Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Little Cayman
The smallest of the Cayman Islands, cigar-shaped
Little
Cayman has only about 130 permanent inhabitants, so nearly ev ery-
body you'll see will be a visitor , most often fr om the U nited States.
Little Cayman is 16km (10 miles) long and about 1.6km (a mile)
wide at its br oadest point. Electricity didn't make it here until 1990,
and phone ser vice didn't arriv e until 1991. Little Cayman lies about
109km (68 miles) northeast of Grand Cayman and some 8km (5 miles)
from Cayman B rac. The entir e island is coral and sand.
Blossom
Village,
the island's “capital,” is on the southwest coast.
The Cayman I slands archipelago is made up of mountaintops of
the long-submerged S ierra M aestra Range, which r uns nor th into
Cuba. Coral once formed in layers over the underwater peaks, eventu-
ally creating the islands. B eneath Little Cayman's Bloody Bay is one
of the mountain 's walls—a stunning sight for snor kelers and scuba
divers.
Little Cayman seems to hav e come into its o wn now that fishing
and diving hav e taken center stage; the island is a near-per fect place
for these pursuits. The late Jacques Cousteau hailed the waters around
the little island as one of the thr ee finest diving spots in the world.
The flats on Little Cayman ar e said to hav e the best bonefishing in
the world, and a brackish inland pool can be fished for tarpon. E ven
if you don't dive or fish, y ou can row 180m (591 ft.) off Little Cay-
man to isolated and uninhabited Ow en Island, where you can swim
at the sandy beach and picnic b y a blue lagoon.
Pirate tr easure may still be buried on the island, but it 's in the
dense interior of what is now the largest bird sanctuary in the Carib-
bean. Little Cayman also has the largest population of rock iguanas in
the entire Caribbean (you will surely spot them) and is home to one
of the oldest species of reptiles in the New World—the tree-climbing
Anulis maynardi
(which is not kno wn by any other name). This rare
lizard is difficult to spot because the females ar e green and the males
are brown, and, as such, they blend into local v egetation. Keep your
eyes open for them!
