Randy Chollette

Randy and Nasaria pulled up in the gas station as if a director just called “Action.”

I was sitting on the beach with artist Nickola McCoy Snell at the GrapeTree Café in Bodden Town. She was in the midst of sharing some stories of her childhood friends and how she’d like them to be involved in Travel Gal too. Of course, one of those friends was Randy, who just arrived at the scene.

Nickola waved him over. Up walked Randy and his spunky wife Nasaria. Randy is an amazing self-taught artist on the island (you’ll be able to check out his work on travelgalart.com soon). And his wife, an artist in her own right, was the educational coordinator at the National Museum.

Now what you might not know unless you read my older posts, is that this moment on the beach was about 3 months in the making. After my failed attempts to connect with any artists in Grand Cayman via email prior to my arrival on the island, I went on a weeklong search for Nickola. And I had all but given up when I was suddenly connected to her through another artist I met along the way. Honestly, I had lost all hope at that point. And I had given up on the idea of even working with any artists from the island. Now, here I was, literally 24 hours after throwing my hands up in the air, surrounded by some of the islands most premiere talents. How's that for serendipity?

Once Randy and Nasaria arrived the energy rose to a whole new level. I got to share my hopes for Travel Gal with them and they entertained me with the stories of the island’s East vs. West cooking competition. “People on the West side are always running so fast, they don’t take the time to do things right,” said Nasaria. This lead into a spirited discussion on the difference between how Turtle and Fish are prepared on the West side in comparison to the East side.