We flew out of Orlando on Cayman Airlines
directly into the capital, Georgetown, and
the only
town as far as I could tell. They require you to sign a
statement saying that you will do no business while on
the island and that your stay is temporary, even though
the town is known internationally for its offshore
banking. The divemasters we talked to said they filled
the form out, then just stayed until they found a
job.
One thing that you'll notice immediately
upon exiting the airport is that you'll think you are in
New York City...tons of taxis that all ignore you! Once
you figure out the method to their madness, you can
enhance the odds you will get selected. The drivers won't
take individuals or pairs of people. In fact, until you
have six to eight people going to the same place, you'll
think that you are invisible. You can help yourself out
by checking around with others that are waiting, and
gather as many folks going to the same hotel together in
a group by the curb. Then watch how quickly you get
wisked away ! My recommendation is to rent a car and head
off down the road to 7 Mile Beach. You can't miss
it...it's just about the entire west side of the
island.
Our first reaction was that we had made a
mistake. The bare bones room you'll get at the lower end
of the price range will be considered quaint only to
divers. You need to determine early if you want more
luxury so as not to be so disappointed that it ruins your
entire trip.
We stayed where the dive shop was part of
the hotel. It was great to just walk out 50 feet to the
dive boat pulled up on the beach. I got a great deal of
five dives for $200 where the dives were for my PADI
Advanced Open Water certification. This kept me busy and
off the beaches while my wife was taking classes and
dives for her Open Water certification.
The reefs were just yards offshore,
dropping off into 6,000 foot deep walls only a couple
hundred yards offshore. In between, in no more than 60
feet of water, you'll find an incredible amount of sea
life! With 100 to 150 feet of visibility, the boat on the
surface is ringed in a halo of sunlight.
The cave where, in the movie
The Firm,
they supposedly sunk a boat and
bodies is just offshore of 7 Mile Beach up at its
northern end. You go into the "cave", really just
overlapping reef overhangs, at 60 feet and then pop out
suddenly at a 100 feet on the side of a 6,000 foot deep
wall! It looks like an illusion where the coral walls to
either side and below just fade to a washed out mist of
blue. There is absolute silence as you swim the
walls.
"The Aquarium" is just like swimming in a
fish tank. Fish are in your face, tugging at anything
loose, checking to see if you have anything edible. They
are so thick that you can't help but touch them when
moving your arms about to insure that you don't bump any
of the marvelous multi-colored coral formations on the
bottom.
Just below Georgetown, there are some
additional caves that we made a night dive on. Swimming
out from shore, it requires you to crawl under a coral
ridge close to the sandy bottom to enter. After following
some fairly tight tunnels through the reefhead, read that
one diver at a time, you come upon a small cavern about
midway, memorable for a plaque on its wall for someone no
longer with us. Coming out on sandy flats on the other
site of the reef, but just short of the wall, we worked
our way down the reef to the next cavern. Along the way
we saw much larger than usual rays, lobsters, crabs and
urchins, seeming even more unreal because of the night.
Upon reaching the cavern that would take us back through
the reefhead again, I wasn't sure that I wanted to
meander through small caverns again. Check my write-up on
diving in the spring at
Crystal River,
Florida to understand why! After
a moment of playing sharades with my divemaster, I
decided to push on, and very much to my liking, the
cavern was rather large and easily navigated.
We of course had to check out the famous
Sting Ray City. Access was from the bay side north shore
by boat across the bay. Although the water was only waist
deep, the north wall of the reef was visible only a few
hundred feet away where it drops off thousands of feet.
Dozens of folks, from multiple boats, wade with squid to
feed just as many rays. Invariably, some of the rays
would brush folks, sending some into a panic attack,
screaming to get back onto the boat. We were told that if
you hung onto the squid, or rubbed it on yourself
accidently, you could end up with a hickey from the ray's
strong suction while attempting to feed.
Like other Carribbean islands, the
wonderful tropical drinks full of lucious flavors seem to
go down like water...until the next day when you're
bobbing on the surface and wishing the world would hold
still for just a few minutes!
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