Actually, funny enough, I wrote this post six years ago and still some of my best friends in the world are from Cayman days — and still regularly featured on this blog. My friend Brian moved to Thailand where I live now, my friend Heather is my constant globe trotting travel and dive buddy, and I make near annual trips to Hawaii to visit my friend Wim. I guess I’m lucky — those three friendships are worth those three months a million times over.

While on Cayman you may think you’ve made friends for life – bunch of bored foreigners, friendships do form. Fun is had. But you’ve probably figured out by now that most will fade firmly into your past. Unless you think being distant facebook friends equals friends for life. Not bad, just reality, who has time to keep communicating with people you’ll never see again? Especially when the bonding was almost entirely about bottles of beer and liquor.

I personally met no one who was ‘living out there dreams’ … especially in the diving community (lots of drunks who spin tales, though). A lot of refugees of various flavors though, including many in banking and insurance who were socking it away in preparation for eventual escape from the dullness of small island life. And wow, does it get dull. You did 3 months. Imagine what a year, or two, or more, would feel like.

I like your analogy of it feeling like a suburb. Yes, indeed, a suburb with no city nearby.

I wish we had gotten a chance to see the sister islands but it was unfortunately out of our budget! I guess I have something to look forward to in the future