jawbrep blog

One of the ports visited on our recent Royal Caribbean cruise was Grand Cayman. This was an eagerly awaited port since I’ve been there before but wanted to take my girlfriend scuba diving there. We were worried that we might miss this port since the Caymans were hit pretty hard by the hurricanes and indeed, they had closed the islands off to tourist travel for part of the summer/fall. Fortunately for us, Grand Cayman had reopened just about two weeks prior to our cruise at the end of November.

Getting to Grand Cayman is by tender since it had a shallow harbour. This can be a potential problem in itself because we were told that if the wind and waves are too rough, the captain would cancel the port and spend the rest of the day at sea. Apparently in the past, one of the tender boat workers had fallen and got crushed to death between the boat and the dock during one of the rougher wave days. This resulted in the cruiseships being much more careful in deciding whether to allow tendering or not given the conditions. Again, fortunately for us, the weather was picture perfect during the day we were in Grand Cayman last week.

The downtown area pretty well recovered from the effects of the hurricanes and the shopping was business as usual. There were four ships at port during the day we were at port. Grand Cayman is above average in terms of cleaniness and the attitude of the locals for a Caribbean island. It is also one of the pricier island though. Bargains can still be found though, especially in the liquor where there are examples of certain liquors being even less expensive in Grand Cayman than even Cozumel. For example, Malibu rum was $10 US in Grand Cayman, $13 in Cozumel and about $19 back in the Miami home port. Everything else like restaurants and activities were generally more expensive than other islands.

According to other passengers who ventured to other parts of the island, the damage from the hurricanes was more visible with fallen trees and some buildings still not repaired yet. A few of the organized tours by the cruiseship were also not available. We decided in advance to do some scuba diving off the shore and Eden Rocks Scuba Center was a 5 minute walk from the port. There are two decent shore dives right in front of their dive shop and we spend the morning diving the site called Devil’s Grotto. Instead of paying $85 US for a typical Cayman boat dive trip, I ended up paying just $8 US for a rental for a tank.

I didn’t go to other parts of the island during this trip but have been to the turtle farm, Hell village and Stingray City before. They are all worthwhile sites to visit. I wanted to take my girlfriend scuba diving at Stingray City in the afternoon but for some reason, only the snorkelling sections of Stingray City were available that day. So after returning to the cruiseship for lunch, we went back ashore to do some shopping. We would like to come back to Grand Cayman again for a longer stay in the future.

In summary, most of Grand Cayman appears to be back in business again after the hurricanes. It is one of the nicer but pricier ports to visit in the Caribbean

Clint Leung is owner of Free Spirit Gallery ( http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca), an online gallery specializing in Inuit and Northwest Native American art including carvings, sculpture and prints. Free Spirit Gallery has numerous information resource articles with photos of authentic Inuit and Native Indian art as well as free eCards.

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South America’s primary mountain range, the Andes, attains one of its widest points in Bolivia. Here the Andes are divided into two subranges, Cordillera Oriental and Cordillera Occidental. Peaks in these areas are in excess of 20,000 feet. Between these subranges lies the Altiplano which contains the highest navigable lake on earth. Lake Titicaca, which also lies in Peru, is 12,507 feet above sea level.

Also in the Altiplano is one of Bolivia’s capitals, La Paz. At 11,700 feet it is one of the highest cities in the world. This region is home to one of the centers of Inca civilization and pre–Inca cultures.

Lake Titicaca is what helps make the Altiplano livable. This body of water is large enough to temper the coldness in its vicinity. Grains have been raised for centuries on the surrounding arable land up to the amazing elevation of 12,800 feet. The area supports a major group of subsistence farmers to this day.

Bolivia has had a troubled history. Aside from numerous internal struggles, the country first lost its access to the Pacific Ocean in a conflict with Chile. It then lost its northern territory of Acre to Brazil in a dispute involving the rubber industry in the Amazon Basin. On top of all that, Bolivia was forced to give up 55,000 square miles of southeastern Gran Chaco territory to Paraguay. Bolivia has reactivated its claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, to secure sovereign maritime access for Bolivian natural gas.

Modern Bolivia is the product of European domination, however that influence has not affected some of the Amerindian population clusters. But these indigenous Bolivians still lost their land as did their Peruvian and Ecuadorian counterparts. However, what made the richer Europeans in Bolivia wealthy was not land but minerals.

The city of Potosi in the Cordillera Oriental became well–known for the huge silver deposits in its surroundings. Zinc, copper, and other ores were found there. Bolivia’s tin deposits provided a large portion of the country’s export income throughout most of the twentieth century. But in the 1980’s, tin reserves declined and that along with weak world prices reached the point where Bolivia’s antiquated mining methods forced the industry to all but shut down.

Oil and gas are now accounting for an increasing portion of foreign revenues. Bolivia exports much of it gas to Argentina and Brazil. In return, Brazil is commtted to assisting the development of the corridor between Santa Cruz and Corumba, Brazil, in the southeastern lowlands. It is here that commercial agriculture–especially soybeans–is on the rise.

Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and drug production. Current goals include attracting foreign investment, strengthening the educational system, resolving disputes with coca growers over Bolivia’s counterdrug efforts, and waging an anticorruption campaign. The country does have its problems, but it also has its optimism.

J. Chartwell has developed Maps GPS Info.com, which provides practical information on GPS and maps that everyone can use. The website includes product reviews and a maps/GPS glossary.

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