We are from USA we are frequent visitors to the Cayman Islands via cruise ship and also stayover.
When visiting back in the mid 90s we met a Caymanian named Joseph Yates but he is known locally as Lebbie.
At that time he was driving a public bus and we took his bus to West Bay.
We remember him so well because he was so kind and well spoken and very intelligent. After he had dropped off all other passengers we asked if he could give us a tour because we felt so comfortable with him.
He has a way of making strangers that makes them friends in the matter of minutes.
My husband had to be helped on and off the bus and Lebbie was always there to help. He was so patient. He always said, ‘take your time; mamma waited on you for nine months.’ We will always remember that.
We enjoyed the rest of our day with Lebbie. We invited him to eat with us, we invited him to visit us whenever he took one of his road trips across the USA. He has been to all 48 contiguous states. That is amazing. That qualifies him as an ambassador for the Cayman Islands in our opinion.
We have visited Grand Cayman five times via cruise ship since we first met him. He was our driver two times out of the five, and we have been so well taken care of while with him that we always look forward to having him as our driver when we visit, but for the last three visits to Grand Cayman we have not seen or heard from him. We really want to get in touch with him we will never forget the way we were treated by this very intelligent taxi/tour driver. We have heard other frequent cruisers talk positively of Joseph (Lebbie) even on cruise critic websites and also on the comments page on www.stingraycabandtours.com. With people like Joseph (Lebbie) out of the tourism business is a huge loss. He has the kind of karma that will leave a lasting and positive effect on any tourist that meets him.
Joseph, we know you read the newspaper and we hope you read this so we can get in touch with you because we are planning a cross-country road trip for late summer next year. We know how much you like doing that and we want you to help drive us like what we had talked about when we first met.
We will be doing your favourite states in the Northwest like Montana. We hope you get this letter we sent it to all the local newspapers on Grand Cayman. Our email address is [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
By the way Lebbie we never forgot what you said about while driving in the Cayman Islands, ‘If you are right you are wrong.’
Joseph (Lebbie) is surely one of the best and most informed taxi/tour drivers in the Caymans.
Charlotte Strunk
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