I went to Grand Cayman in October. Unfortunately I missed Pirate's week, which started the night before I came home. It is a fun week, with fireworks, pseudo seabattles, and other planned events. The diving, as you would expect, is spectacular. Visibilty can be from 50' to 150'. There is such a variety of dive sites, that it is impossible to list them all. You can dive walls which plunge to 6,000 feet, glide through tunnels and caves, inspect wrecks, or swim through coral gardens. Infinite varieties of coral and sponges, and large fish. A fun dive is at Stingray City, where you literally are dancing with stingrays. The marvelous creatures actually climb up your body and over your head, seeing if you have any food for them. Lots of divers bring squid to feed them and they expect treats. You are in only 14 feet of water, so you get to spend "quality" and "quantity" time with them. Their underbellies are like velvet. There is also a huge resident green moray, who expects his share of the goodies. There are many good quality dive operations on the island, so it is hard to go wrong with picking a dive operator to spend the week with. Shore diving is great and easily accessible. The only drawback is that certain sites are accessed through a dive operator's dock or beach and you will not be able to use your own tank, as they will charge you for air usage. Be cautioned that the US dollar is worth only 80 cents on Grand Cayman. Food costs are high, but there are plenty of fast food places, ie, Burger King and Pizza Hut. Seafood restaurants are plentiful, but you can find just about any type of meal from Italian to Chinese. Accomodations vary from condo living to deluxe hotels, so depending upon your pocketbook, there is a room for you. As for dive sites, I think that Orange Canyon for a wall dive is incredible and a don't miss site. Hammerhead Hole, Killer Puffer Reef and Sentinel Rock are some other terrific sites. You can't go wrong on Grand Cayman for diving.

The most exciting adventure I had this trip was to go down to 1000 feet in a submarine. The sub is specially designed to hold two people and the pilot. Ellen and I had an amazing experience. I was surprised to see yellow snappers down at 1000 feet staring into the window in the front of the sub. We were told that scientists feel that fish feed at higher levels, then go deeper to metabolize the food. It was a fantastic feeling to see the beginning of the earth's core, and know that there was another 1000 feet below you, as you stared into the abyss. I was in awe of the few species of plants and sponges that were able to exist at such depths. The sub adventure is quite expensive at $450.00, but Ellen and I felt that it was money well spent. If you want to dive to the depths, contact Atlantic Submarines and reserve a spot. If you want more information on Grand Cayman go to "A Diver's Dreamworld." on my Links page

ENJOY THE SLIDE SHOW

Slide pointer over picture to pause show