I suspect that my ignorance was shared by many. But, these days, the Cayman Islands have become much better known. One of the reasons for this is last September’s disaster, when Hurricane Ivan tore across the Caribbean and flattened Grand Cayman. The images were seen all over the world.
But there have been other developments that have fixed the Cayman Islands in our consciousness. The remarkable growth of the islands as an offshore financial centre has certainly been widely noticed. Most people now know that the islands are associated with international finance. Indeed, a free- association test could prove interesting. If one said banks, I imagine that quite a number of people would say Cayman Islands just as quickly as they might say Switzerland.
So if you have a great deal of legitimately earned money and you were looking for somewhere to put it, you might find yourself in George Town, Grand Cayman, the island’s capital. And you would certainly have a good choice of banks at your disposal. Grand Cayman, which is only about 20 miles long and in some places less than a mile wide, has about 600 registered banks.
Given that the population of the islands is not much more than 40,000, that makes one bank for every 67 people — a misleading statistic, of course, as only a handful of these are high-street banks. And if you decided that you would like to live where you put your money, then you might take up residence in the islands and discover the advantages of not paying income tax, while all the time living under the protection of the Union Jacks that can be seen fluttering on the buildings of George Town.
For the Cayman Islands, after all, are a British colony, complete with a British governor, who, on appropriate occasions, puts on the gubernatorial outfit of helmet and feathers.
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But the popular idea of the Cayman Islands being a remote and artificial tax haven, the preserve of wealthy tax- dodgers (not a term one uses in Cayman society if one wishes to be invited back) is a misconception. Certainly there are very wealthy people living on Grand Cayman, and some of them have a very strong aversion to paying tax, but there are many others. This is a fairly complex society, which mirrors, in some respects, the cultural complexion of the Caribbean.
There are the original Caymanians, the descendants of sailors, settlers and fishermen; there are Jamaicans in large numbers, who contribute their characteristic warmth and exuberance to the mix; there are Central Americans who have fled the difficulties of their own countries; and there are all sorts of American, British and European expatriates, some of them quite well known. There is the author Dick Francis, for example, who has lived on Seven Mile Beach for some years (Lord Lucan, however, has yet to be spotted). And at any given time there will be several thousand visitors who flock to the islands for the unparalleled diving, for the beaches and the turquoise-coloured, perfectly warm sea.
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ALL OF this makes for an interesting and rather awkward fact — the native Caymanians are now close to being a minority in the islands. Caymanians are understandably sensitive about this, but it’s the price of having agreed to the transformation of their previously sleepy islands into a thriving offshore centre. You cannot run such a centre without having imported expertise — legions of accountants, lawyers and bankers — and these people have to have somewhere to live. Somebody has to build the houses and apartments, somebody has to teach in the schools and staff the hospitals. And so the Caymanians succumbed to a process which made them prosperous and, in many cases, rich, but that could only be done by changing the nature of their society.
The story of a hard-working Jamaican couple, Jean and Wintroy Randal, is a fairly typical one. Jean came to Grand Cayman from Jamaica to take a job looking after children. She had been working in a belt factory in Kingston and wanted to make more of herself: life in Jamaica can be hard and Grand Cayman was just over the water. There she met her husband-to- be, Wintroy Randal, a talented man who has always simply been known by his surname of Randal. They met at their church — Grand Cayman is covered with churches, most of which are worth visiting for the music and singing that go on for hours every Sunday. Visitors are made to feel welcome and can join in as much as they like. You might even stand up when sinners are invited to the front of the church.
Randal had come to the island from Jamaica to work unloading cargo at the George Town harbour. There was an opening for a government rat- catcher, though, and he took the job, committing himself to the struggle against vermin. Much of Grand Cayman was then mangrove swamp and mangrove swamps are good offshore centres for rats. He worked hard and was, in due course, promoted to a more senior position in the public-health department.
They married and had children, Wayneroy and Jessica. Randal built a house with his own hands, being a man who can do anything. When Hurricane Ivan came last year and destroyed so many houses, Jean and Randal were spared. Their house suffered very minor roof damage, but was otherwise unharmed. Their church, though, became a home for numerous people whose houses had been invaded by the waves that swept across the island or simply blown away by the winds. Some houses just disappeared in a flurry of flying tin sheets and crumbling bricks.
Ivan shattered lives and created immediate needs in a community that had become used to a good measure of prosperity. But the islands are making a remarkable recovery, no doubt helped by the Caribbean sunshine and the cheerful good humour of this part of the world.
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GRAND CAYMAN is a wonderful place to look at fish, but — as I found — it’s not necessarily the best place in the Caribbean to catch them. Game fish have large appetites and need to have at hand large stocks of fish lower down the food chain. Shallow waters are therefore better, because there are more nutrients, and the Cayman Islands do not have a great deal of these. There is still some reasonable fishing, though, and on the day on which I went out, we looked for wahoo, a fish that makes very fine eating. I chartered a boat from one Captain Bodden.
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He did not call himself captain, but I addressed him as such, on the basis of the rule that in the Caribbean anybody who has a boat of more than 10ft can have the courtesy title of captain. Captain Bodden, therefore, could be the name of any number of people on Grand Cayman, as it is one of the old Caymanian names and there are numerous Boddens.
Indeed, there is a place called Bodden Town on the south coast of the island, where many Boddens live. And if you are not called Bodden, then you might well be called Ebanks, which is an even more common name. All of these people descend from early settlers and are often related to one another several times over.
Captain Bodden negotiated his way through the channel which leads through the reef that encircles much of Grand Cayman. Out there, near the reef, the water is a very light blue-green colour, the sort of water into which one yearns to dive. And you may do just that, if your particular Captain Bodden allows you. We went past several pleasure craft anchored just inside the reef, their occupants snorkelling in this seductive water, swimming with the giant stingray colony that waits to receive its visitors.
It is one of the great Caymanian experiences to swim with these giant rays. They glide below you, like stealth bombers, with their great black wings.
And then we were out in the open sea beyond the reef, above the diving wall that goes down and down into the depths, and the lines were cast out. Captain Bodden was relatively taciturn, but he knew how to find fish, which we did. A large barracuda, with its sharp teeth, was landed but proved inedible when put to the “ant test” on shore. Large fish can be toxic in these waters, and the test that the locals use is to leave the fish out near an ant colony. If the ants swarm all over it, it is safe.The ants studiously avoided our barracuda.
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A visit to George Town should take in Heroes’ Square, where the newly proclaimed national heroes are honoured. The idea of having national heroes is a recent one, but it has been enthusiastically received on the island. It is not always easy to find national heroes in a very small community, but two have now been identified and proclaimed. Unlike sainthood, which requires one to die, you can be a National Hero in the Cayman Islands while still alive. However, it is probably necessary to die before you merit a statue, and there is only one statue in Heroes’ Square today. That is of the late James Manoah Bodden, who was a politician and businessman and, by general agreement, a heavily built man.
Why then is the statue so clearly of a thin man? The answer I was given by a number of people is delicious. It was decided, they alleged, to purchase a ready-made statue from a business in the United States which provides just that. They have a supply of statues from which one may choose one that you like — all that is then required is for a plaque to be attached, bearing the name of the person honoured. So James Manoah Bodden’s statue does not look anything like him. I was assured this story is true, but was unable to confirm it. And I’m not sure if it matters a great deal. It is the thought that counts behind a statue.
The statue of James Manoah Bodden survived the hurricane. Many buildings did not, but now things are getting back to normal and visitors returning. This means that it is probably a good time to visit, as the welcome is especially warm. It is relatively easy to get there — little more than an hour from Miami or Nassau — and it is possible, too, to make a brief side trip to Cuba.
That is another story altogether. It is worth doing, as Havana is an intensely beguiling city, but the privations of the place and the wearying determination with which the Cubans seek to separate you from your money will make you get back on the plane to the nearest British colony with some relief. Cayman Airways will take you back.
Alexander McCall Smith’s new novel, 44 Scotland Street (Polygon £14.99), will be published on March 1. The sixth book in the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (Abacus), will be issued in paperback at the same time
Tour operators
Harlequin (01708 850330, www.harlequinholidays.com) has seven nights on Grand Cayman at the Hyatt Regency from £1,280pp, room-only, including direct flights from Heathrow with British Airways. Regional add-ons from Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and others are from £66pp extra. Or try Thomas Cook Signature (0870 443 4447, www.tcsignature.com), Hayes & Jarvis (0870 898 9890, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk), or Kuoni (01306 747002, www.kuoni.co.uk).