Week 17: The Cayman Islands

Welcome to the Cayman Islands!

I don't know about where you live, but here in the SF Bay Area, Fall has arrived.  I know I shouldn't complain that the weather is only topping out at 60° since many of my family live in Wisconsin where I heard (through Facebook) that it's snowing!!  So for them and me, I chose our next destination for it's warmth and beachy vibe, and because this week they celebrate Pirate Week and that just seemed to cool to pass up!!  So get your parrot and your eye patch ready, we'll need them later.  First, your history lesson.

It was a blustery day out on the Caribbean Sea and Christopher Columbus was on his 4th and final trip to the New World when he was blown off course.  He headed towards "two very small and low islands, full of tortoises (turtles), as was all the sea all about, insomuch that they look like little rocks." He claimed them for Spain and named them "Las Tortugas" (tortuga is Spanish for turtle).  It was May 10, 1503.  The names were changed though in 1523, when they were added to the maps under the name "Lagartos" (Spanish for lizard or alligator), presumably for the marine crocodiles (caimans) that were living there.  In 1530, the name was changed again to "Caimanas" the Carib Indian word for the animals and that eventually was Anglocized to "Cayman Islands" which has seemed to stick.  In 1670, the islands became under British rule (along with Jamaica) when the Treaty of Madrid was signed. 
 No one really lived on the Caymans, though, until the 17th century, but it was a popular stop for ships to fill up on turtle and caiman meat for their ships.  Most of the early settlers were there to provide this service to the ships.  But many of the other settlers were pirates, shipwrecked sailors who stayed, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, and slaves from Africa brought by the settlers.  When slavery was abolished in 1834, the population of Africans was higher than any other and it remains true to this day.  At least, since they were forced into slavery, they got a beautiful island country to call home once they were freed.  This mix of people is what the people of the Cayman Islands call "Caymankind".  I think I could live there - how about you??