Thought I would try (1) actually taking a vacation and (2) going somewhere warm for once. Never really tried sitting on a beach for a week (or sitting in one place for a week at all for that matter) so this was a new experience. Hopefully I didn’t drive everyone else off the deep end with my inability to sit still. The timing coincided with end of fiscal which meant a couple of late nights right up until the last minute but it was definitely worth it!
Me, Myself, and I
It’s interesting the things you notice (and perhaps learn about yourself!) when you’re forced to take a step back and do literally nothing. Lying down on the beach shortly after arrival, I was looking up at the sky and realized for the first time that my glasses are very slightly tinted yellow (blue light filtering?). I’ve had them and worn them daily for how many months now? Apparently I never took the time to lie down on my back and look up at the sky (or anything else roughly that shade) during the daytime long enough to notice. It’s not as warm on Lake Superior as in the Caribbean this time of year (and swimming is a bit less of a leisurely activity!) But still. Apparently I’ve been seeing through gold-colored glasses this whole time… Maybe a type-A version of rose-colored glasses? If you’ve ever done the ‘true colors’ personality test, you’ll probably know what I’m talking about.
Keep left!
Driving on the other side of the road wasn’t as strange as I thought it would be and actually ended up being kinda fun. Left turns are like rights and vice versa. After a couple of minutes it almost felt natural. I think the weirder thing (to me as a non-islander) was the comparative lack of traffic lights. And the roundabouts. So many roundabouts. Including on the ‘highway’. Also kind of odd that the signs are all in MPH, but the vehicles (at least all of the ones I was in) have speedometers in km/h. Strangest yet was that the windshield wipers and turn signals were reversed (again, to me as a non-islander). That took some getting used to.
Nice to see that for the most part, people aren’t in a rush here, will happily stop to let let you make a right turn even when you don’t have the right of way, and don’t really honk at you either. Except when all the tourists got off the cruise ships and descended on George Town in a monster mob (5 ships and 15,000 people apparently!). Then everyone on the road was a little grumpy. But for the most part, everyone was super laid back and didn’t seem to be in a particular hurry to get anywhere. When a half ton stopped to let us hurry onto the street and around a fuel(?) truck that was parked on the sidewalk the driver slowed down and said ‘you didn’t have to run!’ before giving us a smile and a wave before moving on with his day.
Imports, imports everywhere!
The logistics here are kind of interesting. From what I gathered, pretty much everything is imported. This includes food (groceries and food are expensive) construction materials ($$$$$!!!!?) vehicles, and just about everything else you can think of. For example, consider vehicles. I saw about 4/5ths of the vehicles on the road with the steering wheel on the right side but the rest with it on the left (including a few monster 1/2 tons sporting what looked like a 3″ lift kit and oversized tires). I wonder what importing a vehicle costs. With that said, there are not exactly a lot of places to buy a vehicle locally. But it looks like stuff gets loaded onto a small container ship and shipped in from Florida, Asia, or somewhere else. Then a mobile crane unloads the containers in the harbor.
There isn’t a forest industry to speak of here (some of the local trees were historically used in shipbuilding) but the Department of Environment seems to be active in conservation on land and at sea. Sounds like lumber is imported but there is a domestic supplier of concrete.
No income, wealth, or sales taxes here! Which raises the question: how does the government finance its operations? Apparently the government raises revenue though a combination of import duties, work permit fees, property transaction fees, and financial services fees. No wonder the islands are popular in the finance industry! Gratuities are pre-added to most restaurant bills and everyone seems to accept USD in addition to the local Cayman Island (CI) dollars (KYD).
Doesn’t seem like the port is deep enough for the cruise ships to dock – it looked like people were being ferried across the harbor. But a little too busy for my taste when everyone was milling about.
An different regulatory landscape
It sounds like much of the regulation of industry in the Cayman Islands (e.g. utilities, telecommunications, fuel, water, etc) is carried out by an independent Utility Regulation and Competition Office of the Cayman Islands (OfReg) who also act as consumer advocates.
Let’s start with telecoms. I gather that they have also partnered with Uniregistry to manage the Cayman Islands .ky domain registration. Apparently, since .ca domain is used in Canada, .ci is used in Côte d’Ivoire, .cy is used in cypress, Cayman based businesses often use the country code .ky.
OfReg also issues radio station licenses, and I was glad to see that there’s a local HAM radio community. ZF for the win! Sounds like the local nets are on 146.760MHz, 18.150MHz, and 3.895MHz (also the inter island and emergency frequency). Based on what I can gather online, visiting amateur radio operators from Canada with Advanced qualification can operate in accordance with CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-01 on a temporary basis. So time to get studying for the advanced for next time I am here!
Aviation is an interesting one. I was a bit surprised that there was a no drone zone sign at the turtle sanctuary. It makes total sense but the 3 nm buffer from the airport and 1 nm from the HMP Northward prison covers most of Grand Cayman anyway so I wouldn’t have thought much flying would happen. As it turns out, most of West Bay is just outside the restricted zone. This prompted a bit of homework and it sounds like RPAS are partly regulated by UK law as a British overseas territory.
Based on my very quick scan of the rules, it sounds like you can’t fly a drone within with a camera on it much of anywhere (within 40 m of people, properties, etc) unless you have a commercial permit or are flying in the bush on the east end of any of the islands, or from a boat you own a ways offshore. Sounds like commercial pilots are required to have liability insurance, too. Didn’t see any drones in the air either.
Plant life
The flora and fauna here are definitely a bit unfamiliar. Other than black and white warblers and yellow warblers (and let’s be honest, I wasn’t the one who made those IDs!), not sure I really recognized much of anything. Except the dogbane. That was kind of hard to miss. Mango, almond, silver thatch, red birch, and mahogany? Yes please!
It was a lot of fun to learn about the local flora in the Botanic Gardens, on the Mastic Trail, and at the Turtle Centre. I feel like I am leaving just a bit more educated than when I left, which is a good thing.
I can’t say I have spent a ton of time in mangrove forests, but getting up close, I definitely came to understand why there is so much emphasis on them in the conservation world. Pretty remarkable to me that any tree at all grows in salt water. I’d imagine that they do lots for the marine and coastal ecosystems. Apparently there are three species of mangrove on the Cayman Islands: black, red, and white. Pretty sure I saw both black (breathing roots) and red (aerial roots) but sadly I didn’t pick up my tree guide until after leaving the mangroves behind.
The turtles and birds and lizards oh my
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I will let the pictures convey the information here.
Sunscreen and vaseline
Feels like an essential practice to bathe in sunscreen every five minutes. But it seems to have worked; I managed to avoid turning into a lobster or roasted tomato. But be sure to bring the petroleum jelly though because sweaty hot skin + lots of walking + rashes + salt water = uncomfortable.
Overall a great trip. Gotta get a pair of binoculars for the next one.
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