On the 10th May 1503, the Cayman Islands were sighted by Christopher Columbus, who was on his fourth voyage of discovery in the new world. The islands he described were actually Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Numerous sea turtles surrounded these low-lying islands, so much so that they looked like thousands of tiny rocks in the sea. Because of this amazing scene Columbus was inspired to name the islands “Las Tortugas” meaning “the Turtles” in Spanish. However, during the course of the next hundred years the island became more popularly known as “Caymanas”, which is derived from a Carib word for crocodiles. The name springs from the crocodiles that could be found there at the time and were sometimes hunted for by the ships that stopped there.

The resident population of the Cayman Islands is relatively small. Between 1970 and 1998 the islands’ population grew from 10,200 to about 35,000. Half of the resident population today are foreigners employed in the thriving tourist and financial industries. The pace of development of Grand Cayman over the past 30 years has been radical. Native bush has been cut down to make way for thousands of modern concrete houses and apartments, hote