What Lies Beneath

Shimmering sea life, bat-ridden caves, poisonous trees and ancient reptiles — beyond the beach bars in the Cayman Islands there’s a wilder experience waiting

 

- Zoe McIntyre

Its distinctive shape comes into focus as it coasts languidly through tendrils of coral that whisker the seabed. Up at the surface, I wait patiently for the moment my new companion comes up for air. Suddenly it happens: two paddle-like flippers pull powerfully towards me. The world slows, I forget to breathe, and for a few stupefying seconds the hawksbill turtle and I are eye-to-eye. I take in its tapered head, bird-like beak and the intricate markings on its glossy carapace. The turtle eyes me with detached suspicion, pops its head up for a few gulps of air and disappears back down to the safety of the deep.

I’m not the first to be awestruck by the turtle-rich waters of the Cayman Islands. When Christopher Columbus sailed past in 1503, he named the uninhabited archipelago Las Tortugas due to the sheer abundance of turtles in the surrounding waters. It was those same creatures that drew in passing sailors and buccaneers, who came here in search of fresh meat for their ravenous crews. Yet it was another animal that Francis Drake reported sightings of in 1586; ‘great serpents called Caymanas, large like lizards.’ Alas, this once-thriving crocodile was hunted to extinction, but not before bequeathing its name to the islands as its legacy.

Under British rule since the 17th century, Cayman (never the Caymans) is now known more as a tax haven than marine hotspot — a place for stashing ill-gotten gains or, as John Grisham described it in his bestseller, The Firm, ‘sex, sun, rum, a little shopping’. Yet I’d heard of a wilder side — one of secret caves, endangered species and underwater marvels, and it was this aspect I hoped to uncover during a week-long island hop between the largest and liveliest island, Grand Cayman, and her petite sisters, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.