Swim with stingrays and party with pirates: What to do in the Cayman Islands

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, on the quieter, eastern side of Grand Cayman, is leading a fight for survival by rearing adults from eggs to release back into the wild.

Head warden Alberto Estevanovich is on a mission to bring the species back from the verge of extinction. His love of these reptiles is infectious, and, together with a tour of the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, I left with a deeper understanding of the islands’ plants and animals.

Keen to explore some of Grand Cayman’s less developed beaches, I joined a horseback tour along the forest-fringed Barkers Beach and watched the kite surfers leaping above the waves.

We also took our steeds for a swim in the surf, removing the saddles before going in.

I realised that my horse had begun swimming as I struggled to keep my balance and nearly went hurtling into the water.

Grand Cayman is renowned for its wreck dives and I was lucky enough to sample one of its newest, the Kittiwake, a military vessel that recovered the Black Box from the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Scuppered in 2011 in clear shallow waters, it has become a magnet for divers.

The reefs are teeming with life and some of the brightest coral I have ever seen.

Shore diving is as popular here as boat diving with the inshore reefs equally spectacular. Even though the diving was amazing on Grand Cayman, locals recommended I experience the marine life at one of its sister islands where less boat traffic means the reefs are even more pristine.

As I took the half-hour flight on a 12-seater plane to Little Cayman I marvelled at its forest speckled with lakes framed by white sand swirling out into turquoise lagoons.

Only 10 miles long and a mile wide and with a community of around 100 (there’s a church, supermarket and one road around the island), Little Cayman couldn’t feel more different than its big sister.

Diving the Bloody Bay Wall, considered one of the top five dives in the world, was as spectacular as promised.

I spotted an enormous lobster, and spent much of my return to the surface in the company of a small, but cute, turtle. Big or small, when it comes to wildlife, there is plenty in the Cayman Islands.