We are flying so low over a huge Southern stingray that I could almost reach down and stroke his soft, smooth skin — but we aren't about to hang around.
Jerome Begot, our James Bond-style pilot, pulls the helicopter high into the blue skies above Seven Mile Beach where Beautiful People are playing volleyball and sipping punch made from Cayman's own Seven Fathoms rum.
Dazzling white sands frill the edges of this Caribbean archipelago and the warm, turquoise waters attract kite surfers like the ones I can see riding the waves as they break over the reefs below us. I wonder, silently, whether I'll feel like whooping when I'm plunging into one of the three islands' renowned 300 dive sites.
From the air the sites look like inky smudges ringing the island but, when I come face to face with the orange, purple, green, white and red corals under Cayman's azure sea, I almost need my sunglasses. Parrot fish drift nonchalantly beside Garden Eels and turtles and, for a moment, I know what it is to be a mermaid.
The next dive is on Little Cayman's Bloody Bay Wall. I gulp. The 'wall' plunges thousands of feet down into the Cayman Trough. One hundred different corals and five times that number of fish decorate the wall like paint flecks in a monumental psychedelic painting.
Next on my Cayman Islands adventure menu is mangrove snorkelling, which is to Bloody Bay Wall as Champagne is to rum punch. As I climb into the water a couple of iguanas join me fleetingly before I head off to the underwater forest where sea horses and upside down jelly fish move silently through the trembling fingers of sea grass.
Night time comes suddenly here, and, as the cicadas strike up their evening chorus, I'm on the water again, paddling across a secret bay to watch the sea light up with rare bioluminescence from millions of microscopic sea creatures. Glittering fish flit below me and our kayaks leave trails of neon blue and gold.
I want to stay out here all night but it is time for supper at one of 150 or more exceptional cafes and restaurants. Tonight we head to the Calypso Grill which would put most Parisian restaurants to shame. Over sautéed lobster by the moonlit water's edge, we hear about the island's 500 year history — and about a 65 acre botanic garden deep in the island's lush interior.
I wonder how such a tiny island can pack in a botanic garden. Seeing is believing: it is indeed a floral cornucopia. And it is here that we come face to face with one of the rarest and most handsome reptiles on earth, a giant Blue Iguana, found nowhere else on earth.
I look into his dark red eyes and decide that he sums up these exquisite Islands perfectly: rare, elegant, extraordinary and beautiful.
BOOK NOW
Seven nights in a studio room at the three-star hotel Comfort Suites, Grand Cayman, costs from £999 per person including breakfast and British Airways flights. Alternatively, seven nights in a deluxe room at the four-star Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort costs from £1,049 per person on a room-only basis, including BA flights. For reservations or for more information, visit ba.com/grandcayman. Book by 15 May.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The above prices are based on two sharing and include return BA economy flights from London Heathrow to Grand Cayman. Prices are subject to change and places are limited so visit ba.com to confirm. The holidays featured are Atol-protected under the British Airways Holidays no ATOL5985. Standard BA terms and conditions apply. Travel must be taken during 7 September-22 October and booked by 15 May at ba.com/grandcayman.
For more information on the Cayman Islands visit caymanislands.co.uk.
