Stingray-day

I promised I would do a separate post about our day on Grand Cayman Island after I'd gotten the pictures developed from the waterproof camera. The day was perfect for spending out in the water. To get there from the ferry, we had to take a dilapidated old school bus driven by a crazy bus driver. He constantly was honking his horn and yelling things at other drivers, pedestrians, and inanimate objects. The strange part was that the people would simply wave back at him without a single comment or rude gesture! Apparently his behavior was commonplace.

From the bus, we all climbed on to a boat and rode out to a sandbar area way off from the island. The water on the sandbar was up to my chest. The minute we stopped, dozens of stingrays began swimming towards us. They were very familiar with people coming to this area and knew what to do.

The larger size of them surprised me because I had expected them to be more like the dinner plate size that I had seen near Florida. They are very soft and fleshy, gentle and tame. Someone asked if they had their stingers removed, but no, they are fully functional because they are still wild animals that live in the ocean! Here's me holding one.

And Seth holding one.

And Noodle and me touching one...

She was very nervous about touching them, as you can see in the picture. But she did do it. We really had a great time out there. We snorkled and swam around with the stingrays floating about us.