January 10, 2012 – Grand Cayman

We have tried to get to Stingray City twice before to experience the interactions with the Atlantic rays.  The first time the cruise passed by Grand Cayman and didn’t stop because the weather was too rough for a tender port and the second time we were staying on the island and the weather was so stormy that the Port Authority wouldn’t let the boats go out.  Stingray City is a sand bar where the fisherman used to stop and clean their catch.  The rays figured out that there was always a free lunch  and started to congregate.  Today, the tourists provide the food in the form of squid and the rays oblige by allowing the tourist to hold and handle them.  I usually don’t like activities where wild creatures interact with people in an unnatural way, but these rays come on their own and none are harmed.  

Betti had suggested a private company, rather than the ship conducted tour, and had been able to experience the trip just four days ago when her cruise stopped here.  She gave a great recommendation and she was right.  The company met us promptly at the arrival pier, had a very nice bus to take us to the boats and it wasn’t crowded.  I’m sure the boats could hold 25-35 people but we had only about 10, so there was a lot of space and very personal attention.  The ride from the pier to the sand bar was about 20 minutes.  We weren’t the only tour and when  we got there probably 100+ people were already in the water experiencing the rays.  It didn’t take long for the tour guide to find an agreeable ray and hold it up for us to touch.  Then came the opportunity for each of us to hold the ray.  Once everyone had a chance we then got to feed them the squid reward.

We then moved the boat to a location called the “Coral Garden”.  It is a sandy bottom area with scattered coral heads, each one with a pretty collection of fish.  It was a nice place to snorkel with 10 or so varieties of fish within easy viewing from the surface.  While we were there, a ray decided to visit, perhaps a person in the water has come to mean food.  He circled around, coming close enough to brush against my legs.  Since rays don’t normally hunt fish, they paid no attention to her.  We know it was a “her” since the females are much larger than the males and this one was larger than males ever grow.

The final stop was for star fish.  It was a grassy area with a few star fish, not many and probably not worth the stop but the tour promised three stops.

After that, back to the ship for a shower and lunch.  The ship sailed about 5:00pm heading for Cozumel.  Scuba tomorrow while Maxine tours the island.