Nasaria’s Caymanian Heritage Tour

January 5, 2013

tags: artists, Caymanian Culture, grand cayman, Ms. Josie's Senior Center, Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, Pedro St. James, Tours, Travel Gal

by travelgalart

Meet Nasaria…artist, poet, Caymanian..and an all-round amazing woman. Wait til’ you meet her!

As part of the Travel Gal Adventure to Grand Cayman, I’ve coordinated a day to immerse ourselves in some of the more intriguing sites. Luckily, we have Nasaria Suckoo Chollette guiding us on this mini-adventure. I met Nasaria on the beach in Bodden Town when I was visiting the island. Her spunky disposition immediately caught my attention. When I found out she was also the educational coordinator at the National Museum…I couldn’t get it out of my head that she should be our tour guide. You can imagine how lucky I felt when that actually became a reality. Nasaria handpicked the sites we’ll be visiting. She sent me over some notes on each location so over the next few days, I’m going to share those with you. Here goes….

1st Stop – Josie’s Senior Centre:

This small local Museum of sorts, offers over three hundred traditional fine crafts for you to see and touch. There is a lace wedding dress over 100 years old, Yo-Yo Patterned Quilts that are evidence of our rich African History, Cayman Made Furniture, Thatch Crafts and an Outside Kitchen. Older Caymanians used to build a little Kitchen outside of the home because the home was made entirely of wood and could easily catch on fire. This was if there was a fire in the Kitchen, they could avoid losing their home as well. The Outside Kitchen is where Traditional Desserts like Cassava Cake and Macaroni Pudding were made and left on the Windowsill to cool.

Caymanian Knitting Fish Net Hammocks

2nd Stop – Pedro St. James:

This restored Great House is the seat of Democracy in the Cayman Islands. It is in Bodden Town, Cayman’s first Capital, and this is where the very first Laws were made. Pedro St. James sits on a majestic cliff overlooking the sea and is the home to Cayman’s very last Donkey. The tour begins with a short but very entertaining documentary film about the beginnings of settlement and population in the Cayman Island. It tells of the history of European settlement and Enslaved Africans. I am actually in the film. Let’s see if you can recognize me.