Grand Cayman

January 8th
Grand Cayman

Great day today!! I had purchased a tour yesterday for the Grand Cayman Stingray City experience, something I had only heard great things about from my band members. So for $45, this got me off the boat early and onto a bus that transported me and my group to a pontoon boat which would then take us out to see the stingrays. After a 30 minute trip out the canal and into the ocean, we stopped at a sand bar that was just swarming with sting rays. There was a story that went along with the area, as there usually for cool trips like this, and it went like so: in the 60’s, many fishermen would come just past the area where we were at to fish along the Cayman wall. Grand Cayman sits upon a giant sea wall, that at its bottom, will reach as far as 25,000 feet (if I remember the figure correctly). The Cayman trench is the second deepest in the world, and the wall we were sitting just inside of dropped 8,000 feet, still extremely deep. Anyways, the fishermen would catch the fish on the other side of the wall, and then, due to the terrible mosquito problem on the island, would clean the fish over the sandbar. One day, as it was explained to me, a stingray was swimming along the sand bar when some fish guts sank down and hit him on the head. He checked them out, gobbled them up, and decided he liked it to come back. So the next day he came back, more fish guts, and a very happy stingray. So he went back to all his friends to tell them about the fish guts that just fall from the boats, and they all started to come to this sandbar and eat what the fishermen had no use for. After years of this, the rays got to the point where they’d associate the sound of a boat approaching and then stopping with food, and to this day, still go to the sandbar looking for food. It was at this point we were allowed to go into the water and start playing with the rays. Yeah, I’m sure you’re all thinking “isn’t that what killed Steve Irwin?” and yeah, it was a ray, but these guys aren’t known to be aggressive. We were all encouraged to get close to the rays and rub our hands along their under side as they passed by, just so long as we didn’t grab the tail and start swinging them around. And let me just say that these things were absolutely huge. I’ve never seen such big rays and so many in one place, it was unbelievable. And they would literally swim right up to you thinking you might have food, then brush your leg and swim away. The tour guides would actually jump in the water and pick these guys up out of the water for pictures with the guests. The rays really don’t hurt anyone, and while I was in the water, I didn’t feel threatened at all. The amazing part of it all was that every ray was completely wild, nothing was enclosed. The rays were free to come and go as they pleased, and there were dozens swimming along this sand bar. I’d always try to get close to the groups with food because that’s where the rays would swarm to. I was busy with a ray directly in front of me underwater who was coming at my face mask when someone suddenly pushed me from behind, I almost fell over. But as I turned around to tell the guy to back off, I saw a ray coming off my back after apparently charging me, it was the weirdest thing. So I played with these huge rays for about 35 minutes before being called back onto the ship where we took off for home. The rays were great though, 4 feet in diameter, really soft underneath, and super friendly animals. I really had a great time swimming with them and would recommend the tour to anybody, it was unbelievable.
The group got back into the city, and after seeing I’d missed lunch on the ship, I decided to find a local café to eat at. I was successful and found a nice little place serving coffees and sandwiches. I sat down for a sandwich and pasta salad with some lemonade, all of which came out to $15 American. I don’t know what made the lunch so expensive, unless there was a $5 charge for the microwaving option, but even still, it was a lot of money for little more than a sandwich. But whatever, it was my last day in Grand Cayman and I’d had a great time. I headed back to the ship and that was about all that counted for that day. Thanks!