INDEX Monday December 20, 2021
Hell's Not a Poppin
Jean Paul Sartre had it that Hell is other people but he was wrong according to Ivan Farrington, the 87-year-old who runs the gift shop at the eccentrically named location of Hell on the Caymans.

For Ivan, Hell is the absence of visitors thanks to Covid restrictions. The tourists have stopped coming to post their cards back from Hell to relatives and work colleagues.

It was always a strange way to earn a living on this deeply religious island. Hell as a

Click to see next photo.
tourist destination seemed calculated to ruffle feathers.

Ivan plays the part devilishly well but just in case the neighbours get upset he has daubed large religious slogans over at least half of his hut: the half you can't see from the road as you are driving past.

Hell was so named in the 1930s as a result of an off hand remark by an English commissioner. The English tend to get blamed for things like that.

Apart from the gift shop, it consists of a bed of limestone and dolomite eroded by Phytokast, or for the more technically minded: pock marked pointy forms.

All I can add is that it has a strange power of attraction since we kept coming back to it when trying to plot a course to another location.

Those interested in Ivan, who is certainly a character, can check him out at https://www.caymancompass.com/2019/04/23/nominations-open-for-stingray-awards/ivan-farrington-the-devil-x/
Monday December 20, 2021° Jonathan Brind INDEX