Stingray City

One beautiful, hot day in Grand Cayman, Sol, Aniko and I dragged ourselves out of bed early and took a fantastic excursion, snorkeling and to Stingray City.
En route, sunning ourselves on the front of the boat.

Preparing for Phase 1 of the excursion: snorkeling off the back of the boat in the middle of the open ocean. There is a pretty reef in this area and lots of colourful little fish.

Sol doesn't swim, so she was a little nervous, but she was very brave and did great. I think she enjoyed it a lot.


Phase 2:

Stingray City. This is just as freaky as it sounds. It is a place where boats anchor on a sandbar and feed lots of stingrays that live in the ocean nearby. If you think this sounds like somewhere I would never want to visit, then you're right. Except I did want to go. So there I am. Those black things are stingrays.

This is our captain* demonstrating for us how to feed the stingrays. Yes, we are supposed to get in the water. And touch them. And feed them, being mindful not to touch our bodies afterwards. Stingrays have very poor eyesight and will glom onto any part of you that smells like squid, producing big red hickies.

* The captain told us he was once lost at sea for four days and survived by eating small shellfish off the ocean floor and doing other remarkable things that I have only read about in The Life of Pi. Nevertheless, I believe him.

There they are...




Aniko looking dubious.
A lot of the stingrays that visit this area are "regulars" and many even have names. They are very gentle and seem to be on good terms with people who come here often, like our captain.
There he is kissing one of them.
When I agreed to this excursion, I said I would snorkel and then take pictures of the stingrays from the boat.

But here I am in the water.

What can I say, except that I was in a brave mood. I'm glad I was, because otherwise I never could have seen how beautiful they are underwater, or taken the following pictures.

They looked to me like they were flying, soaring on their big gray wings. Absolutely beautiful.

When they brushed against you they felt soft and slippery and it was a freaky feeling, but otherwise, I loved them .











P.S. Just a reminder, if you want to see any of the photos in a larger size, just click on it. Enjoy!!!