live.travel.learn

Reflections from our time in Cayman

Some time away always helps to solidify feelings about the experiences we have had and the places we have traveled and lived. We thought now would be a good time to reflect and share what life was like in the Cayman Islands.

We first moved to Grand Cayman in the Summer of 2011 after completing university in New York. We lived for 6 years for two separate periods of 3 years. In between, we lived in Latvia for two years, which we will write about in another post!

As anyone can imagine living on a tropical island, we spent a lot of time in the sun and at the beach! There are so many great beaches on the island – the most well-known is Seven Mile Beach, but others are worth exploring. One of our favorites was Barkers beach in West Bay. There’s a long dirt road that leads to the beach that makes it feel remote and what it might have been like on all parts of the island before all of the development – it is absolutely beautiful. If you’re lucky you can see colorful kites from kiteboarders on a windy day, and people riding on horseback through the aqua blue water. We lived in South Sound for a year near the surfer/community beach. It was nice to have beach picnics, set up a hammock, or go for sunset without the crowd of SMB.

Cayman life is like that of a small town where everything is close, you bump into your friends, coworkers and students everywhere you go. I miss riding my bike to/from school door to door in 5 minutes!

Though Grand Cayman is a small place, barely seen on most maps, there are so many great places to see and activities to do! Cayman has world class scubadiving because of the abundant sea life, visibility, and warm sea temperature. If your adventurous you can go on a shipwreck dive or a lionfish cull to hunt these invasive fish! Some of my best days on the island ended with friends going out for a night dive from Macabuca at sunset, turning off our dive lights under water on the sandy ocean bottom to see the bioluminescent phytoplankton light up the darkness. Then of course surfacing after a dive to play dominoes and a bucket of Ironshore with friends. What can be better than that?!

Many of our weekends were spent at public beach playing volleyball, an amazing way to work out and spend time with friends. @HeatwaveVolleyballClub organizes some great tournaments and youth development events if you’re looking to get involved! Beyond these activities, which are some of our favorites, you can also get out on a boat party @doubletroublecharters, swimming with stingrays at Stingray City, seeing the stunning blue iguana at the Botanic Park, surfing, paddle boarding, rock climbing with @rockiguana in Cayman Brac, and of course, the classic Cayman brunch #sundayfunday.

Cayman will always be a special place for us. We first lived together here, got our first full time teaching jobs, and were married in the perfect setting on Seven Mile Beach with our close friends and family in attendance. We have so many unforgettable memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

Have you ever lived in or visited Cayman? What do you love about the island? Please share in a comment below!

Our new home in Lima, Peru

We arrived to Lima in late June 2019 to settle in before starting new teaching positions. Lima is located on the Pacific coast of South America and is a huge city home to over 9 million people. We were drawn to Peru for its rich culture and history, world renowned food scene, and great surf! It has been an exciting 6 months!

Lima Coastline

Lima has a beautiful coastline along the Pacific Ocean, much of which consists of well-manicured parks along the malecon, dramatic cliffs, shops and restaurants, and the Larcomar shopping mall. On any given day you can see people exercising, having picnics, parachuting, walking dogs, surfing and bodyboarding.

World Class Waves

One of my favorite things about Lima is being able to walk out of our apartment in Miraflores, down the steps along the cliff from the park and be in the water in 5 minutes! The waves are consistent all year round – colder, but bigger in the winter months. In 6 months, the waves have been surfable every single day. A fair trade-off from the crystal clear, warm of the Cayman Islands!

Photo#1 – I picked up this 9’6 longboard from Peruvian shaper, @wayowhilarsurfboards

Photo#2 – the view from our living room window of the waves rolling in and surfers in the water – dawn patrol!

Photo#3 – this one was actually taken in Chicama, a spot in northern Peru that deserves a post in itself as it’s known as the longest left hand wave in the world (over 4km long)!

Incredible Food

Peru is know as one of the greatest culinary spots in the world, and for good reason! There are so many incredible dishes, such as chicharron, causa, and tacu tacu, but our favorite so far has been ceviche.

Huacachina Sand Dunes

After 3 months living in the beautiful, but very grey skies of Lima, we decided an escape to find some sun was in order! Just a short four hour bus ride away is the town of Ica, where you can venture into the sand dunes and the desert oasis of Huacachina. We booked the bus through cruzdelsur which offered super comfortable seats, personal televisions and snacks!

Here, the main attraction is renting buggies and sandboarding down the dunes (kind of like snowboarding but in the sand)! If you aren’t ready to stand on a snowboard, you can ride down on your belly, which is just as fun! For a real treat, wake up early and climb the dunes at sunrise to take in the incredible views.

Santa Cruz Trek in Huaraz, Peru

After moving to Peru and having some time off before the school year started, Alyssa and I wanted to see what this beautiful country offered outside of Lima. Thanks to our friend Katie who recommended going to Huaraz, a launch point for many day hikes or multi-day treks into the beautiful Andes mountains of Peru.

We boarded an 8-hour overnight bus from Lima to Huaraz and were happy to arrive to sunshine – Lima is very grey in the winter months and having just moved from the Caribbean, it was a slight adjustment. We booked a room at the Lazy Dog Inn, a great place where we were able to meet other hikers and have group meals together, keep warm by the fireplace, and adjust to the altitude.

The trek was for 4 days, reaching 4750m in altitude at the mountain pass. We were spoiled on this trip by having a guide, cook, and donkey driver to transport the supplies arranged through eco-ice peru. We woke up each morning to hot water, coca tea, and breakfast before the days hike. The coca tea helps (slightly) to relieve the symptoms of altitude sickness.