Coronado Island California - Connected By The Silver Strand

View Coronado Island, CA in a larger map

The last story that I wrote for this website was about Mount Dora, Florida, which is not a mountain. This story is about Coronado Island, California, which is not an island. Located in the middle of the San Diego Bay, Coronado Island is connected to the mainland by a ten mile isthmus called The Silver Strand and is the safest area in Southern California, because the crime rate here is zero. Not surprisingly, it is one of the most expensive residential areas in the entire United States. Even the small homes are very attractive and are in the seven figure price range. About 25,000 people live on the island.

Governor Ronald Reagan opening Coronado Bridge

Pat and I visited Coronado in September 2012. One can reach Coronado by taking a ferry from the San Diego waterfront. Alternatively and as we did, one can drive across the San Diego-Coronado Bridge which soars high over the water and which was opened in 1969 by Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California. Our driver showed us a photograph of her father with Governor Reagan at the opening ceremony. Her father was the mayor of Coronado at the time.

The views from the bridge are truly spectacular. It’s like looking down from an airplane as one sees the whole of Coronado, as well as the San Diego skyline. There are no barriers to prevent anyone jumping off the bridge, which is so high above the water that one imagines that the death of any jumper would be inevitable. Indeed, hundreds of jumpers have plunged to their death here. As a venue for suicides, the bridge ranks third in the country.

Coronado Bridge Suicide Counseling sign

To discourage potential suicides, there are notices every few yards giving the telephone number of a suicide counselor. Amazingly, a few jumpers have survived and (when interviewed later) they almost always tell of the regrets that they experienced during their descent. In other words, on the way down, they wish that they hadn’t jumped.

San Diego skyline from Coronado Island

Coronado Beach is ranked by The Laboratory for Coastal Research as the best in the country. It consists of very fine sand. The US Navy operates a Navy Air station on Coronado and this occupies half the land on the island, which is home to three aircraft carriers. In addition, Navy Seals train at the Naval Amphibious Base on the southern side of the town.

Coronado is also home to the famous Hotel del Coronado, which was built in 1888, only three years after the town was founded. The hotel has been the location for the shooting of many popular films, including one of my favorites – Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. I first saw the film when it was released in 1959. The plot involves two musicians witnessing the St Valentine‘s Day massacre in Chicago and then fleeing to Florida, disguised as females, in order to escape the mob. I was disillusioned to learn that the scenes in Florida, which I so much enjoyed, were in fact filmed at the Hotel del Coronado. However, it remains a wonderful film.

Kate Morgan

In November 1892, a young woman named Kate Morgan checked into this hotel and was found shot to death in her room five days later. At the time, the death was treated as a suicide, but it now appears that she may have been murdered. Her ghost has often appeared in the hotel since then, accompanied by other curious paranormal events.

President Bush with Ben Press

For example, in May 1983, then Vice President George H W Bush was a guest during his official visit to San Diego. The secret service agent assigned to protect him was given Room 3502, Kate Morgan’s old room. He did not last the night and left, complaining of breezes and billowing drapes although all the windows were closed. He also objected to gurgling sounds and a ghostly glow in the room.

Gondola rides around Coronado Island

Coronado Island claims to operate the finest gondolas to be found outside Venice, Italy. These ply the canals in the Coronado Cays, which is a residential area in the southern part of the island. Whether or not one travels by gondola, one certainly does not need a car on Coronado. A speed limit of 25 mph is in force for the whole island, which is very flat and little over a mile wide. Therefore everything is within walking distance, but bicycles and golf carts are much in evidence on the island. Where does everyone go, apart from the beach? Probably to a restaurant or a café, because there are over 70 of them on Coronado.

Yet one man who was in no mood to walk around here was Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly the Atlantic. He flew from New York to Paris, France in 1927 in his plane, The Spirit of St Louis, which was built under his supervision in nearby San Diego. After taking possession of the plane, Lindberg took off from Coronado. He circled the island and flew west for a few miles over the Pacific. Then he made a U turn and headed for St Louis, Missouri, where he landed at Lambert Field.

The next lap of his journey was from St Louis to New York, from where he flew off across the ocean to Paris and into history. But how many of the millions who attended New York City’s subsequent tickertape parade to honor this epic flight knew that the journey began on tiny Coronado Island?

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on January 21, 2013.

Crystal River Florida - Home of the Manatee

Crystal River, Florida calls itself the Home of the Manatee.  This small town, located on the west coast of Florida alongside the Gulf of Mexico, is unique in that it’s the only place in the United States where one is allowed to swim alongside these friendly and gentle giants, who are harmless and lack any system of defense. Federal and state laws attempt to provide manatees with as much protection as possible.

Other than in Crystal River, law enforcement considers that for a person even to approach a manatee is illegal harassment. The typical manatee is about 9 feet long and weighs 1000 pounds but, despite its size, it’s an endangered species and deaths from boat strikes are frequent.

Manatee family

Manatees are elephants cousins

Manatees share a common ancestor with the elephant. Without additional protection, the Florida manatee faces extinction. Many manatees bear multiple scars from their encounters with boat propellers. At least Floridians are aware of this and many of their cars carry “Save the Manatee” license plates, the sale proceeds from which help to fund protection measures.

Save the Manatee Florida license plate

Manatees are herbivores, which mean that they eat only plants, which makes them vegetarians. They usually eat up to 10% of their body weight every day. The delights of lobster and crab and shrimp are not for them, presumably because removing the shells would be too much trouble. Any attempt by the public to feed manatees is strictly forbidden. How long does a manatee live?  Who knows, but a manatee called Snooty was born in Miami in 1948. He now lives at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, Florida, a few miles to the south of Crystal River.

Like Pat and me, the manatee spends most of its time eating, resting and in travel. Like Pat and me also, it needs to swim in warm water.  Prolonged exposure to water temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit leads to its death and that sad fact brings us back to the little town of Crystal River. In winter, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico can become surprisingly cool – except in Crystal River. The town spreads itself around picturesque Kings Bay, which is fed by 50 springs keeping water in the bay at a year round temperature of at least 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Consequently, Kings Bay is home to over 400 manatees during winter.

Florida welcomes many visitors from Canada and the northern part of the United States during the winter months. We call them “snowbirds from up north”, who are wise enough to avoid the cold weather. The manatees in Kings Bay during winter are similarly motivated and are intelligent. Manatees are curious and possess a long term memory, which must be useful when the waters of the Gulf start to cool. Oddly enough, they don’t much care whether they are swimming in freshwater or sea water. They also talk to each other by making a wide range of sounds. They hear well, despite the absence of ear lobes, and can differentiate colors.

Crystal River marina

On September 12th 2013, Pat and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary by visiting Crystal River.  We were accompanied by our daughter Tara.

Pat, Bob and Tara Patten on Crackers dock

I would love to be able to tell you that, after donning our snorkels and masks, we plunged into the depths of Kings Bay, introduced ourselves to several talkative manatees and swam alongside them. Yet that would be a lie.

Crackers Bar and Grill in Crystal River

On arriving in town, we located Crackers Bar and Grill on the edge of Kings Bay and indulged in a substantial lunch, the soporific effect of which deterred us from even entering the water later.While comfortably reclining on the deck of the restaurant, we gazed at the waters of the bay, expecting a large mammal to break the surface and present itself to us for inspection. It didn’t happen. We never saw a real live manatee all day. However, it must not be said that we have let down the thousands of readers of this website who are eager to see what a manatee looks like.

Tara, Pat and Bob Patten at the Wild Life Refuge

Before leaving town, we visited the headquarters of The Crystal River National Wild Life Refuge which is operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. There we met and were photographed with a life sized statue of a manatee and her calf.

When we next visited our favorite bar in Lake County, Florida, about 50 miles to the east of Crystal River, it was much busier than usual. Snowbirds from up north had been arriving. Like the manatees, they were intelligent and talkative. The pleasure of their company compensated us for our failure in Crystal River to meet a real live manatee.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on September 27, 2013.

Dublin Ireland - Its A Matter Of Taste

Horse racing - the sport of kings

Ireland is famous the world over for horse racing.  Nowhere is the ordinary “man in the street” more passionate about the sport of kings. In 1980, I was serving as a director of a London business which had bought a young racehorse and had listed me as its owner. Apparently the owner had to be a human being rather than a corporation. The horse’s first race was to take place in Ireland’s capital city, Dublin.  To see that race, Pat and I made our first and only visit to the emerald isle. This was in May, a few months before Pat and I were married.  Incredibly, our horse won.  I left the winner’s circle after congratulating our jockey, Tony Murray, and started to make my way towards the bookies in order to collect my wholly unexpected and undeserved winnings. However I was first intercepted and warmly embraced by a well dressed little Irishman, whom I did not initially recognize. He thanked me profusely for having given him the opportunity of backing our horse.  He turned out to be our cabdriver from earlier in the day, who had heard me discussing our horse’s chances with Pat, while we were riding in his cab.  He had invested far more heavily than us and was understandably euphoric. Such is the passion for horse racing among the Irish. It is therefore ironic that our principle memory of that visit to Dublin is entirely unconnected with the racetrack and it is this.

Map of Dublin and Phoenix Park

During our stay Pat and I visited Phoenix Park, Dublin, which is the largest urban enclosed park in Europe and is a couple of miles west of the city center.  This had been the scene of great events some seven or eight months earlier, when Pope John Paul II had made the first ever visit of a pope to Ireland.  We stood exactly where he had stood when celebrating an open air Mass before a congregation of over a million people.  Incidentally, this was easily the largest gathering of Irish people in history.  We gazed across the park, now green and empty, and tried to visualize how the scene must have appeared to the Pontiff.

Pope John Paul II

Papal Cross

In the park, we were able to see the Papal Cross.  It is 116 feet high and had been erected by the Irish to commemorate the visit.  In fact, the Irish only managed to put up the cross a few days before the Pope’s arrival and I smiled at the thought of the last minute panic that this must have engendered. Yet, because Pat’s family is Irish American, I prudently kept my thoughts to myself.

What a pioneer Pope John Paul II turned out to be!  He was the first Pope to leave Italy since 1809 and he was the first to travel by air.  During his papacy, he undertook more overseas travel than all his predecessors combined during nearly 2000 years.  Of course, we did not know then what would befall him only twelve months later in St. Peters Square in the Vatican. In May 1981, a trained sniper from Turkey attempted to assassinate the Pope, who was struck by four bullets.  He lost three quarters of his blood and his survival was surely a miracle.  He was over 60 years of age at the time.  How strange that this should have occurred in the supposed safety of the Vatican, rather than on a risky overseas trip.

Postcard of Dublin and River Liffey

On a happier note, we wandered along the banks of the Liffey.  This river runs through the center of the city of Dublin and past the 18th century St James’s Gate Brewery, at one time the largest brewery in the world.

St. James Gate at the Guinness Brewery

This is where Guinness is brewed.  A total of ten million glasses of Guinness a day are consumed in 150 countries and this is where it all comes from.  A good deal more than ten million glasses of Guinness will be drunk next week on St Patrick’s Day, when the Chicago River is turned green and they parade in New York City. As I looked into the Liffey, I wondered whether it was responsible for the taste of Guinness, which tastes like no other beer.  Is there something in the river water, which looked to me to be too dirty to drink?  Who knows?  Guinness is a dry stout. It’s black in color with distinctive creamy foam on top.  It’s reputed to be good for the heart, although in these politically correct times the brewers are not allowed to claim any health benefits for their product. Even their famous advertising slogan, “Guinness is good for you”, is suspect these days.  They can however truthfully claim that it’s still the best selling alcoholic drink in Ireland.

Guinness For Strength Poster

When I lived in Nigeria 50 years ago, I would admire the Guinness advertising billboards of those days.  Nigerians then still often used the tops of their heads to carry things.  These billboards would show a Nigerian striding along with a big steel girder balanced on top of his head and the message below was “Guinness for Strength”.  This impressed the Nigerians enormously and Africa is still one of the biggest export markets for Guinness. I never did taste either Guinness or the waters of the Liffey during our visit to Dublin in 1980.  Fortunately the performance of a certain racehorse permitted us to concentrate on champagne instead.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on March 15, 2011.

Freetown Sierra Leone - Anarchy Has Arrived

Map of Freetown Sierra Leone

In the summer of 1983, I needed to make three business visits to Freetown, capital of the Republic of Sierra Leone.  The country lies on the west coast of Africa, just a few degrees north of the equator.  Pat accompanied me on two of my visits.  Freetown is a city of over one million people, who should never go hungry because the fish in the adjoining ocean contain more than enough protein for everyone.

Freetown and harbor

At the center of Freetown is a superb natural harbor, said to be the third largest in the world.  There are many beaches with fine white sand and the potential for a successful tourist industry.  The country has plenty of diamonds and other minerals.  (Note: The recently released movie, Blood Diamonds, with Leonard DiCaprio is an accurate depiction of the atrocities in Sierra Leone.)

It is also a place where agriculture should be thriving.  In other words, there is every reason for Sierra Leone to be rich and prosperous.  Yet it is one of the poorest countries in the world.  It languishes at the bottom of every league table used to measure decent and civilized standards.  Why should this be?

Blood Diamond movie poster

Beach in Sierra Leone

Freetown was first settled in 1787 by the British who populated it with newly freed American slaves, hence the name Freetown.  Incidentally, Sierra Leone is Spanish for Lion Mountains.  When viewed from the sea, the local mountains are said to look like the head of a lion.  Freetown grew quickly.   From 1808 onwards, the Royal Navy made Freetown its headquarters in its fight to end the slave trade.  Africans on many of the slave ships intercepted by the Royal Navy often chose to settle in Freetown, which  tended to be safer for them than returning to their various places of origin.  And so the population grew.

100-year old Cotton Tree planted by freed American slaves

At the time of the founding of Freetown, the event was marked by the planting by the resettled American slaves of the famous Cotton Tree which dominates the center of Freetown to this day.   Pat and I sat under the Cotton Tree on our visits.

Siaka Stevens first President of Sierra Leone

Originally a British colony, Sierra Leone became an independent republic in 1971.  The first president of the republic of Sierra Leone was Siaka Stevens, who we met on our visits in 1983 when he was nearly 80.  He died in 1988, shortly after having turned over the presidency to his chosen successor.  The history of Sierra Leone over recent decades is a tale of assassinations and multiple coups.  It is a tale of civil war and atrocities.  It is a tale of small boys with machine guns and no respect for life.  Many people in Freetown today are recovering from having had limbs chopped off.  Crime in Freetown is at an all time high.   This is what happens when a society abandons the rule of law and nobody is more to blame for this than President Stevens.  He survived many attempts to remove him from power by meeting violence with greater violence.  He was guilty of corruption and of massive mismanagement of the economy.  He made a rich country poor.  Under his regime, many innocent people were brought to trial on false charges and then executed.  He was determined to wipe out his political opponents.  He was feared.  He received us in Sierra Leone's equivalent of The Oval Office.   He was absolutely charming, particularly to the ladies.

Sierra Leone currency

Let me conclude with a story that shows just how impossible it was to obey the law.  We were leaving Freetown on a flight to London with Sierra Leone Airlines.  As we were arriving at the airport by taxi, I removed all foreign currency from my wallet, leaving in there only Bank of Sierra Leone notes, worthless outside that country.   I pushed all my  foreign currency into my socks so that the soles of my feet covered the banknotes.  As we passed through the airport, we were stopped at least a dozen times by police and customs officials.  They all reminded us that it was a crime to take foreign currency out of the country and demanded that we turn over to them any foreign notes in our possession.  I told them that I only had Sierra Leonean currency left.  Some of the more aggressive officials checked my wallet to confirm this.  Finally I boarded the plane.  After takeoff, I decided that I deserved a strong drink for having run that gauntlet at the airport.  I ordered what I wanted and tendered Sierra Leonean currency.  The airline staff would not even accept their own currency.  They insisted that I had to pay in pounds or dollars.  After reaching into my socks, I did so.  I then noticed that all the other passengers on board were drinking.  Had they all paid for their drinks with foreign currency, which they also had smuggled through the airport check points?   They most certainly had.  When everyone has to break the law in order to survive, anarchy can truly be said to have arrived.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on December 27, 2008.

Gatlinburg Tennessee - How to have a famous town named after you.

Gatlinburg Tennessee

Gatlinburg, Tennessee has a population of only about 4000. There is little chance of that number being increased by urban sprawl, because the town is bordered on all sides by the beautiful Smoky Mountains.

Smoky Mountains

The town reminds one of a little ski resort in the Austrian Tyrol. Relative to its small size, Gatlinburg is famous. My reason for staying there in the late 1980s had nothing to do with the physical characteristics of Gatlinburg.

Dolly Parton

Instead, the physical characteristics of Dolly Parton, the country singer, were responsible for my journey. I have always been a big fan of Dolly, who hails from this part of Eastern Tennessee. In 1986, Dolly bought into a big theme park which she then renamed Dollywood. She added some attractive features to the original theme park, including much memorabilia from her great career. She also added a theater, where she sometimes performs. Like me, my wife and children were fans of Dolly, so it was resolved that we would all devote a vacation to Dollywood which is located at Pigeon Forge – 8 miles down the road from Gatlinburg, where we stayed.

Gatling gun patent drawing

At first, I assumed that the town took its name from the early machine gun. Perhaps they used these guns to secure the valley in frontier days. But the Gatling Gun has one “g” too many, so it couldn’t be that. Who or what was the “Gatlin”, after whom the town was named? Before I emigrated to America, I always thought how great it would be to have a town named after me – say “Pattenburg” or “Pattenville”. It impressed me that Lyndon Johnson came from Johnson City, Texas. I once saw myself leading a small band of faithful followers into a vast undeveloped part of the USA, erecting the first building many miles from anywhere, and then laying out a street grid for the future of this town named after me. This Gatlin person seemed to have achieved just that. Who was he?

Surprisingly enough, he didn’t found Gatlinburg and he was eventually kicked out of town. Gatlinburg was founded in about 1790 by British settlers from North Carolina. They called the town White Oaks and that was its name when Radford Gatlin arrived in town in 1855. He opened a second store and post office, which were so popular that the area began to take its name from them – Gatlinburg. He was also a preacher and founded The Gatlinite Baptist Church. The town discarded the more generic name of White Oaks. Radford Gatlin enjoyed his fame and popularity until he made a huge mistake. He chose the wrong side in the Civil War. He opted for the Confederacy, while the locals were very much on the side of the victors, the Unionists. After the war, the locals sent him packing and confiscated his property. He spent his old age in Union, South Carolina.

The name of the town continued as Gatlinburg. Surely, it would have been a bigger punishment to change it? Anyone can leave property and possessions, but few have a famous town named after them.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on October 11, 2008.

Gibraltar - Picadors are no longer needed

Rock of Gibraltar (photo by Hans Huber)

Seen from afar, the Rock of Gibraltar looks impressive. That’s why a famous insurance company uses its likeness as a logo to signify strength and stability. The Rock stands guard over the straits at the western end of the Mediterranean. It towers over everything around it. 1396 feet high, it stands on a tiny peninsula of land less than three square miles in area. That peninsula adjoins Spain, which lost Gibraltar to the British in 1704 and wants it back. The locals have other ideas however. 98.5% of them voted in a 2002 referendum against a proposal for Spain to share sovereignty of Gibraltar with Britain.

CIA map of Gibraltar from 1989

I visited Gibraltar in 1961 with an amateur boxing team. We had a match against the British garrison. After the soldiers had comprehensively thumped us, I took a closer look at Gibraltar. Impressive though it may be from a distance, even the delightful Gibraltans admitted to me that there wasn’t a whole lot to see or do. There were some little apes scampering around the upper levels of the Rock.

Gibraltar Monkey sitting on cannon (photo courtesy Reuters)

The legend is that Gibraltar will stay British, as long as they are there. Their numbers fell during World War II, so Churchill imported many more to maintain morale. The apes specialize in running off with tourists’ wallets and tearing off windshield wipers, which is funny when it’s not your wallet or your car, but you lose interest after a few minutes. One can only watch little apes for so long. So what else is there to do? Not much. One can stare at a dark smudge on the horizon and thereafter truthfully claim to have seen Africa. One can also see the ingenious way that a water supply is generated, when rainwater hits the upper levels of the Rock. Then there is an intricate system of caves and tunnels within the Rock to visit. That’s about it.

Fortunately, in 1961, the border between Spain and Gibraltar was still open. At that time, Spain was treading carefully in the hope that its unattractive neutrality in World War II would be overlooked. By 1969, Spain had gained the confidence to close the border completely, even to foot traffic, as part of its campaign to reclaim Gibraltar. As a result, it became necessary to take a hydrofoil to Tangier in North Africa and another hydrofoil from Tangier to Gibraltar, in order to reach Gibraltar from Spain. The border was partially re-opened in the 1980s but, to this day, passing through it is anything but smooth and quick.

As I swept through the border one fine July morning, all those complications lay far in the future. I entered Andalucia, which is the region of Spain adjacent to Gibraltar, and within half an hour found myself in San Roque, which has the smallest bull ring in Spain.

San Roque bullring with Gibraltar in background (photo courtesy georeme)

It is one of the few bull rings in Spain, without little alleyways for the matadors to duck into to escape the bull. I welcomed that absence for this reason. The fight between matador and bull does not occur on what Anglo-Saxons would call “a level playing field”. My problem with bull fighting is not with the death of the bull. Indeed, the steaks that I enjoy eating involve the death of animals in slaughterhouses. However, my problem with bull fighting is that I like a fight to be fair, and a bull fight is not fair. I saw the bull fight in San Roque. The spectacle and pageantry were unforgettable, but why is it necessary for men called picadors to stick spears into the bull to weaken it, before the matador feels able to fight it! Therefore, that day in San Roque, I was glad there were no alleyways in which the matadors could hide. It “leveled the playing field” just a little. Spain’s great love now is soccer, rather than bull fighting which Queen Sofia of Spain is said to hate. Spain won the soccer championship of Europe in 2008 and now produces the finest soccer players and coaches in the world. And they don’t even need to use picadors on their opponents before the match!

San Roque turned out to be a charming little town of about 25,000 people, typical of everything that makes Andalucia so attractive. It sits on a hill looking across the sea towards Africa. It has steep narrow thoroughfares, flanked by whitewashed buildings. It has been interestingly impacted by Arabic, Spanish and British cultures. There is plenty to do and see. It is certainly a place to visit.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on October 20, 2008.

Grand Cayman - Hardly Caribbean

A few weeks ago, in February 2014, Pat and I together with our daughter Anna made our first visit to the island of Grand Cayman. We landed at Owen Roberts International Airport on the outskirts of the capital, George Town.

Owen Roberts International Airport

Owen Roberts was a pioneer, who did much to develop Cayman long before it became famous internationally for the reasons I mention in the final paragraphs below. Roberts served as a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force during World War Two.

After the war, with a couple of old planes, Roberts established Caribbean International Airways with the object of providing flights to Cayman from Tampa, Jamaica and Belize. He persuaded the Cayman authorities to build airfields on all three of the Cayman Islands. The airline’s inaugural flight from Jamaica to Grand Cayman, piloted by Roberts, was scheduled for April 1953. Sadly the plane crashed on its takeoff from Jamaica, killing Roberts. He was only 40. Having often escaped death at the hands of the Luftwaffe during World War II, it is ironic that he should die on a distant tropical island in pursuit of his entrepreneurial dreams.

Owen Roberts plane crash in April 1953

Plane crash up close

Leaving the airport, we checked into our hotel on Seven Mile Beach located on the western edge of the island. This is Cayman’s most famous beach, with white powdery sand, crystal clear warm water, palm trees and a gentle tropical breeze, but it is only one of the many such beaches on the island.

Click below to watch great video of Grand Cayman.

Cayman is one of the best diving sites in the world. There is probably more to see underwater than ashore, because Grand Cayman is as flat as a pancake and somewhat featureless.

Daughter Anna Patten with Bob Patten

We were told to go to Hell, so we went. Hell is an area that gets its name from a quarter acre of blackened calciferous rock, but there’s little else to see there.

Seven Mile Beach is packed with hotels and restaurants and Grand Cayman has its own brewery, which produces four different beers. I most enjoyed Caybrew, which describes itself as a smooth full bodied premium lager, with a crisp clean hop character. It was certainly the equal of the imported beers.

Click below to see a video about the Cayman Brewery.

I learned from my days in Nigeria over half a century ago never to be dismissive of the local beers. Nigerian Breweries Inc at that time produced something called Star Beer. My fellow expatriates referred to Star as ‘‘the local swamp water” and instead drank far more expensive imports, like Heineken and Carlsberg. Yet Star was fine for me then and Caybrew would suit me fine today, if I lived in these islands.

Caybrew Beer sign

Assorted bottled drinks

But would I want to live in these islands? Grand Cayman is tidy, crime-free and well managed. It’s also tax free. Christopher Columbus spotted it in 1503 and it became British in 1670 under the terms of the Treaty of Madrid. It was always administered by the British as part of the colony of Jamaica but, when Jamaica became independent in 1962, Cayman made the decision to stay British. The population then was 7,000, but today it is 56,732.

The Cayman islands are today referred to as a British Overseas Territory, which is “politically correct speak” for colony. There is a British governor backed up by civil servants, who are appointed by London. There is also an 18 member Legislative Assembly and an Executive Council, some members of which are titled Minister or even Prime Minister. However, the governor controls security, foreign affairs, defense, police and civil service.

Queen Elizabeth at Botanic Park

Queen Elizabeth II is head of state and visited the island in 1994 to open the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, famous for its Blue Iguana program.

Blue Iguana

These endangered creatures – like gentle blue dragons – can be seen roaming the park in safety. They are massive lizards, 20 to 30 inches in body length with a tail of equal length.

Let’s consider again whether I would want to live here? The answer is in the negative. The problem is that, although Cayman is in the middle of the Caribbean geographically, it’s culturally more like South Florida. It’s a first world country, so why exchange one first world location for another? The people are polite and it’s all very clean. It’s tranquil racially and politically, yet it’s not very Caribbean. There’s no cricket, corruption, calypsos, crumbling roads and picturesque ruins. It’s not like the other islands. So what happened?

In 1962 Cayman stayed with Britain instead of becoming independent alongside Jamaica. The Caymanians took an initiative that has since made the islands one of the wealthiest places on earth. They offered investors freedom from taxes, together with secrecy, security and discretion.

Offshore Banking graphic

Bankers at first continued to deal with Switzerland or with Nassau in the Bahamas, but the Bahamas became independent in 1974, after which there were soon calls in Nassau for the banks to become nationalized. The banks fled to Cayman and soon there were billions of dollars invested there in hundreds of new banks and insurance companies.

Today Cayman is host to dozens of world class accountants and tens of thousands of registered companies. Outside each law office is a long notice board detailing every company registered with the firm. Per capita, there are more telephones, telex machines and fax machines in George Town than anywhere else on earth.

Waterfront, George Town, Grand Cayman

There is no poverty on Cayman, so it’s not surprising that the population has increased eight-fold since it parted company with Jamaica back in 1962. There is none of the shabbiness to be seen on other Caribbean islands. Everyone here is doing well financially. Yet a distinctive local atmosphere is absent, so I’ll stay in Florida thanks.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on May 2, 2014.