Trivia question: Of the five largest financial centers in the world where will you find chickens (lots of chickens) running around in the parking lots of the non-descript bank buildings?
The Caymans are known for two things. Out of this world diving in crystalline waters off really deep walls and offshore banking. We are not divers, but the coral, fish life and clear water (due to the islands having no rivers) provide some really good snorkeling, even right off the boat.
By providing low tax rates and a corruption free court system this bland uninteresting little island has become the registered domicile of many of the U.S.'s great businesses. So while those titans of business proclaim their patriotism loudly at home, it does not run deep enough to overcome the corporate need to pay as little tax as possible.
It's interesting to see what all this has done for the islands. Sixty years ago there were few jobs here and most of the men had to go to sea. The women stayed home to combat the mosquitoes and life was bitingly hard. Today there are fast food joints on every corner, traffic jams into town and an over-amped economy with sky high prices. Mostly the people look comfortable, but engage any Caymanian in conversation and they will soon bring up the subject of their lost culture, the overwhelming presence of ex-pat workers and the loss of "time for each other", We have seen and commented on this dichotomy in several of our stops over the last year, but here it is verbalized.

Cruise ship kitsch overwhelms the seafront (and we love it!)

Hurricane Ivan destroyed most of the older buildings in Grand Cayman in 2004 and it appears to have been rebuilt in the image of Rancho Cucamonga. There is almost no allusion to or motif drawn from traditional Caribbean architecture in the bland Southern California suburban style buildings.
The oldest surviving building on the island, Pedro St. James (1780), now a museum preserving well the thin little story of Caymanian history, reveals what thoughtful, location specific architecture could provide. A cool, stone central core with screened wood balconies all around to take advantage of the trades. Air conditioning obviated. Not rocket science, but beautiful in its simplicity and functionality.

Cool shady balconies at Pedro St. James

It has been fun to be in an English speaking country for the first time in a year, although the dialect here makes the English harder to understand than Spanish! With residents from all over the Caribbean there is a wide choice of ethnic food and we spent Thanksgiving in "Singh's Roti Shop" a favorite with the Trinidadians here. Odd, but it beats roasting a turkey on board.

The locals doing what they love most.

We head from here to Cienfuegos, Cuba, about 170 miles directly north. We think we have seen a good weather window with southerlies in advance of a cold front off of Texas so we will leave early Wednesday for a Friday a.m. arrival in Cuba.