Yesterday Ian and I purchased our very first car! It is a teeny tiny Suzuki Alto (1 litre engine), but it works great for us here! We still have to get insurance and have it inspected by a mechanic, but that will be this weeks trouble. We also finally got Ian's shipment of work stuff, so now he finally has some reference material to work from. The rain continued throughout the day yesterday, so now pirates week has officially been post-poned until next week. After unpacking the boxes at Ian's work we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner out (Wendy's)...and then headed off to Neil's 40th birthday party (a party full of kitesurfers/windsurfers & sailors...definitely Ian's crowd). This morning we went for a good run (not too long since my legs were a little stiff), and then walked back on the beach stopping for a little swim...now THIS is what we came for! Ian is working now and I am off to do laundry. We are very excited to get the keys to our condo tomorrow!

We made it to the race, and I managed to complete the 5K in 31 minutes. I know it is not a great time, but I have to start somewhere. Ian was kind enough to keep me company, so I had a good race overall (even though it was in the rain). It is raining again today, but nothing like last night! The rain from tropical storm Beta flooded the roads last night...we stopped at a Costco type store last night to pick up some dishes etc. and by the time we were heading home the roads had turned into rivers! Even the drains were backing up, so when we were driving through our hotel parking lot the water was upto the doors of the car! Ian is working again today, so I think that I will check out the swimmers doing the 5 & 10K open water swims.

Ian before the race (rough week at work)...

Well it is finally Friday! Ian and I are settling in to our jobs...but have been very busy (this seems to follow us where ever we go!). We are definitely glad that the weekend is here so that we have some time to catch up with errands/work/each other. Today we are going to try to take off a little early to attempt the Pirates Week 5K run in Georgetown, and then enjoy the fireworks and street party. Pirates week (http://www.piratesweekfestival.com/photos.htm) is apparently a big thing here...3 ships of Pirates are going to sail in tomorrow and take over the island for a week. Then next weekend there is a whole court proceeding against the Pirates and more fireworks/parties. I don't know how much we are going to be able to attend, but it should be fun. Tomorrow we are going to try and hit the 'leaving island' garage sales, and ofcourse attempt to get our electricity turned on.

A place to live!

Yesterday was a mess! We spent the afternoon driving around (or really sitting in traffic) trying to open a bank account, transfer money and get our driver's licences. Today, we finally got our licences and will hopefully be signing our lease this afternoon! It has definitely been stressful as we have had to jump through hoops trying to get some money down here, and knowing that the longer it takes the chances that we will lose the condo increase. So now we just got the money, and the realtor says the place is still available...so here goes!
3:00pm - We have signed the lease!!! Now we just need power, cable, car...new hassles begin!

The livingroom.

The kitchen opens into the diningroom/livingroom

The smaller bedroom...but a view of the canal!

The larger bedroom.

Each of the bedrooms has a small bathroom.

First Weekend

The weather has been great this weekend! Yesterday we were out house hunting, and actually found a place on the canal that we like and *bonus* we can afford. Now we just have to get lots of money together for the deposit before we will be guaranteed the place...which seems to be quite difficult down here. We have discovered that you can't get anything done on the weekends (everything to do with errands is closed at 4:00 on Friday until 9:00 on Monday), so there is nothing to do but relax. We went into Georgetown yesterday morning to check out Wilma's waves; while they were still impressive, they had gone down quite a bit from Friday night! Ian discovered some kiters down in South Sound, and joined the fun. We took a break and went grocery shopping and back to the hotel for lunch before Ian met up with the kiters again on Seven Mile so that they could all jump the waves (crazy guys!). We spent the evening around the pool enjoying some Red Stripe, and I cooked a great Saturday night dinner (grouper, cous cous and bean salad). Today we have some work to do : ( just so that we can start this week off with a little less stress. The internet connection on the island has been a little mixed up for the last couple of days, maybe due to Wilma, but I will post pictures once the connection is fixed.

Ian rides Wilma's waves at Seven Mile Beach.

Hotel pool and Sunshine Bar & Grill.

Ian kiting in South Sound.

We went to Georgetown to check out Wilma's waves.

Back to work

So we only got one hurricane day and then back to work. It was a typical work day, except that I kept getting distracted by the huge waves crashing up on the beach during my morning meeting. The waves were so big yesterday that a couple of roads on the island were closed today due to debris that had washed up...Ian even said that one of the guys at his office had seen lobsters walking across the road! We went for a walk along the beach tonight and they had calmed down somewhat, but the Westin still had their sandbags out to protect the pool and rooms facing the beach. We are glad that tomorrow is Friday; there is so much left to do to get settled in here.

The waves from Hurricane Wilma were incredible!

All Clear

It is now 5:15 our time and the storm has passed us. We still have wind and rain but we are out of any danger.

Hurricane update

Just a quick note to let you know that we are still totally fine. Although Wilma is now a category 5 hurricane, she has a very small radius of hurricane force winds. Infact we haven't even felt the full brunt of tropical storm force winds yet...but we do seem to get the occasional strong gust! Right now it looks like Wilma is still only going to side swipe us, and we are not going to get dangerous winds...but Ian thinks it is going to be windy for a couple of days (but not kitable). If you want to track the hurricane the best site is http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200524.html Grand Cayman is the tiny little dot below Cuba and to the left of Jamaica

Ian enjoys a shower from our hotel balcony.

The construction area behind the Ritz-Carleton gets a little wind & rain.

The palms at our hotel are getting blown around...luckily they are designed for this type of weather.

Hurricane Wilma

So we are now on official hurricane warning. Both of our offices are going to be closed tomorrow, but there are no evacuation plans (they just want to keep people off the streets because of the high wind). It looks like we are going to get winds of 50 mpr and 4-6 inches of rain. We will let you know tomorrow how it went. If you are overcome with worry you can give us a call, but we have been assured that everything is completely safe.

First day of work

We woke up at 6 this morning so that we could go for a run before it got too hot. It had obviously rained quite a bit last night because there are large puddles everywhere! I guess that it is just a side swipe by Tropical Storm Wilma. It is a beautiful 31 degrees today and the sun is shining. We had scattered rain shower this morning, but they never lasted too long (though I wonder how Ian is doing! He is completing a site review today at the Caribbean Club). I was very nervous coming in to work this morning, but everyone has been very friendly. My office is huge, and I have my very own palm tree. I have one full wall of windows that overlook the bay and lots of palm trees. I think that we will take a walk to the grocery store tonight, and maybe even have time for another swim.

Off to my first day of work with EY Cayman.

We have arrived!

We arrived today without any hassles! Our Air Canada check-in lady was actually extremely nice to us and undercharged us for all 600 lbs of our luggage! It also went smoothly through immigration and customs here in Grand Cayman and we got everything to our hotel (http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/GCMSS/main.wnt) for 2:30pm. We went for a quick swim in the sea after returning the van, and went out for dinner at the grill in our hotel ($$$).

Ian starts working already!

Wyndham Sunshine Suites, Grand Cayman