2 Days In Paradise

Being in the military offers more than being all you can be, seeing the world, projecting power, etc., it also offers great deals on great adventures if you look for them. While stationed on the island of Cuba at Naval Air Station Guantanamo Bay, I learned that a training flight was up coming with the station C-131. I worked on the air field so I knew that one could catch a ride with that plane for $10.00 anywhere it went. Provided, of course, that you had approved leave or the flight was over a period of time that you were off. The flight was going to Grand Cayman Island on a Friday evening and returning Sunday evening.

A few of us that were divers got together and found a dive lodge that was extremely reasonable and had vacancies for the time we wanted. For $60.00, we would get a night dive on Friday, 2 day and 1 night dive on Saturday, and an early morning dive on Sunday. 5 boat dives and 4 meals with a bed to sleep in was awesome. We all arranged to get the time off and waited for the great Friday to arrive.

The Cayman Islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are located in the Western Caribbean Sea. They lie to the North West of Jamaica and South of Cuba. All three islands are the limestone caps of 8,000 foot mountains that rise from the base of the Cayman Trench. Over several million years coral growing on the peaks formed limestone and there you have the Cayman Islands. Columbus sited the islands in 1503 and named them Las Tortugas due to the abundance of sea turtles on the islands. Sir Francis Drake came along later and pronounced that they would be called the Cayman Islands after the Taino Indian word for aligator.

Regardless of their history and naming, the Cayman Islands now have a population of approximately 54,000 people and are a British Overseas Territory. Many items I have sport the logo BWI for British West Indies. Cayman has become the place to put your extra money with a booming off-shore banking industry. Cayman is the only exporter of Green Sea Turtle shells and meat as they have a turtle farm where they are raised. In any other area Green Sea Turtles are an endangered species. The farm on Cayman releases many into the open sea to keep the population going. There are many sporting opportunities on the islands. And, of course, there is scuba diving.

It finally came time to go on this adventure to Grand Cayman. We had the gear we were taking. When traveling to a dive resort it is often best to take your personal gear. Most places have loaner or rental equipment, but, their reliability is sometimes an unknown. Tanks are tanks. Things like regulators, bcs, mask and fins are known to you and also known by you to be reliable. We all probably had a few changes of clothes along too.

We began getting on the plane and found out that one of the pilots was the Commander who was also the station dentist. Cool, many medical officers are also pilots. Our pilot was a lot like the Governor on the old TV show Benson. If you recall that show and the character of the Governor, then, enough said. If you have never seen it, then, maybe Mr Rogers.

Not a problem, we didn't pull too many tricks on him while he was flying. Our favorite was for everyone to get up and go to the back of the plane. The planes nose would pitch upward and the pilot would try to correct. Then maybe, we would all get on one side and the plane would lean or yaw in that direction and the pilot would try to correct. Fun for a bit, but don't over do it. The flight was fairly short and uneventful.

We arrived at Grand Cayman, the plane was parked, we all needed to get ourselves and our baggage to the West End. I don't know if it is still there, we were going to stay at Bob Soto's Dive Club. It is nearly as far East as you can go on a very tiny island, however, too far to walk from the airport. The only person available with the required credit card was the Commander. We got him to rent a van and we all pitched in for the expense. Being the renter, he also became the driver. As we pulled out of the parking lot, we all saw the signs saying to drive on the left. All of that is except the guy driving. The Commander pulled out onto the main road into the right lane. We all began yelling for him to get to the left. I believe it was the cars coming straight at him that finally convinced him to get in the left lane. We did not get hit, and eventually arrived safely at Bob Soto's Dive Club.

I seem to remember this place as a pier, some very small bunk rooms, a restaurant, and a boat. All that really mattered was a place to sleep and the up-coming dives. The meals that came with the package were produced from what came locally. One that was particularly memorable was turtle steaks. Very good. Another was Barracuda steaks that the dive guides had gone out an caught after one of our dives to Barracuda reef. I may have taken a picture of one of our steaks earlier in the day.

We dove in several key sites on the east end of Grand Cayman. As I mentioned above, one dive site had an abundance of barracuda. Yes, barracuda have lots of teeth and are often a bit grouchy, but at that site they seemed to enjoy the attention of the divers. Another very memorable dive was to the Cayman Wall. Grand Cayman truly does rise straight out of the sea. We dove to 120 feet. Looking down from that vantage, I could see only a slight curve as the rock descended beyond the light. We were doing a non recompression dive so it was straight down, spend a few minutes at depth then slow ascent to the surface. We dove near a wreck of some sort as well, but I don't remember much detail. I do recall being very satisfied with the dives that were offered.

We were only at Grand Cayman a few days. We did manage to get back to the "down town" part of the island and catch one of the night club shows on Friday night. I remember the act as being a performer called Bare Foot Man. Mostly very cheesey Regee if I remember correctly. On Saturday night we had no real plans after our dive. Earlier in the day a friend and I had walked down the road a short distance to the end of the road. Along the way we found a building that looked as though it may have started life as a gas station. At that time it was a small local store offering sodas, and a few grocery items. As we were paying for our sodas, the lady running the register asked if we wanted to come back that night for a party at the place. We agreed and returned that night. This was the real night life of Grand Cayman. Some local performers doing the Cayman version of regee called Cayman Jami. At least that is how I understood it. My friend Lurch, yes that was what everyone called him, was the life of the party. All of the Cayman ladies liked him. In fact, if I remember correctly he was almost late getting back to catch the ride to the airport the next day. I, on the other hand, had a great time dancing and returned to my bunk only to be awakened very early for our last dive Sunday morning.

After our fast weekend, we boarded the plane and returned to Guantanamo Bay. I flew several places in that plane for similar deals or while actually working. At one point, I decided that I wanted to visit Haiti. Our station C-131 did a "Dental Flight" to Haiti once a month where it flew to Port-O-Prince, picked up military and Department of State people, brought them back to Guantanamo to use the dental, medical, and other facilities and returned them to Haiti. To go on that flight and visit to Haiti one had to take several precautionary measures. One was to take Chloroquinine a week before departure to ward off one or more of the nasty diseases that one could catch in Haiti. Chloroquinine makes me sick. I took it and got sick, but, for a good reason after all, I was going somewhere new. The day before we were to depart a dumpster truck working on the ramp ran into the C-131's tail and the flight was cancelled.

Where did that leave me? I cancelled the time off request and waited for the next month. I took the Chloroquinine again. I suffered through the sick again. Guess what? A storm came brewing into the Caribbean and the flight was cancelled. When asked if I was going on the next scheduled flight, my answer was no. I figured by that point that some greater power did not want me to go to Haiti.