Our move to Grand Cayman

I have had many of you with questions about out move to Grand Cayman. I thought since it has been bad weather and I really wish I was in Cayman now; I would do a post about it. Grand Cayman is one of the 3 islands that make up the Cayman Islands. It is the largest and most populated (about 29,000 people) It is only about 76 sq. miles. It is located in the Western Caribbean just below the tip of Florida and about 180 mi. south of Cuba.




We visited the island in January to make sure this is where we wanted to go. I was a little apprehensive before we went to the island, but once we got there I fell in love with it and didn't want to leave. It is absolutely beautiful everywhere you go. It is very clean and really safe. There is almost no crime there. It has the highest standard of living in the Caribbean. That does however make it more expensive to live there. It costs about the same as living on Hawaii, or in New York.





This is a shot of the main tourist strip in George Town (the capital). Off to the left ( on the bottom picture)is where the cruise ships dock. There is anywhere from 2 to 11 ships a day in the port. The island is very Christian and so most business are closed on Sunday. They try to not have many ships, if any come in on Sunday either.

The beaches were awesome. The water is so clear you can stand in it up to your neck and still see your feet just fine. This makes it great for snorkeling. It was Austin's and my first time snorkeling and we loved it. I think it will be a great past time for us if we can find someone to watch our kids. The first reef we snorkeled was just out a little way in these pictures. Cayman is in the top 3 in the world for snorkeling and scuba diving. I would love to get scuba certified but I don't know if Austin will have the time with his school schedule to go much, so well see.

We went to the Branch there and met some wonderful people. The Cayman people are so nice and sincere. I know we will love the ward there. We met some people that live on the island about 3 mos a year and they had us over for dinner and this picture is from their deck. They said the sunset was not a very good one that day, but I thought it looked good. You can see there is a sailboat; and that other ship is a pirate ship that you can go on and the crew are all dressed up like pirates. I hear it is really fun for kids ( or Austin since he thinks he is a pirate) so it is something we want to do when we have our girls with us.

This picture is one on the north shore of the island and it was a beautiful place. It's called Rum Point. The bright blue water is a fun place to find sea shells.

This is just a picture of a little street we drove up. The island is very developed and nice. They have a good water and sewer system there which makes things a lot nicer to live with. It doesn't taste quite as good as Utah water but it's better than some water I have tasted in the U.S.

All over when you drive around the edge of the island you have sights like this. Palms, boats, white sand, and beautiful water.

Here are some little facts about Grand Cayman. It is a British ruled island so queen Elizabeth is ultimately the ruler.The language is English but the natives have a really strong Caribbean accent and many of them are from Jamaica so they have that sort of a accent too. You do drive on the opposite side of the road as we do here. I am a little scared to drive but the highest speed limit is like 40 mph. Most things are in kilometers and stuff so that will take a while to get used to. They have their own currency but the U. S. dollar is accepted every where. They are huge in the banking industry (off shore banking). The island used to be called Tortuga (yes, the island they talk about in the Pirates of the Caribbean). The average temperature is between 70-90 degrees. The seasons are May-Aug is the hot humid time. Sept-Nov. is hurricane season(if a hurricane is going to hit the island you usually have a weeks notice to evacuate). Dec-April is a little cooler, but we were there in Jan. and it was about 80- 85 degrees. The water is warm like a heated swimming pool, and as I have said before it is an absolutely beautiful place.

Well that is it for now. I'm sure once we move there which is August 5th by the way, I will have a lot more to post.