Dive Trip to the Cayman Islands!

Max and I spent a glorious week on Grand Cayman, one of the Cayman Islands! I lost count of the number of times people asked us if we were on our honeymoon : ) It was just so incredibly wonderful to spend seven days together, not to mention in such a beautiful place.

The Cayman Islands are part of the British West Indies and located in the Caribbean. They are made up of three islands, Grand Cayman being the largest measuring in at a whopping 22 miles long. The Cayman Islands have been a British Overseas Territory since 1670 (I especially loved seeing Queen Elizabeth on the Cayman Island dollar). No taxes are imposed, making the islands big in offshore banking. Legend says that the exemption from taxes was rewarded by King George the III in 1788 after Jamaican merchant ship crews were rescued by Caymanians. The Cayman Islands were originally called Las Tortugas after the sea turtles spotted in the area. It's been called by many a diver's mecca, so Max and I just couldn't wait to dive it together.

Max decided that this was the trip to combine his two favorite hobbies: diving and photography. He had been photographing underwater with a point-and-shoot for some time (and out of water with an SLR), but finally decided to go all out with a special dive housing for an SLR. When it arrived at our doorstep, we were baffled by how large the setup was, especially when the lights were added. This is Max giving it a go around in our pool before we headed out:

Just to give you some perspective, this is what a normal camera looks like underwater (that's me!):

And this is my husband with his professional setup:

Not only was it big, but it was really heavy. I don't know how Max carried it around!

Needless to say we had people coming up to us the whole trip with questions, which was lots of fun. My favorite was a woman we were chatting with by the pool who just stopped mid-sentence and asked "Wait, is that a camera in there???"

Max's setup did give us some amazing underwater photos. Underwater photography with an SLR is definitely tricky but Max was absolutely loving it. He's already planning on how to upgrade his equipment for our next trip ; )