‘I remember when this was a dusty old coastal road with stunning views across the length of Seven Mile Beach’ recalls my charming cab driver as we cruise along one of Grand Cayman’s many spotless highways. That was back in the 80s before mass tourism and the financial sector barricaded the island’s most bankable asset behind a ribbon of luxury hotels and apartment blocks. Back in the early 60s Grand Cayman, the largest of a three-island archipelago, was little more than a sparsely populated, mosquito-infested swamp surrounded by some of the loveliest beaches in the Caribbean.
Pronounced CayMan by locals, this British Overseas Territory continues to be a land of extremes. While the summer heat is off the scale so too are the income disparities. The lives of local migrant workers remain in stark contrast to the financiers and wealthy tourists who flock here for a piece of the good life.
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