Current Rock of Residence:
Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands
Island Girl Since:
2010
Originally Hails From:
Miami, Florida
Approaching three years on the Sister Islands of the Cayman Islands (nearly two on Little Cayman and one on Cayman Brac), Roxane is rapidly approaching the point of no return to reality. While thankful to not be on Grand Cayman, where cruise ships spill out tidal waves of tourists and KFC’s get held up by machete-wielding locals demanding buckets of chicken, she has found that the Sister Islands function on a completely different level of quirky. Although she has a Master’s degree in marine biology (despite Murphy’s Law of power outages), she spends her working time doing SCUBA instruction or divemastering, chasing people and fish with her cameras, killing and cooking lionfish, and filling in as “dive shop girl”. When not working, she is likely still diving and chasing fish with cameras or spears, but, for good measure, has a few other hobbies such as: coming up with sarcastic answers to dumb tourist questions, creatively cursing her persistently failing internet service, denying that her red hair is getting blonder, desperately coveting her dwindling stash of chocolate croissants, and gathering inspiration from her longtime boyfriend, who is fond of delightfully hare-brained concepts like strapping SCUBA tanks to a tricycle to propel himself underwater (it failed, but bandaids were on hand, just in case).
Explore posts by this writer:
Experiencing Culture Shock When Traveling Off Your Island
There is a certain excitement one gets when going on a road trip that you don't get when flying. Yes, you dread sitting in the car all day, but you can listen to music all day and eat snacks that you don’t normally eat and your journey often has several destinations....
Sunkissed Christmas
This year I’ll be celebrating my 11th Christmas on this beautiful island and my main goal for this holiday season is to make the perfect sand-snowman. I can assure you that this is a task far more difficult than Pinterest or Instagram would have you believe. Last...
Christmas on Saba
It’s quiet out. And dark. The colourful street lights are up in each of the four villages of Saba, Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas is playing, the tree is up, half hiding the presents underneath and the house smells of home-made cooking. It’s Christmas time...
My Love Letter to The Sea – How we are harming it and how we can protect it
I like the sea. That might be an under-statement: I really really love the sea. I love to see the different shades of blue, azure, turquoise and green. I love to take a stroll along the shoreline, barefoot, feeling the waves lapping over my toes, with various grades...
In Praise of Real Food
Island food culture is a wonderful riot, to be savoured and enjoyed. When we first came on island I was surprised by the food fusion between American, British and Caribbean fare. You would easily find an overblown pot of peanut butter alongside a similar-sized jar of...
How To Be An Annoying Tourist
The cruise ship horns are blasting. The streets are bustling with wide-eyed people donned in Hawaiian print. The smell of aerosol sunscreen spray fills the hot tropical air and stings your eyes. This can only mean one thing...peak tourist season is upon us. The...
