I’M BACK FROM VACATION: The diving was great. (That’s me in the yellow fins). My favorite spot was on the East End, which I hadn’t visited before. The swell and current were a bit stiff (coming back to the boat was like a carrier landing — miss the rope and you were sailing toward Belize, waiting for the boat to pick you up, as happened to one person). The best dive was Snapper Hole, which is where these pictures are from. Beautiful canyons and tunnels (see more pictures here, here and here). I never went deeper than about 110-120 feet. Nothing, I suspect, that would impress a certain tech-diving former girlfriend and sometime InstaPundit reader, but adventurous enough for a mild-mannered law professor such as myself.
I paid no attention to the news, and have no idea what’s going on in the world, and I’m off to an afternoon of July Fourth celebrations with family, so more blogging will have to wait. Enjoy the holiday, and check back later!
UPDATE: In response to various questions:
Who do I like to dive with? My hands-down favorite, and the mainstay of most of my trips, is Peter Milburn, who runs a small but excellent operation there and has done so for 25 years. We did the East End dive with Ocean Frontiers, who I found to be very professional and knowledgeable. I’ve also had good experiences with Fisheye Tours, whose website seems to be down, and with DiveTech — though this year their operation seemed a bit disorganized.
How are things recovering from Hurricane Michelle? Last year I could see a good deal of damage remaining. This year the reef seems well on the way to recovery.
Should I start Scuba diving? I don’t know. It’s not too hard to get started. I recommend doing the “resort course” somewhere first. That’s a one-day trial that lets you dive with an instructor. If it’s for you, you’ll know. If it’s not, you won’t have wasted your time. It’s not terribly dangerous: you can die, of course, if you do something stupid, but you can die driving cross-town if you do something stupid, too.
How’s the economy there? Fair. Locals complain about the prices killing business, and it has gotten pretty expensive. There’s still a lot of new construction, but there are also a lot of condos and houses for sale. The tourist industry seems to be doing okay, but not as well as it was a couple of years ago. The high prices stem from the control of many important businesses by a rather small number of local families, which has actually produced rumbles toward political change and independence from Britain (the Caymans are a British Dependent Overseas Territory now) — though independence seems more likely to cement that dominance than to challenge it. What they really need is a WalMart. What they’re getting is telecom liberalization, which is nice, but not enough.
You stay in touch with your old girlfriends? Doesn’t the InstaWife mind? Yes, I do. My mother, in fact, says I have an Old Girlfriend Network instead of an Old Boy’s Network, and there’s some truth to that. I do stay in touch with a lot of former girlfriends, who as a group basically rock. The InstaWife, who met me through one of ’em, has no complaints, and rather likes the ones she’s met.