THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

The Cayman Islands is comprised of three islands - Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman - located 200 miles northwest of Jamaica.

The Islands' lure includes spectacular Seven Mile Beach, world-renowned diving and snorkelling, quality land-based attractions that showcase Cayman's heritage, duty-free shopping and traditional crafts and international cuisine.

Grand Cayman covers 197 sq. km., has a population of some 40,000 and is home to the capital of George Town, Seven Mile Beach and the businesses that make up the world's fifth largest financial centre.

The Cayman Islands proudly boast nearly 200 years of parliamentary rule. Our democratic tradition laid a solid constitutional foundation that has supported 40 years of rapid economic development.

The Islands' motto, He hath founded it upon the seas, from Psalm 24, literally refers to the islands' formation. However, it now connotes Cayman's evolution from a seafaring nation to a financial centre and Caribbean tourist destination.

Today, these two industries support a population that has doubled in the last 20 years. Caymanians comprise slightly more than half of the Island's residents. The balance is represented by citizens from more than 120 countries.

This multinational community helps create the unique blend of cosmopolitan style and Caribbean tradition that characterises the Cayman Islands.

EXPLORE THE ISLANDS

The Cayman Islands offers many land and sea activities, as well as attractions that are unique to Cayman, for visitors of all ages.

Grand Cayman - Our largest isle offers some land formations - craggy ironshore, shallow beaches, and scenic coasts - that are worth investigating. See what Caymanians call "cliff" (when it's inshore) or ironshore (when it's on the coast). These jagged outcroppings of fossilised coral have split open ship hulls as well as shoes. West Bay boasts Hell; there you can mail clearly postmarked messages from "Hell" to friends and family. East End's ironshore has blowholes, where the pressure from wave action spouts columns of water toward the sky, sprinkling the unwary. The Queen's Highway between East End and North Side is a pleasing drive through surprisingly dry country. Rum Point is a favourite family spot; its sandy shallows seem to stretch endlessly.

Sister Islands - Want a taste of "the Islands that time forgot?" Cayman Brac and Little Cayman preserve a gentler pace.

There are pleasures to enjoy on Cayman Brac that you can't find on Grand Cayman. You can hike on the Bluff and explore the caves. The Nature Project's trails, with their permanent signs - hand-painted ceramic ecology signs, aluminium heritage signs and bronze interpretative signs - attract world-wide attention from bird watchers. The sunken Russian destroyer, christened M/V Capt. Keith Tibbetts after a Brac stalwart, has caught the attention of divers.

Little Cayman has few telephones or motor vehicles and a bank that opens just one day weekly. Relaxation is, however, only one of the island's attractions. It boasts Cayman's best bonefish and tarpon fishing and now ranks No.1 with many divers. The island's north-west side has 19 named wall dives, with the wall starting at 15-20 feet. Little Cayman's Governor Gore Bird Sanctuary has the largest colony of red-footed boobies in the Western Hemisphere and the only colony of frigate birds in this hemisphere. Every Sunday morning, the local chairman of the National Trust leads a hike along Salt Rock Nature Trail to observe local wildlife.
Find more information on Cayman Brac & Little Cayman (The Sister Islands) at www.sisterislands.com