Life in Grand Cayman

Better wait until the Virus restrictions are over before looking to work here! Everything's on hold at the moment.

Just an update from Cayman on The Virus... We are all going mask-free and social-distancing-free these days, having been "clean" (no positives" for several weeks now. Socially, we are back to shaking hands and kissing on cheeks, and (some) eating in restaurants. 300 or so returning residents are being quarantined in hotels at any one time.

There is an "air bridge" to Heathrow, and a few planeloads of unemployed expats have been sent back home to Philippines and India via Britain, and of course to Britain itself. Information is hard to come by, but the reckoning is that our resident population has dropped from 67,000 to 63,000 since our borders shut at the end of March.

It's hard to say where we're going from here. It's said that owners of condos here will be allowed back from 1st October but must be tested before their flights and on arrival, and must wear one of those chest-thingies for eight days before they can mix with the general public.

Some residents are being allowed to work from home, others not. We retirees are living normal lives, and our families overseas aren't worrying about us!

I have applied to traveltime to visit Cayman as a property owner.  Wonder if you can obtain household repair services during the 14-day quarantine period, for example, broken air conditioning, appliances, etc. Also, while under quarantine do I have to stay completely within my property boundaries? Can I place and retrieve my trash containers from streetside? If my land is bounded on one side by the sea, how close to the shore am I allowed to go? Thanks for any wisdom.

Thirstyman wrote:

I have applied to traveltime to visit Cayman as a property owner.  Wonder if you can obtain household repair services during the 14-day quarantine period, for example, broken air conditioning, appliances, etc. Also, while under quarantine do I have to stay completely within my property boundaries? Can I place and retrieve my trash containers from streetside? If my land is bounded on one side by the sea, how close to the shore am I allowed to go? Thanks for any wisdom.

I don't know the answers to your questions. But I think the quarantine and self-isolation rules are very strict about keeping within your boundaries - strict enough to get you thrown off the island if you break them - or into government's own quarantine (i.e. not in your own place but in a locked hotel room). You won't be allowed to have anybody come into your house, so you can forget about getting anything fixed until you're out of quarantine. If anybody were to come, they would be quarantined too, in their homes! As would any friend or neighbour foolhardy enough to visit you. You'd have to ask about proximity to the sea. My guess is that your title ends at the high-water mark. Your rubbish bins - you'd have to ask the authorities about that.

Here's the latest news about breaking isolation rules...
https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/10/c … -to-10000/

Two Canadian dentists (property owners here) broke their self-isolation last week, and were taken to court, fined $1000 each, deported, and banned from the island for as long as the coronavirus emergency lasts.

Just an update, for those interested. We are still virus-free - which means also mask-free and social-distancing-free; but there are about 800 people in quarantine for two weeks after arriving back here. Residents, citizens and property-owners are the only people allowed in. We still have no tourists; and there are still migrants trapped here without jobs or the money to get back to their home countries.

I'm hoping my son will be able to come back for a month or so this summer. He and I will quarantine in my house; I will have to remember to get enough food in!

Gordon Barlow wrote:

I'm hoping my son will be able to come back for a month or so this summer. He and I will quarantine in my house; I will have to remember to get enough food in!

Just for the record... My son did come here for a month, and he & I did quarantine in my house and yard for the first two weeks. We had official cell-phones, which rang at random intervals to make sure we were still on the premises, and we wore plastic wrist-bracelets at all times. On the 15th day we got ourselves tested (negative) and handed in our equipment.

Thank you for the updates. I saw adverts for jobs today and I was just wondering if things have opened up now.

Ikiaokat wrote:

Thank you for the updates. I saw adverts for jobs today and I was just wondering if things have opened up now.

Well, much depends on where you read the adverts and who is hiring in your field. Cayman's tourism industry has been destroyed, and will take some time to re-emerge. The offshore-finance business was scarcely affected. The population has lost fewer people than it was expected to do. But Kenya is a long way away, and very few people in Cayman would know what standards exist there. If you have worked outside Kenya you would have a better chance than if this were your first overseas posting.