I've been diving for 45 years but somehow never in the Caymans. When a spring trip we wanted to go on looked like it would never happen, my buddy suggested PADI's Total Submersion at Sunset House on Grand Cayman; she had been there twice before and liked it.

From the NE there are direct flights, Sunset House had people waiting for us, and we were then whisked to the resort and checked in. The room was one of the older rooms but it didn't look it. The whole place is clean and well maintained. There is Wi-Fi available but I would recommend renting a fridge for the room. You drink more when it's chilled and I've already had one dive vacation ruined by dehydration!

The first dive was not pretty; the reef was battered and almost lifeless. When we surfaced she said what I was thinking; Have we become that jaded? In retrospect I think they chose this site to check our buoyancy skills figuring we couldn't hurt it. Things improved greatly after that, huge Tarpon at Cheeseburger reef. The blue fish around Blackies Hole which has a bommie type structure gave me flashbacks to Fiji and there is also a dark tight tunnel. Sand Chutes reminded me of Cozumel's Palancar with its walls and swim thrus but without the current. Trinity Caves was a nice site and had good marine life. The wreck of the Doc Polson had good macro stuff, garden eels and stingrays on the sand and a nice reef just a short swim away. The house reef was always a treat, from the Grouper under the wreck to the pair of French angels posing around the mermaid to the resident octopus living in the chain ball to the school of squid having sex on the beach (dive) and lots of stuff to be found in between. Only complaint was the AL73 tanks and the 40 minute limit on many dives. Cayman's 100 foot limit wasnt usually an issue but its a good thing they weren't checking our computers :)

Meals at Sunset's My Bar and Sea Harvest were always good but a few times we ate in town while shopping, it's a short walk on the wrong side of the road or a $2.50 cab ride. Hammerheads has great fish sandwiches or 1/3 pound burgers but who goes to the carib to eat beef! And its a good place to watch the sunset over the Atlantis subs and pirate ships. The next bar down is Rackman's, be there at 19:30 when they feed the tarpon from Cheeseburger reef. Meals at Senor Frogs are a little pricier but come with entertainment but usually it's you entertaining the pod people.