A scuba diver closes in on a vivid yellow sponge growing on a coral reef around Little Cayman Island. Photograph © Carl Purcell

Island Caribbean Classic
By Jayne Wise

Like it simple? Then get yourself to delightfully basic Little Cayman Island.

Why are we stopped?" I wonder aloud to the pilot, right in front of me. The prop plane is at a standstill at the edge of a road, waiting to finish its taxi to Little Cayman Island's understated "air terminal." I just make out an iguana from my window, soaking up rays on the asphalt. A few yards away, a road sign: "Iguanas have the right of way; drive slowly."

There are few places left on Earth where international travel comes to a full stop for a sunning reptile; the squiggle of an island known as Little Cayman (accent on the last syllable), and its 60 or so residents, are determined to stay one of them. Smallest of the three Cayman Islands, Little Cayman lies a half-hour plane hop—and light years of development—away from Grand Cayman, notorious for its good-time resorts and its status as the world's fifth-largest banking center. Like its sister islands, Little Cayman's deservedly famous top attraction is the fringe of unspoiled reefs along the Cayman Trench, the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea—which, combined with truly pellucid waters, add up to some of the most spectacular diving in the world. Barely ten square miles, Little Cayman is, like the iguana, a relic of an earlier Caribbean, when flocks of frigatebirds and boobies roosted in swamps dense with mangroves, when conchs crowded the seafloor like coins crowd the Trevi Fountain. When air terminals did double or triple duty as post offices and tourism centers.

To wit: I'm getting directions in the air terminal—a bungalow, to put a generous spin on it—to Little Cayman Beach Resort, where I've reserved a room, when the nice man at the desk (air traffic controller? mail person? both?) patiently notes, "It's just down the road; you can easily walk there from here.

To wit: After renting a four-wheel-drive, I circle the island's mostly unpaved ring road, the whole circuit taking maybe an hour. Brackish ponds inland—inland is barely a mile wide—including Tarpon Lake, which glints with the large, silver-plated fish. Along the shore, mile after mile of reefs, pooling water the shocking color of verdigris. Almost no trace of human presence the whole way round; shell-paved road, low-lying vegetation, vast sky, and that breath-catching water. Essence of Island.

To wit: Birds in the thousands, at Booby Pond Nature Preserve, a stretch of water a pebble's toss from the grass runway. I come upon Gladys Howard in the pastel-colored Nature Center. Texas expat ("I moved to Little Cayman in 1986, before electricity did"), owner of homey Pirates Point Resort, and head of the National Trust committee, she's busy sweeping the porch. "We have 3,500 nesting pairs of boobies at this pond, about 30 percent of the entire Caribbean population," she proudly announces. "You've got to see them at sunset, when they're most active." I do, later, and witness a maelstrom of birdage—red-footed boobies, frigatebirds, cormorants, whistling ducks—erupting from the mangrove branches. Summed up? Primeval.

To wit: I sign up to go conching with Chip McCoy, who with his father, Sam, runs McCoy's Dive Lodge. Chip grew up along these waters, diving the famous Bloody Bay Wall and angling for bonefish. We boat into some shallows, where conchs still crowd the seafloor thanks to strict marine conservation laws. Slipping into the warm water, we snorkel for the mature conchs, gathering five in fewer than ten minutes. Before I can exclaim "I don't think so," Chip has extracted and cut up one of the mollusks, plunked the pieces into a marinade, and urged me to taste. "My mother's marinade; it tenderizes the chewy meat." Sitting on the boat, feet in the water, waves lapping the reef, chewing seconds-from-the-water seafood with the sun a gold sand dollar above, it takes me maybe 50 seconds to promise myself I'll be moving here, soon, for the rest of my life.

For more information on Little Cayman Beach Resort visit www.braclittle.com.

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details before making travel plans.