Cayman Brac

We spent 7 days on Cayman Brac, which is a small sister island to the main Grand Cayman Island.  I choose this location because the rental houses were cheaper and it would be a little less busy.  Except I had no idea how “less busy” it was.  A lot of the times we were the only people around doing the activity we had chosen for the day.  Sometimes at restaurants we would be the only people there, and you had to wonder how they kept themselves in business.

But it was actually a wonderful experience and being less traveled and more secluded made it a great vacation.  Our accommodations were perfect, the food at any of the restaurants was delicious, it was easy and clean to get our own food for the house, and all the activates we did were a blast.

So get ready to see more pictures and get more information than you ever wanted to!!

Day 1:  Being from the Midwest, getting down to the islands is always a full day of travel.  Once we made it to Cayman Grand we had a layover and then took a small prop plane over to Cayman Brac.

We did a rental car, and the island is so safe and relaxed that they let us take the rental car from the airport and then came to our hotel later to fill out the paper work and pay them.  They also drive on the left hand side of the road, which takes a little getting used to.

We actually stayed our first night in a hotel, as the rental house we had gotten wasn’t available yet.  The hotel was pretty small, and you never really saw anyone out and about.

That evening we celebrated our 8th year wedding anniversary.  Well really the whole trip was a celebration, that evening just happened to actually be our wedding anniversary!

And if you are wondering about the extra two people in a lot of our photos….we did travel with two friends Matt and Melissa, who live in the Kansas City area with us, but like us are originally from Nebraska.  In fact Matt and Jesse worked together back in college and now they live a mile away from us.

Day 2:  The first morning on the island we headed out to the pool for a couple of hours before check out time, and we were the only ones there.

They staff even cut down some coconuts for us.  See first day = pasty white skin.

Then we headed over to our rental property.  In this next photo we have the one story rental house, which was a two bedroom/two bathroom property.  You share all the amenities with the two story building which was two separate one bedroom/one bathroom properties.

Here was the shared pool.

Which looked out over the beach and ocean….perfection!!

The guys not being ones for relaxation decided they would try out the ocean.  It was extremely rough that day, but they ventured out.  The ocean in front of our property was very rocky and full of sea urchins, so the owner provided water sock boots for everyone to use.

After the guys did a little swimming around, they decided to take the kayak out…which is when the unfortunate sea urchin episode for Jesse happened.  Needless to say, no one ventured out when the sea was rough again, and the kayak was not taken out again even when it was calm.

That night was the only night we got a clear sun set.

We were actually headed over for a barbeque buffet that evening, and as I mentioned we were the only people that seemed to be eating it.  They had to unwrap all the food for us, even though we arrived a couple hours after it was supposed to start.  The food was delicious though.

Day 3:  This was a day of relaxation for Jesse and I.  In the evening we were told to head to the airport and watch the jet land on the island.  It would have been amazing, except the plane was a couple hours late and we didn’t have time to wait around for it.  So we headed off to dinner and were in the middle of our first drink when we finally heard the jet coming in for a landing.

The dinner rescued the day, as the just caught that day blackened Tuna and Dolphin (known to us as Mahi Mahi) was the best we had on the island.  Courtesy of the Captains Table.

Day 4:  A new experience for both of us was paddle boarding.  The owner had 4 paddle boards at his permanent residence and was kind enough to invite us over to try them out.

For lunch we tried what would be called a dive “The Brack Snack Shack”.  It had excellent burgers, fries, and “banana” milkshakes.  It was the tiniest place you have ever seen.

That afternoon we decided to explore one of the many caves on the island.  It was on the opposite side of the island, a whole 12 miles away.

This particular side was the bluffs, so we were above the village and ocean below.

That evening we stayed in and painted some driftwood to leave our mark on the island.

Day 5: It was time to snorkel. The Cayman’s are known for their diving and snorkeling and we were not disappointed. The owner of our rental even had little machines that could pull you underwater for snorkeling so you didn’t have to swim. We saw amazing ocean life, tropical fish, sting rays, sea turtles, etc.  We didn’t take any pictures while we were snorkeling.

That afternoon the guys ran to buy some fresh fish from the fisherman at the docks….or as it turned out the fisherman's house and we smoked the fish for dinner that night in the smoker seen below.

Day 6:  We decided to explore the remaining caves and see the lighthouse.

Jesse wants you to know that the local bird is called a Brown Booby.

Lighthouse or what most of us would call a light pole.

Here is us on the light “pole”.

Which was located right on the edge of the bluff.

Nan’s Cave which was the best cave for the formations created.

Then a trip down to the beach below the bluff.

Can you see Jesse?  His black tank kind of blends in.  He thought he was getting really high up, until he saw this picture and how very near the bottom he was.

And lastly a trip to “Bat Cave” where luckily we didn’t see any bats.

But we did take a picture of our awesome coral Honda Fit rental car.

That evening we hung out around the fire pit.  Look at those manly men bringing in driftwood for the fire!

Day 7:  With this being our last day it was time to cram in all the activities we had enjoyed on previous days.  Another round of paddle boarding in the morning.  Then snorkeling to a sunken Russian battleship in the afternoon.  Eating again at the Brack Snack Shake.  Reading and laying out at the pool.  Enjoying some beers during the sunset.

And then dinner at a small diner nearby.

I had to include this picture.  For one it shows you just how empty everything is, but also shows you how panoramic photos can give funny results.

Another night spent out at the fire pit with some local friends.  Hard to tell, but this really was a good sized crab, and he really did walk sideways.

Day 8:  Saying goodbye to our amazing vacation and accommodations.

Another full day of travel, to include one delayed flight (although Delta airlines on Grand Cayman was amazing, they met us at our plane to walk us through everything and bypass all the lines so we could get checked in and on our next flight without any problems), stuck in customs for almost 3 hours in Atlanta because the computer systems were down and then we got stuck in a line with an extremely slow and very thorough agent. 

Then we made our final leg home on a plane with a bunch of rowdy people, not quite sure everyone on the plane knew they were headed to Nebraska….I’m thinking they thought they were going to Vegas by the way they were acting.  But we made it home, with all our luggage!

Oliver woke up in the middle of the night that night, and we were able to go into his room.  He gave us this huge wide eyed look when he saw us.  The next morning Bella woke up and when Jesse brought her down into the living room and laid her down so she could look at both of us, she gave us a big smile.  Which, if you knew Bella, and how she doesn’t really react to anything, you would realize that is a huge deal for her to smile at us!

So that was our wonderful trip to Cayman Brac.  We highly, highly recommend going there.  It was a completely safe island, no one there locks anything up and they work off the honor system for getting paid.  Very laid back, but quite a lot of stuff to do.  And if you are a diver, it makes it all the better.