I went 'home' to Little Cayman recently and caught up with a lot of the old friends who still work and live on the island... Of course nothing changes quickly there - a few strange faces and a huge house now stands where Suzy's cottage teetered on the sand previously beside the Conch Club.
The chickens are still living at the dump, the iguanas are bountiful, the road is in worse condition, and there is a nice new ambulance that Andrew drives around looking for action. Oh yeah, there are also babies everywhere! Thanks to Conch Club Divers staff, Liz and Tim for allowing me to dive from Sea-Esta and reunite with the critters under the sea surface. Thanks Marc and Sabine for the stay at Paradise Villas! The following is an assortment of photos that I took during the 2 weeks. Hope you like. ~R
Mathieu is now in his second year of air breathing!!!
Sub-marine photos!!!
For those of you like KD and Mike B who would rather see photos of the underwater world, rather than mi amigos on the island, here are a few pics that I managed to take on my trip.
A bit out of season as far as their name goes, but this Christmas tree worm lives up to its name!
We saw a few of these pipefish - relatives of the seahorse - in the sand in J-Bay!
Here is a juvenile spotted drum frantically swmming around and trying to catch those little translucent mysid shrimp for dinner!!
Mixing Bowl has always been a great site for finding all sorts of creatures - this is the male yellowhead jawfish incubating its mate's eggs in its mouth until they hatch into miniature little jawfish..
This was a
very koool find at Coconut Walk - a spiny lobster seeking refuge in a barrel sponge shaped like a heart. Too bad Valentine's Day has passed!
Atlantic wing oyster on a sea fan at Mixing Bowl
Joy's Joy dive site always seems to have something unique happening. This hawksbill turtle and French angel were content to munch on a sponge for several minutes while we all watched patiently.
This is a pic of a giant anemone and if you look closely at the bottom of the photo, two common residents can be seen - the arrow crab and the diamond blenny (yellow head) who both seek refuge in the anemone's tentacles!
An arrow crab hangs out in the relative security of a pink vase sponge!
This
really excited me - I had shown this colony of sea rod basket stars to guests for years on Bloody Bay Wall (Lea Lea's Lookout site, on the wall at 60') on the same gorgonian, and when we dived the site recently, lo and behold, a giant basket star has decided to join the team of little guys on the same soft coral. I guess there is always room for relatives to filter the current at night! (and I have no idea how the colony of approximately 200 sea rod basket stars could ever relocate, so they will probably be there for a very long time)
I know - it is the common lettuce sea slug - but I do actually really think they are beautiful! Escargots, anyone??
Liz and Lappy and I enjoying the sunset at salt rock dock on the north-western side of the island...
OK - what can I say about these two beautiful people that I have only known for just over a year?? My sarcastic buddy Andrew is the paramedic on the island and has had to deal with many medical emergencies the past year. He is great for the island. Intensely-intelligent and gorgeous Heather (aka Barbie-girl - sorry H), a veterinarian from GA, came down to the rock as a dive guest of Paradise Divers last summer and has since packed up her belongings and moved down to LC to spend time with her new fiance. They are such a cute couple I want to barf. Kidding! I really miss you guys! Hope to see y'all very soon. Oct?
Every May 5th - cinqo de Mayo - Peter H, the owner of the Southern Cross Club from Indiana, has a party where everyone is welcome, as usual, and celebrates the night with his own fireworks show and a party at the end of the resort dock. It is also the anniversary of his resort ownership - 11 years so far and I have a feeling it will keep going for many more. He is a great guy that everyone loves to hang with.
Liz and I have a much-anticipated pilgrimage to Owen Island when we get together - we borrowed the skiff , Little Willie, from CCD one afternoon and had a picnic there with kites, beer, Hungry Iguana take-away and the little island off of LC in the south sound all to ourselves one glorious afternoon. This time she didn't let go of the kite tanning topless and the kite did not end up wrapped around the Southern Cross dock, as it did last time!!
This the 42' Newton dive boat that the Conch Club Guests as well as the Paradise Villas guests dive from nowadays. Tim has worked on this boat for about 6 years and Liz (la capitana that day) is an ex-LCBR dive instructor who is on a 3 month work permit with CCD. She is from Philly and loves the Flyers (too bad they sucked again this year). Liz is an amazing woman and I love spending time with her!!! She makes amazing meals, especially her Philly-steak sandwiches and pastas! She is off to Italy with her Dad after her LC stint ends at the end of May.
This is Ann whom I have known since I arrived on LC way back in
April 2001. She was supposed to greet me at the airport when I arrived
on the little rock, as Marc and Sabine were vacationing in Mexico, BUT,
she got the dates confused so I wondered all the way over to the Paradise
Villas office (all of 100 meters) when I arrived and surprised her! I have worked with her several times and enjoy her sense of humor. I took over her house, the Colonel's
Quarters back in 2001 when she left the island for a while, and after I left
in Aug 2005, Ann moved back in to 'our' house so it came full-circle..
She now works at Conch Club Divers and has the nicest tanned legs on
the island!! She taught me the meaning of the word Shadenfreude and I
use it all the time!
Notice Paradise Villas in the background of the photo!!!!
Lisa aka 'Herby' the wonder bartender, moi, Ingrid - new dive instructor extraordinaire at Pirate's Point, and Rafael - her fingers will make your deep tissues blush at the spa.
Lappy gives me some tongue while Andrew, Liz and Tim just look goofy
at the weekly LCBR karaoke festivities
Well, here it is, 8 months later and I haven't blogged for so long I can barely remember how! This pic was taken the last day of my 2 week trip to LC and I thought it was fitting to blog it first, as Mary Ellen had remained on the front page of my blog for so many months! This time we are not at Owen Island in kayaks, but recovering from cuncurrent colds by sipping Bloody Marys at the Hungry Iguana!
