Little-Cayman Travel Guide
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The smallest of the Cayman Islands, cigar-shaped Little Cayman has only about 170 permanent inhabitants. About 16km (10 miles) long and 2km (1 1/4 miles) across at its widest point, it lies about 121km (75 miles) northeast of Grand Cayman and some 8km (5 miles) from Cayman Brac. The entire island is coral and sand.
The islands of the Caymans are mountaintops of the long-submerged Sierra Maestra Range, which runs north and into Cuba. Coral formed layers over the underwater peaks, eventually creating the islands. Beneath Little Cayman's Bloody Bay is one of the mountain's walls-a stunning sight for snorkelers and divers.
This is a near-perfect place for diving and fishing. The late Jacques Cousteau hailed the waters around the little island as one of the three finest diving spots in the world. The flats on Little Cayman are said to offer the best bonefishing in the world, and a brackish inland pool can be fished for tarpon. Even if you don't dive or fish, you can row 182m (597 ft.) off Little Cayman to isolated and uninhabited Owen Island, where you can swim at the sandy beach and picnic by a blue lagoon.
There may still be pirate treasure buried on the island, but it's in the dense interior of what is now the largest bird sanctuary in the Caribbean. In addition to having the largest population of rock iguanas in the entire Caribbean, which you will easily see, Little Cayman is also home to one of the oldest species of reptiles in the New World-the tree-climbing Anulis maynardi (which is known by no other name). This rare lizard is difficult to spot, however, because the females are green, the males brown, and, as such, they blend into local vegetation.
Blossom Village, the island's "capital," is on the southwest coast.
Most visitors fly from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman via Island Air (tel. 345/949-5252 on Grand Cayman; www.islandaircayman.com), a charter company that charges US$170 per person round-trip. Flights leave Grand Cayman four times daily, at 7:45am, 9:45am, 2:35pm, and 4:35pm. The return flights are scheduled daily at 8:55am, 10:30am, 3:20pm, and 5:45pm.
