. I took this at the “Sand Bar” at Sting Ray City which is about 1 mile from shore and in waist deep water. It seems that fishermen began feeding their cleaning scraps to these Sting Rays back in the 1920s which led to an incredible trust between our two species. Our guide, Capt. Jimmy, has been going to the Sand Bar for 50 years and has been friends with a Sting Ray named “Freckles” the entire time (these Rays can live to 100 years). Indeed, out of the 50 or so Rays swimming around us, Freckles approached Capt Jimmy, hugged him, and then kissed him. I kid you not! I fed many of them calamari from my palm (their mouths are on the underside and they vacuum the food off your hand). Freckles snuggled up with my Coochas Honey Irene as shown in this picture – this has now become one of my favorite pics (yes, even more so than my cars!!!!!).

cleanme

How'd you get time away from passing gas!?

Love the photo of Freckles, that's really neat! Any more pictures of Grand Cayman?

Coochas

That's why I was eating the chicken wings!

Here's some more pics. Sorry, but we took very few scenery shots of the island - just lots of pics of me and the Mrs.
All of the scuba pics were taken from video footage (by one of the dive masters) so please excuse the lower quality!

Here's another one of Irene with Freckles.



Typical reef shot...



And you thought our traffic was bad...



The red thing in the middle of this coral is a decorator crab!!!



Gratuitious shark pics. The last pic shows a shark sleeping under a large formation. We saw a whole bunch of sharks that day. Unfortunately, we did not get a pic of one of the Green Moray eels that we saw - it was a huge one.

Soulteacher

Very nice! Great pics. I'll be off to Penang and Phuket on Wednesday, so maybe I should take a diving course while over there. I'll probably avoid the sting rays, though...

And that Charade is much nicer than the thing you had last time when you were in Bulgaria or wherever. My first car ever (1983) was Daihatsu Charade, by the way. Back then they still had these fancy portholes in the rear side columns.

Coochas

Have fun!
If you can find the time, see if there's a PADI certified dive center that could certify you or at least take you on some so-called discovery dives (they teach you the basics, take you diving, and watch you like a hawk).
I had no idea the Charade had been around so long....man, that is a small car - I've never parallel parked so easily in my life.

DJ23

Dave how did you like Rum Point? The Caymans are my favorite islands. Been there three times. Absolutely the best. Love the pics.

Jay

Coochas

Rum Point was nice...that's where I was eating the wings. Looks like there's some nice real estate there too.

ChrisF

Coochas: Great pictures. Grand Cayman is one of the places on my list to dive. I too got certified about 4 years ago and now try to do one vacation a year near a prime dive site. Of all the dives so far I'd have to recommend the Tiputu Pass in Rangiroa, French Polynesia. I count it as one of my top 10 life experiences. Do a search for Rangiroa or The Wall of Sharks! Here's a quick pic.

oalvarez

Jay, are they your favorite because of the diving or simply because of what they offer in totality? have you visited any of the virgin islands or those lesser antilles?

regards

kauai_diver

d0h you got me with the title! Awesome pics, looks like you had fun! Water looks great. Yah scuba diving is fun, got my wife in to it way back in 1996 or so.

Looking at the first pic I notice you are no longer taking your male enhancement pills, what's up with that?

You gotta try diving around St. Kitts next time, they have some great reef dives - and pristine.

http://www.divestkitts.com/

Jyoder240

Nice, I've been to Grand Cayman twice. It's beautiful, the rum cake alone is worth the trip.

FotoVeloce

I'd like to hear more about the Cayman's myself. I love traveling in the Carribean (St. Maarten was on of my faves, mainly due to the killer beach house we had, and the airport - being an aviation nut). It was a bit beat-up though.

Been to Jamaica a bunch of times but, after the 3rd I'd seen all I needed too. I need to get further down the chain!

ozcav

Ocean Frontiers is one of the best dive operations in the world. Frazier does a great job with that operation and, for avid dives, the East End is the only place to dive on Grand Cayman. I think it compares really well to Brac and Little Cayman with the added bonus of being able to go to better restaurants on the West End.

Phuket has some nice diving but it is prone to bad vis and reaquires 2+ hour boat rides unless you are on a liveaboard. I would encourage you to take a class anyway, just be prepared for less than ideal conditions. On the upside, you will see critters in Thailand that you can't see in the carribean. On the downside, it is primarily a European destination so tmany of the boats only have smoking and chain smoking areas.

Some of the other sites mentioned in other posts are good beach locations but don't compare to the Caymans for diving. While there are exceptions if you know where to go and some relatively unexplored areas, the Caymans (excluding the West End which is aweful) and Cozumel are the most accessible of the good locations in the Carribean. The Honduran islands, Belize, Bonaire and a few other locations are great. But, most of the more famous tourist islands in the Eastern Caribean don't rate too high as diving destinations.

DJ23

Oalvarez,
I have been to the Virgin Islands, The Exuma's, Aruba, etc... The Caymans have the best to offer in terms of diving, snorkeling, sailing as well as other family activities. And The Reef Grill at the Palms Hotel is one of the best restaraunts they have. Food, entertainment, and accomodations are at the best on this Island. We have stayed at the Hyatt, but our favorite is the Westin. The ambience and view of the ocean are absolutely breath taking. Go and book a vacation. You won't be disappointed.

Jay

jrgordonsenior

I'll second Frazier and his operation. We did some seriously deep dives on the back side with him. Very well organized and safety oriented.