Blue Cave Castle

[rjonsun]

A little over 3 weeks ago we were walking by Blue Cave Castle on our way to Pablo's for dinner, A teenage boy standing in front of the open gate said we were able to stop in and look around and that they planned on keeping the gates open. Two days later we stopped in an met Larren and had a chat. This is his story the best I can recall. He said the lawsuit between his stepmother and him was settled and he planned to reopen the Castle. He welcomed us in to look around. We had stayed at BBC many times so knew our way around. As we climbed the towers we noticed that some of the rooms were occupied. Whether they were workers or squatters it was obvious they weren't tourists. The open door of the rooms showed them a mess. The grounds were littered with trash and junk in general. Part of the roof of the coffee hut was damaged from the hurricane. However, it appeared that they structures held up pretty well. We noticed that all the giant conch shells had been removed from the top of the sea wall. Also, the block walls that Susan had erected to both entrances to the sea were removed. Before we left we talked to Larren again. They had been working hard to knock down those block walls and his teenage son removed the conch shells. His plan is to renovate BCC with new electric, water, a\c's and have TV's in every room. He would like to open late this summer, but acknowledged that it might not be until closer to Christmas. Then he told us that some of the old staff would be coming back to work there and gave us 4 names. I decline to name them as it can't be verified and am skeptical if that part will ever happen. He knows it will take a boat load of money to get BCC up and running again but is committed to bringing the place back to it's former glory. A few days later someone told us the police were there in the early evening quelling an argument. We happened to see Larren downtown the next day and asked him about the police story. He said there were always rumors about the place and that the police were not there in any of the previous days. We stopped in again a few days later and all the trash and junk was still there, so no progress was made even on simple cleanup chores in the week between our visit. We had heard that squatters came in after the hurricane, but I can't verify that it was true. It was obvious that some people were staying in the rooms. Larren and his son seemed like very nice and personable people. We told him we would love to stay there again if he ever got it up and running. There is a lot of work to be done before it is even close to receiving guests. I wish him the best. Anyone who is down on the west end take advantage of their open gate policy and take a look around. It would be great to here an up to date report if things are starting get repaired and cleaned up.
Regards,
Bob

[Todd]

Thanks for the info/update. We would sure like to go back too.