i almost peed my pants

Well, my swimsuit anyway.

Darren and I went to Grand Cayman in March. You can read about the things I learned here.

While doing some research for the trip I read about Stingray City. You can read about that here.

I decided I would love nothing more than to swim with the stingrays. Heaven knows what possessed me to decide that at the time, but fortunately it turned out to be the best part of our trip. I had read online several recommendations for Fat Fish Adventures, which is where we ultimately wound up booking our excursion through. If you ever visit Stingray City, I highly recommend this company. Stingray City is out on a sandbar and it is a major tourist attraction. While everyone else was snorkeling in their groups of 40 (as in about 5 groups of 40) off the back of several large boats, we got to ride jet skis out to the sandbar and were off by ourselves in a tiny group of 7. Plus we had food for the stingrays. And they knew it.

Back to the part where I almost peed my pants.

After about an hour of jet skiing around the ocean (which my husband loved) we headed out to the sandbar. Peter, the owner of Fat Fish and our guide, hops off his jet ski and directs us all in so he can anchor them down. He tells us to jump off. Into a sea of stingrays. No kidding, they are already coming to check us out.

Now, just to give you some perspective, I totally did not think I would be scared at all. I mean, years of this tourist attraction and no one has ever been hurt. Everyone does it. How scary can it possibly be? This coming from someone who isn't afraid of snakes, spiders, heights, roller coasters, small spaces, or the dark. (I'm pretty much only afraid of scary movies. And someone breaking into my house and murdering me.) I thought I would be fine. What's to fear from a stingray?

Big mistake.

Okay, first off, they're huge. Some of them were probably about five feet wide. You can see in the picture I have my arms out to hold it and it's definitely way bigger than the circle they make.

Secondly, not only are they not afraid, they're friendly. As in, when they know you have food they will swim at you to get it. And they don't veer away suddenly, oh no. They just crash right into you and about knock you over. For real. The above picture? I literally just held the camera underwater in front of my stomach and took the picture about half a second before it crashed into me.

There were about 10-15 that were swimming around us so it was literally impossible not to touch them. Especially since they certainly weren't worried about touching us. If you can't tell, there are four, possibly five, of them in the above picture. Probably because Darren is holding the bag of squid.

After I while we got used to them. We didn't have much of a choice, really.

I did feel one of their stingers. One was swimming by me and I felt the stinger on its tail scrape my leg. It didn't hurt bad but later I noticed there was a definite scratch there. And that when it only brushed by me. I can't imagine getting stung by one. I did, however, get a stingray hickey.

I kid you not.

See how Darren (on the right) is holding the squid up to the stingrays mouth? You probably can't see the mouth, actually. But anyway, the stingray just suctions the squid right in, like a vacuum cleaner.

The stingray missed the squid and got my arm.

You might be able to see it in this picture. It's right below that mole in the center. Also, you can see my PMLE, which you can read about here. This blog is nothing if not educational.

Hey, I try.

After stingray city we went snorkeling by a reef and then stopped at the beach at Rum Point where Peter bought us each a drink.

Such a nice guy, Peter.

The trip was a definite two thumbs up.

Was that cheesy, or was that cheesy?

Sorry about that.