uk_grenada

Most convenient for the lesser antilles [eastern caribbean] is trinidad, or actually almost as good any of the polular tourist islands who have services from liat [late in all the time] carribean air, and the european/american carriers. Trinidad also has panama and south american carriers.

Gordon Barlow

Yes, I believe the eastern Caribbean is very well connected. Is there a direct flight from J'ca to T'dad, these days?

uk_grenada

Yes caribbean airways flys direct, possibly also indirect via aa.

uk_grenada

Cuba opening up is affecting things, panama's airline is operating now from various places [trinidad frequently] to cuba, and onto miami.

uk_grenada

Correction, the panama flights are all via panama city, including the trini flights, but panama is a very cheap place to shop...

Orangepants

I met many people who came to Cayman with the idea to save and leave with lots of dosh. Most left with not a cent.! It's good to have a goal otherwise it can be too easy to spend money on eating out, drinks and popping to Miami for the weekend etc.

When I started earning a good salary, I was out most nights, buying lots of shoes etc then I decided one day that was enough and I then saved 50% rather than 20% of my salary and didn't touch the bonus for about 5yrs. I left Cayman with a healthy bank balance to set me up elsewhere. It is possible but so tempting to fritter it away.

My light bulb moment coincided with Ivan 2004 - I had just closed on a property on Sept 1 and Ivan took it away!
Have fun!

Gordon Barlow

The world is full of optimists, Orange. They think their days of huge salaries will last forever! It's the eating and drinking in bars and restaurants that use up all the money. When my wife and I lived in our first tax-haven (Nassau, many years ago), we used to visit a different island every long weekend. Friends marvelled that we could afford such extravagance, and we had to explain it was because we didn't hit the circuit after work every day. We entertained at home, regularly, and had just as much fun - and saved a bundle.

As for Ivan... I wonder if the place you bought was in Manse Road, Bodden Town. I hope not, because we just missed out on buying a flat there immediately before the hurricane. Lucky us! (Although it would have been insured.)

Orangepants

Gordon, I agree that is where the money goes.

I bought a lovely 3 bed/3 bath place at Sea Caribe, on Shamrock Road, nr Spotts Beach - it was totally destroyed, even though it was brick.
The guy I worked for lived on Manse Road and his beautiful house, somehow managed to keep its' roof, was completely washed through, and then ransacked as we left for Toronto 5 days after. He totally gutted and redid the house. I house sat there for the last 6 months I was in Cayman in 2010 and had my wedding there. I love that area.

Gordon Barlow

I'm not sure I was ever in Sea Caribe; maybe once, long ago. The place next to you - Mariners Cove, with fifty or so units - (and I mention this for readers who might be interested in what hurricanes can do) was washed right across the road - wiped off the face of the earth. A year or so later someone found an owner's piece of jewellery half a mile away out in the bush.
Here are some photos of the damage. https://tinyurl.com/h6xk8vy Could have been a lot worse!

We had also looked at buying one of the cottages in Prospect Reef, but they were always just a bit too expensive for us. After the hurricane, my wife and I inspected went there for a sticky-beak, and found in a friend's cottage that every bit of furniture had been jammed into a single room! We couldn't get to the fridge to remove all the rotten food - which we had to do at the home of another friend's up off West Bay Road. Oh, the stench!

EGG_101

Thanks you for the insight & sorry to hear of Ivan's effects.

I am fully going there with the intention of building up some financial reserves, whilst taking a couple of holidays in the year (just like I do here in UK currently) and to extending my 18 month placement if I do not save enough.

I can imagine that these social-leisurely pursuits are what eat into most of your disposable income. But it would be interesting to hear what your actual salary was at the time you were able to save the 50%, because otherwise, it deems it impossible for me to work out a typical monthly amount I can save if I go there with that intention. I know your Cayman experience was a few years ago, but I will assume the inflation.

On the topic of hurricanes, thats got me a little worried . Ivan looked like it left total destruction; what are the emergence responses like there? I can see that from the Wikipedia reports that power was out for months after ivan; what do people do in that case, Generators? From a preventative POV, are people warned sufficiently enough when something like this will happen?

Gordon Barlow

We live a few miles from where Orangepants lived, so our experience during Ivan was different. Our sea-surge came from the south, and by the time it reached us the result was a foot of salt water in the house, but it arrived with no force. My wife organised a gang of Jamaican women to mop the place out, after the surge had disappeared. (I was off the Island during the actual storm - for which I have never been forgiven!)

We were without water for a few weeks, but we saved rainwater and used it sparingly. Pure water for drinking and washing, not-so-pure for washing clothes, and washed-clothes water for the septic. We were incredibly lucky that our septic worked without backing-up, even though the underground concrete tank had been under water for a week; we weren't on the town sewerage system, which did back up. Orange, I think you had septics as well, right?

The electricity was off for quite a while, but we got by with candles and tilly lamps, and cooked on those little sterno thingies. The people in our street all mucked in together - London Blitz style, I guess.

One of the supermarkets survived unscathed, and those (few!) of us with working cars didn't want for food, although some was rationed. One bakery also survived, and made a small fortune. All ATMs were out, so there were long lines to get cash. (My wife once paid for a car-part with a loaf of bread. I'll bet that transaction never reached the books!)

As for warning of the storm - yes, there was warning, although over the years there had been so many false alarms that nobody was properly prepared for a Category Five. The last Big One had been in 1932. Cayman usually misses out on Caribbean hurricanes. During our time here (from 1978) I can only remember one in the 1980s, but there was virtually no damage. I really wouldn't let myself be put off coming here because of the slim chance. We survived comfortably enough - no windows broken, and the roof held. The worst time was at night, with no fans and with mould in some of the walls. I slept in the only breezeway I could find, on the floor in the lounge with all the doors and screens open; I had a problem with the mould, but my wife didn't.

Orangepants

I think it is futile to try and work out to the actual $ how much you'll save in a life that you cant yet comprehend. The first few months will be expensive, re-assess after 3/4 mths. You'll need to buy a car, pay a deposit on the apt etc. You will find the groceries expensive but after a while you'll learn where to go - fresh fish from the harbour front, specials on beer etc. Are you bringing linens and towels etc?. Teabags? Blender for your protein shakes? - all these things add up.

Everything becomes relative after a while. The longer you'll stay, the more of a return you'll see in your savings. For example I don't eat meat, not a big eater, dont eat junk food and can eat the same thing for dinner three nights in a row. Also my company filled the fridge at work with healthy food so I'd eat breakfast and lunch at work and we also had a gym. Lots of expenses taken care of there. You'll be mixing with people who make a lot of money and you'll need to socialize to make friends and the social scene is so welcoming.

Re hurricane, your company will fly you out to wherever your disaster recovery site is. I worked for a hedge fund and the IM sent his private plane down to us, we were one of the first groups out. Clients are sympathetic to a point but life goes on and you have to keep working.

My car survived and 4 of my friends who didn't leave, shared it for the 3 months I stayed in Canada. I used to fly down every other Friday to Monday to bring much needed supplies to my friends and help out where I could and bring work stuff back to CA. The first few trips I just slept in my office. Moved back down in Dec and stayed at the Westin for 2 weeks til I managed to get an apt nr Triple C. I have some great memories from that time. Everyone pulled together. Huge respect to those who lived through it.