<br><br>[TTOL addendum: This report may well be dated in places but I think it's still a useful description of a trip to Grand Cayman and some of the travel options available. This report was uploaded with TTOL's admin's permission - the report will be moved to the archives shortly. - RBE]<br><br><br>The following is a report on a trip, between 22 and 29 November 1999,<br>to Grand Cayman. I've mixed in comments about transportation,<br>accommodations, and Grand Cayman in general along with a "dive<br>report". <br><br>The basic outlines of the trip are as follows: There were six people<br>on the trip, two divers, one "wanna-be" (more below), and three<br>non-divers, in two families. We flew from Philadelphia to Grand<br>Cayman with American with a transfer in Miami. Derek, flying in from<br>Chicago, hooked up with the rest of us in Miami, literally making it<br>onto the plane at the last second (equipment delay in Chicago). <br><br>Tickets and hotel accommodations were arranged through Liberty Travel.<br>Part of the arrangements included transfer from and to Owen Roberts<br>Airport on Grand Cayman. Taxi fare from the airport to our hotel was<br>quoted at $24CI each way; the "free" transfer was a good savings. We<br>did not reserve a car but rented one after figuring out it was going<br>to be needed.<br><br>All dive gear (my BC, wet suit, fins, etc. plus two sets of fins and<br>masks for snorkelers) went as checked luggage while my reg, computer,<br>and backup computer were carried as carry-on luggage. There were no<br>problems in either direction.<br><br>We stayed at Indies Suites at the north end of the main "strip" along<br>Seven Mile Beach. We picked this location partly on the basis of<br>literature from Liberty Travel and partly on the results of web<br>searches. One of the key features was the in-house dive operation<br>stressing a low number of divers per boat. We were never advised that<br>Indies Divers had, in fact been closed in either May or July 1999.<br>E-mail to Indies Suites, specifically referring to Indies Divers, was<br>unanswered. For the record, Indies Suites has no in-house dive<br>operation, per se, although the Indies Divers boats were due to be<br>re-painted in the Red Sail Sports colors, a large dive operator<br>with a small office in the Indies Suites lobby. We kept the hotel<br>reservations but I started to look for alternate dive operators.<br><br>I planned to upgrade my NAUI Open Water certification to Advanced Open<br>Water and hoped to dive with Tracy, the other diver. There were plans<br>for Derek to do his cert dives for his OW course. Because of the mix<br>of abilities and goals, I wanted a dive operator with flexibility and<br>I wanted to avoid the "cattle boats". After polling Internet scuba<br>groups, local dive operators, and web sites, the short list was Divers<br>Down, Dive 'N Stuff, Fisheye, and Treasure Island.<br><br>Initial e-mail contacts began with the same note sent separately to<br>the four operators. Based on the initial replies, Divers Down and<br>Treasure Island moved to the top of the list with Fisheye dropping<br>back because of their apparent concentration on video and photography.<br>Treasure Island dropped back after it became clear that the operation<br>was just a bit too glitzy for my taste. Something in the e-mail from<br>Divers Down didn't quite push my buttons and Dive 'N Stuff bubbled to<br>the top of the list.<br><br>During the search, I got conflicting signals on whether the other<br>diver, Tracy, would be diving at all and Derek didn't seem to have any<br>of the referral material from his OW class. I deferred a firm<br>commitment on plans with Dive 'N Stuff (DnS) partly because of the<br>confusion with the two other (potential) divers and partly as a hedge<br>after a negative experience with an earlier dive operator. <br><br>The trip south was a typical domestic flight: cramped seats and<br>minimal munchies. At least the scenery, as we flew down the Delmarva<br>and VA, NC, and SC coast as well as an excellent look at the Space<br>Shuttle facilities, made up for the cramping. Our baggage was checked<br>through to Grand Cayman so "all" we had to do was find Derek (inbound<br>from Chicago) and get on the flight to Grand Cayman. We discovered<br>the hard way that gates above E-20 are in a remote building and not<br>part of the main terminal complex. There is a tram between the main<br>complex and the remote building; nowhere is there a sign that says the<br>tram only has two stops. Stop one is at the main complex and stop two<br>is at the remote complex. Now we know!<br><br>While looking for Derek, we were hailed by Craig and Nancy, friends on<br>their way to Costa Rica. My grandfather often said, "go where you<br>want and do anything you want, but remember wherever you go, you'll<br>meet someone you know." Indeed, indeed!<br><br>With departure time rapidly approaching, we finally learned that<br>Derek's flight had been delayed an hour by mechanical problems. The<br>American people kept saying they doubted he'd make our flight and we<br>finally boarded the plane, trying to figure out how to hook up with<br>him later that evening. At the last second there was an announcement<br>in the plane, "Please raise your hand if there's an empty seat next to<br>you for our friend Derek." With Derek on board, we left, thinking his<br>bags hadn't made the flight.<br><br>We flew over Cuba enroute to Grand Cayman. It didn't look any<br>different than parts of Florida or the Keys but it was still a little<br>odd to fly over this particular island. The approach to Grand Cayman<br>gave an excellent view of the west end of Grand Cayman and Seven Mile<br>Beach in particular. We were able to spot our hotel and the location<br>looked just fine.<br><br>Landing at the airport and walking down the stairs was the<br>prototypical tropical arrival with palm trees, strange scents, and the<br>sound of reggae music carrying across the apron. The reggae music<br>turned out to be the work of one player with a bank of synthesizers<br>and the customs people were ever so slightly patronizing and chilly<br>but, hey, it's "da islands, mon." <br><br>While Derek and his mother went off to deal with his missing luggage,<br>we found the shuttle and started to load up all our bags. Just before<br>we climbed aboard... Derek's bags showed up! Armed with all our bags,<br>we set off for Indies Suites.<br><br>After having visited Bermuda, the "back stage" side of Grand Cayman is<br>a little rougher and a little more chaotic. Still, it's a beautiful<br>island and the ride was enjoyable. On reaching Seven Mile Beach, we<br>hit the strand of hotels ranging from a step up from "No Tell Motel"<br>(long term rates available) to "The Great House" (if you have to ask<br>the price, you can't afford it). Indies Suites is just past the last<br>of the string of hotels starting in George Town, about three miles<br>north of the center of George Town. Located on Foster Road which runs<br>into West Bay Road, the road along Seven Mile Beach, it's a five<br>minute stroll to a public beach. Indies Suites itself is a set of 40<br>suites (bed, bath, kitchen area and living area) on two levels set in<br>a rectangle around a pool. Some suites are managed as timeshare<br>suites (the goal is 40% timeshare and there was considerable<br>literature encouraging us to buy into a suite - pass!). The staff was<br>friendly and helpful although nobody ever explained how Red Sail<br>Sports came to replace Indies Divers despite a pointed inquiry.<br><br>A guest explained what happened: the Indies Suites owner also owns<br>Kaibo Yacht Club. He expected the divemasters to run a boat shuttle<br>from behind Indies Suites (past apartments also owned by the same<br>owner) to the yacht club and wait until midnight to return. The staff<br>worked the trips for a while and then basically went on strike over<br>the extended work hours (7-5 for diving and 5-midnight for the<br>shuttle). The owner closed Indies Divers and fired the staff.<br>Whether there was any prior notice is unclear. A second source on<br>this story was still angry about the events.<br><br>Settled into our suites, we headed for the beach. There's a small<br>reef which runs right onto the beach and, even though silted over and<br>suffering from clumsy snorkelers' feet and hands, there were still<br>various corals and sponges to see along with a variety of fish from<br>ubiquitous snappers to parrotfish to sargent majors and on and on.<br>The average depth was only about 4-5 feet but the reef was long enough<br>to offer a variety of environments. We snorkeled along this reef<br>several times and each trip produced new sights and fish. One day I<br>found a small spotted moray, several puffer fish and, while trying to<br>take a picture of a large puffer under an overhang, a 4-5' nurse<br>shark. <br><br>It was quickly apparent that we needed a car to deal with keeping the<br>non-divers amused while the diver(s) spent the morning in the water.<br>A call to Avis produced a Chevy Lumina collected at the nearby Westin.<br>We then drove off to dinner at The Wharf in George Town and had a good<br>meal while watching tarpon schooling along the edge of the patio.<br>There's a small platform where someone from the restaurant feeds the<br>tarpon scraps. Seeing these large fish dart around in the clear water<br>and light of a spotlight made a great impression. The staff at The<br>Wharf is mainly Austrian and my wife and sister-in-law (both German)<br>had bit of an old home moment "auf Deutsch". The dinner for six<br>produced a bit of sticker shock and a planning session for a run to<br>the local grocery store the next morning ($1US is only about $0.80CI,<br>everything comes onto the island by air or sea, and, face it, the<br>Caymans aren't low budget).<br><br>Monday afternoon I'd called Paul Deegan at DnS to set up a two tank<br>dive on Tuesday and to set up a pickup Tuesday morning. Tuesday<br>morning I was picked up from the beach by the DnS dive boat, the first<br>of five pickups from that beach. On board were three Irish divers and<br>a woman from Bermuda, Denny, a newly certified instructor, Todd, a<br>traveling Canadian divemaster, and Paul Deegan, the DnS operator.<br>With hellos all around we headed north along the beach and moored near<br>Northwest Point over Trinity Caves. We all geared up and Paul briefed<br>the dive in detail. This was my first ocean dive (all my diving prior<br>to this point being either quarries or the Chesapeake) and I was, of<br>course, a little apprehensive. After a giant stride off the boat, a<br>check of my gear, and a look around, I followed Paul down to the<br>bottom, 60' below and amazingly clear even from the surface. Trinity<br>Caves is a mix of steep coral grooves and spurs leading to a steep wall<br>(next stop 4-6,000' down!). We followed down a groove and turned to<br>come back up another groove which turned into tunnel or partly<br>closed-over swim-through. After being used to the green algae-laden<br>water of quarries and the brown of silt-laden water in the Chesapeake,<br>the viz 60-100' down was astounding. <br><br>The second dive was a buddy dive on Aquarium Reef, further south and<br>closer to shore. The viz again was superlative with the biggest<br>obstruction being the profusion of fish as much as anything. I hooked<br>up with John, one of "the Irish lot" and we had an agreeable dive just<br>being overwhelmed by the life swarming over and on the reef. <br><br>Quite comfortable with Paul and DnS, I told Paul I'd start my AOW<br>dives on Wednesday morning. At that point Derek and Tracy's plans<br>were still up in the air and we left it to them to decide what they<br>were up to. <br><br>Back to Indies Suites, I cleaned up while waiting for the rest of the<br>group to come back from a run into George Town. Refrigerator filled<br>(and a second dose of sticker shock past us), we chowed down on lunch<br>and hit the beach at Cemetery Reef. Although there are homes, hotels,<br>and apartments along much of Seven Mile Beach, there are also parking<br>spaces and marked beach access paths along the beach. <br><br>Wednesday morning's deep dive was at Eagles Nest, a wall dive. I was<br>picked up again by Paul and this time there were four or five members<br>of the Bermudan rugby team (on Grand Cayman for a regional<br>championship - Paul plays for the Grand Cayman side). The barrel<br>sponges ("eagles' nests") were striking. We spotted a southern ray<br>and green turtle swimming near each other in a sandy patch. Had I<br>seen them swimming together in a video, I would have thought the event<br>was manufactured, but it was just one of many striking sights during<br>my dives.<br><br>Following the dive Paul went back to the beach to drop off the<br>Bermudans and just the two of us headed out for a training session on<br>navigation. After some quick classwork, we headed down over a spot<br>called Jax Dax. Mainly a sandy plain with a few coral boulders, it<br>was an ideal spot to put the classwork to the test. Since I sail<br>regularly, the compass work was generally pretty familiar stuff but<br>counting fin strokes made me wish for a knotmeter in a hurry! The<br>sandy bottom was populated by little eels that look like stalks of<br>weed until they dart back into their holes on the bottom. Paul picked<br>a couple of courses that had barrel sponges as turning points.<br>Although it was classwork, the classroom was great!<br><br>In the afternoon we snorkeled off the beach by the hotel and generally<br>just played in the water. That evening we walked along the beach to<br>Cemetery Beach and back again. For someone who spends too much time<br>driving a desk, it was good exercise.<br><br>Thursday morning, the deep dive was over Orange Reef, named for the<br>many orange sponges in the area. There were three other people on the<br>boat and the four of us dove on the reef and did some mental skill<br>drills to explore effects of diving below 80'. Although we reached<br>90' on this dive (and 100' earlier in the week), I honestly didn't<br>have much feeling of the edges of being narced. Spelling my name<br>backwards went faster below than on the surface - go figure. On the<br>surface Paul had stuffed a tennis ball in my BC; pulled out at 90', we<br>expected the ball to be collapsed by the pressure but it came out<br>round. Until Paul pushed with his thumb and... POP! <br><br>We moved on to Spanish Anchor and did a shallow 40 minute dive. I<br>buddied up with Jim, a diver from Ft. Lauderdale, and we just cruised<br>the reef. We spotted a large southern ray in a small groove,<br>snuffling around for a meal. Again, the viz was superb and fish were<br>everywhere.<br><br>That afternoon we did a trip to North Sound with Bob Soto's Stingray<br>City tour. As best I can tell, there are at least two and maybe three<br>operations with the name "Bob Soto" on it. He started at least two<br>dive operations and then moved on, leaving his name behind. And then<br>there are car rentals, etc. Anyway, I recommend the operation. The<br>trip itself, particularly after diving off Grand Cayman, isn't<br>overwhelming. The viz isn't great and after seeing larger reefs,<br>Coral Gardens isn't anything great. Still, seeing the rays swarm<br>around is astounding. The final stop is the barrier reef between<br>North Sound the open ocean. It had the best viz of the trip and again<br>the fish population was quite varied.<br><br>Thanksgiving dinner was a good chicken dinner with the six of us in<br>our suites. No pilgrims, no corn, but plenty of thanks.<br><br>While things around George Town seemed fairly busy most of the week,<br>Indies Suites was quiet. By lunchtime Thursday, however, the quiet<br>pool was filled with shrieking kids and more of the deck chairs were<br>in use. The Thanksgiving weekend crowd had descended on Grand Cayman.<br><br>Friday morning the boat had one of the Irish divers from earlier in<br>the week, Jim from Ft. Lauderdale, and a couple of new folks. We did<br>a nature tour of Great House Dropoff. Paul picked the spot because<br>early in the morning turtles feed on the soft corals. We spotted one<br>turtle browsing and another slowly making for the surface. Looking<br>down at coral, I saw a barrel sponge and sitting in the middle was<br>small dark tiger grouper with its mouth open as it was cleaned by<br>gobies.<br><br>The shallow dive was the Oro Verde wreck. This wreck was originally<br>set further out and hurricane Gilbert, the last great hurricane,<br>rolled the ship inshore until it struck Paradise Reef and partially<br>broke up. Paul described Oro Verde as the most dived site in the<br>Caribbean and I believe it. We saw at least three different groups<br>around the wreck alone. The bow is still basically intact but from<br>there back, the wreck is now a pile of plates and machinery. Part of<br>the prop is still above the bottom and the tip of one blade is<br>polished by divers touching it. I helped to keep the patch shiny.<br>The visibility was good enough to allow the entire wreck to be seen<br>all at once instead of just one end or the other. BTW, look for the<br>mountain bike someone dropped near the wreck. It's still intact<br>enough to attempt riding it. An older "bone shaker" is pretty much<br>history.<br><br>Swimming up into the reef itself, we saw even more fish than before.<br>Many dive operators feed fish there and they seemed to be waiting for<br>a snack. As an aside, feeding fish with Cheez Whiz and peas doesn't<br>do the fish any favors (and neither does handling rays). There is a<br>growing move towards letting fish alone and I support it.<br><br>We swam off the hotel beach and spotted two lobsters in crevices<br>between coral boulders. There were two more front ends of lobsters<br>lying on the bottom, possibly attacked by sharks. <br><br>We drove to dinner at Rum Point (on the northeast corner of North<br>Sound) to see a local singer, George "The Barefoot Man" Nowack. The<br>act was good but the restaurant was a pure "processed cheese" resort.<br>Nice for the tour-on brigade but otherwise not worth the drive or the<br>$10CI for the ferry (the last one leaves from Rum Point at 8:30PM!). <br><br>Saturday morning there were seven or eight people on the boat and we<br>headed back to Trinity Caves. Paul lead a different dive through the<br>reef's grooves and swim-throughs. It was an excellent test of<br>buoyancy skills; I gained a bruised hip that attested to a need for a<br>little more work on my buoyancy control. Since there was black coral<br>on some of the walls, control was more than just a matter of avoiding<br>a bruise or two. Poor buoyancy control means damage to the reef and<br>that's Not Good. Again, this was a deep dive, touching the Cayman<br>official floor of 100' (the floor is a Caymanian requirement for dive<br>operators but of course there's no "PADI police" waiting to pop out of<br>nowhere with a ticket for diving below 100').<br><br>The shallow dive was at Killer Puffer, near Aquarium Reef. We swam<br>down a spur to the edge of the dropoff and swimming back we spotted<br>another feeding turtle and a small crab munching away in a hole.<br><br>With the week drawing to an end, Tracy and Derek realized they had to<br>move if they were going to dive. Since Derek didn't have a current OW<br>referral, the most he could do was a resort course and, due to a set<br>of crossed connections, we were getting down to the last day we could<br>dive. Paul wasn't available on Sunday (he was headed for a friend's<br>wedding and the other DnS captain, Doug, was in Ohio for Thanksgiving)<br>so we asked Paul for recommendations.<br><br>Derek set up two resort or "learn to bubble" dives with Eden Rock<br>Divers. Meanwhile Tracy decided to do a two tank dive Sunday morning.<br>We selected Fisheye and set up the appointment. Picked up at Indies<br>Suites, we came down to their store and got Tracy outfitted with BC,<br>wetsuit, etc. The boat left from the same beach where Paul had picked<br>me up for the last five days. Viewfinder, the Fishfinder boat, was a<br>large pontoon boat and there were perhaps a dozen divers on board.<br>The staff were friendly and the gear in good shape, but after Paul's<br>cooler filled with ice and various drinks and water, it was a little<br>startling to find only a cooler filled with water on a boat run by one<br>of the "big operators". Although the dives were briefed, between the<br>noise of the folks gearing up and the commotion of a boat in a brisk<br>wind and 1-2' swell, much of the information was lost.<br><br>We dove Neptune's Wall and again had a great dive along the spurs of<br>the reef. Right near the lower end of mooring there was a hole in the<br>floor of the coral and sitting there was a large green moray. I'd<br>begun the week diving with 22 lbs of weight and hoping to make it back<br>on the boat with 500 psi in my tank. This dive and the one that<br>followed were done with 14 lbs and the air remaining in the tank at<br>the end of a dive was slowly increasing as the computer reported<br>slowly decreasing SCFM rates.<br><br>The shallow dive, paired with Tracy, was on La Mesa reef. I was<br>pleased that even after 55 minutes there was still enough air to keep<br>going and still have air for a safety stop. This was even more<br>pleasing in light of a quarry dive two months before that ended<br>earlier than expected because my tank was running out.<br><br>Derek had done his "learn to bubble" classwork and was ready to get in<br>the water. Eden Rock Diving Center is located, surprise, off Eden<br>Rock reef but the water was very rough and diving wasn't possible<br>there. I signed up for two tanks with the option to bail out if my<br>nitrogen load got too high. We were driven from the Eden Rock<br>location south of George Town to a small pier on South Sound. There<br>were eight divers and two crew. The boat was, frankly, a bit tatty<br>around the edges but the gear was in good shape. The dives were an<br>interesting contrast from the west end of Grand Cayman.<br><br>The first dive was Japanese Garden. Derek headed off with three other<br>"learn to bubble" divers while I followed Stefan and three other<br>divers. While Trinity Caves' swim-throughs were often tight, they're<br>pretty much straight ahead swims. Japanese Garden, however, was<br>marked with twisty passages that changed direction as well sometimes<br>wound up ending coming up through the floor of the reef. We spotted<br>lobsters along the way along some very nice juvenile damsel fish. In<br>a couple of cases, I opted to stay a little shallow to keep my air<br>time up and minimize my nitrogen load.<br><br>On the second dive, at Bull Winkle Reef, west of Japanese Garden, I<br>dove with Derek and Todd, the "learn to bubble" divemaster. Again, my<br>dive computers weren't too close to showing deco time but I opted to<br>stay shallow instead of dropping down to some swim-throughs. Where<br>Stefan stopped to look around on occasion, Todd was a charger. I<br>don't think I swam as far on any two other dives combined. Derek, to<br>his credit, stayed right with him.<br><br>In general, the viz was markedly less than on the west shore. The<br>hard corals tended to grow together to create the tunnels and<br>swim-throughs we saw. Fish weren't quite as plentiful as along Seven<br>Mile Beach.<br><br>Monday morning we packed and drove up to the turtle farm<br>(http://www.turtle.ky). It's something like the Stingray City trip,<br>hardly crucial but interesting nonetheless. The flight back to Miami<br>was uneventful (I had a great look at Grand Cayman on the way out).<br>The flight to Philadelphia was over-booked; Tracy and her mom opted to<br>stay overnight in Miami and fly up Tuesday morning to get two $400<br>vouchers from American.<br><br>I'm ready to go back to Grand Cayman or to look at Cayman Brac or<br>Little Cayman in a heartbeat. The people we met were friendly and<br>helpful. Prices, even for routine groceries, are high but some<br>careful shopping can help there. George Town and the resort strip in<br>particular are showing signs of serious problems with rapid growth. A<br>new traffic light at Harquail Cutoff Road (across from the Marriot)<br>means traffic jams, about two miles long to the north and well into<br>George Town to the south, most of the day. The jam extended north of<br>Indies Suites during the morning rush hour. There are no alternate<br>routes except to go by boat. But away from George Town, reason<br>re-asserts itself and life is pleasant.<br><br>For most of the stretch from the middle of Seven Mile Beach to Jackson<br>Point, it's almost impossible to turn around without bumping into a<br>dive operation of some sort. Based on the samples described above,<br>Dive 'N Stuff emerged as the best of those I dove with. <br><br>Cheers,<br> Rick Emerson<br><br>P.S. After talking about the trip, a few other random points are<br>worth mentioning. There is a $10CI departure fee and a red "get out<br>of Cayman" immigration form. Like rubes, we held onto $10CI<br>and... the fee was already in our ticket charges. Before you go,<br>check to see this is pre-paid to avoid holding any more CI dollars<br>than necessary.<br><br>US dollars are accepted but expect to get CI dollars back in your<br>change. There are several duty-free shops in the departure lounge who<br>will happily accept your last dollars, CI or US. [g] <br><br>Shore dives. You can do them and most operators will work some sort<br>of deal to supply tanks and so on but... A) the really good dives are<br>far enough out to make it a challenging swim. I swam out about 200<br>yards (there are buoys that mark 200 yards from the beach - inside that<br>limit all boats must operate at 5 kts or less) and the bottom was just<br>sand and some odd bits of weed or coral; there were better things<br>closer in. B) getting out to the "good bits" will put you out where<br>the jet skis and parasail boats (and, of course, dive boats) operate.<br>Unless you tow a diver flag and float, the chances of being whacked by<br>something hard and sharp are uncomfortably high. The float with flag<br>makes you a target for jet ski operators who've had their brains<br>shaken loose by wave jumping. C) Forget showing up at close-in spots<br>like Eden Rock reef with "outside tanks" (i.e., rented elsewhere). I<br>didn't try shore dives off the north side of the island but it's my<br>impression the shore is pretty much ironstone, making shore entry and<br>exit almost as exciting as dancing barefoot on broken glass while<br>fending off an angry bull. Snorkeling in close to shore, however, is<br>quite satisfying and I went through two "pool" cameras' worth of film<br>on simple breath-hold dives. If breath-hold dives in 4-6 feet are a<br>challenge - too bad.<br>