One last morning in paradise before we head back to reality.
We found a Backscatter sticker at the bar at Little Cayman Beach Resort. Thanks to Heather’s excellent underwater photography skills, she won the trip we just took to Little Cayman from the 2018 Monterey Shootout underwater photography contest sponsored by Backscatter.
Taking off from Little Cayman is a fun time. The little planes they use to service the island have no door between the cockpit and the passenger cabin. It’s quite the ride!
Coming in for a landing at Grand Cayman.
Flying over Cuba on the way home. Maybe someday we’ll get to dive in the Garden of the Queens.
Heading back in after our last dive with Reef Divers out of the Little Cayman Beach Resort.
Looking back toward the sea where all the good diving is.
Wonderful azure waters in the little bay.
A native rock iguana greeted us on the dock on your return to land.
Our dive boat for the week, the Sea Dreamer. Also sometimes called the Sea Dragon. Also once called the Sea Dremer.
Looking into the Little Cayman Beach Resort.
We borrowed a pair of bikes from the hotel and took off on the road around the island to check out the sights.
We stopped off at the booby pond. This pond has a rookery of red footed booby birds and a companion (or some might say parasitic) rookery of frigatebirds.
I gave Heather her non-silicone engagement ring up on the viewing deck at the booby pond. I proposed to her underwater a few days before.
Another big old rock iguana chilling out next to the road. They folks on the island are very serious about protecting their iguanas. There aren’t many rock iguanas left an they are fighting off an invasion of non-native green iguanas.
Welcome to Little Cayman!
The runway at Edward Bodden Airfield is on the other side of the road from the airport building. They shut down traffic when a plane lands by having a guy stand out in the road wearing an orange vest. It’s really only so tourists don’t ride a bicycle in front of a plane.
A de Havilland Canada DHC 6-300 Twin Otter coming in for a landing at the airfield. They used to land DC-3 planes here when they first opened the airport back in the 60s.
The plane unloading and loading before it heads off to its next stop.
There is no elaborate or fancy security here. You can ride your bicycle right up to the plane!
Caution! Iguanas on the road and the runway!
The plane getting ready to take off. Depending on the day and the time of year, between two and seven planes come to call at Little Cayman.
The plane goes to the crest of the hill before it starts its takeoff. Sometimes it goes down to the end of the runway and turns around to run in the other direction.
The power infrastructure on Little Cayman is surprisingly robust but the island still relies on either diesel or oil generators.
This nice Land Rover Defender was parked at the airport. There are a lot of interesting cars on the island.
A nest full of red footed booby chicks! It was right over top of the road.
Back at the Little Cayman Beach Resort and the Reef Divers Valet Diving center. It’s a pretty good place to spend a week or two.
Heather at the end of the dock looking at another wonderful tropical sunset.
Heather repping #DiveMola on our last night at Little Cayman.
Getting ready for our final day of diving at Little Cayman. The dive boats they use at the Little Cayman Beach Resort are really nice and basically brand new.
The Nassau Groupers are really starting to congregate in advance of their annual spawning event.
It felt like an absolute storm of fish.
Fish blizzard!
Swimming through a little canyon between big mountains of coral.
A couple Nassau Groupers came through the storm of fish, getting ready for the mating frenzy that’s on the way.
Heading along a sand channel toward the Big Wall for one last view of the abyss before we head home.
Heading out into the blue from the reef. The transition to the coral heads out to the deep blue of the open ocean is absolutely extraordinary.
Heather up on the top of the reef looking for one or two last tiny things to take a photo of before we have to go on our surface interval for our flights home.
A barracuda came over to to say hello to us before we got out of the water for the last time on this trip to Little Cayman.
