Monday, February 21, 2011

Stingray City

Hello again- I have some pictures from the Caribbean to warm everyone up! As you know, Cameron and I went down to Grand Cayman after a few days in Vail. We forgot to transfer the pictures onto my computer before Cameron went back to that place so you'll have to remain in a state of anticipation for any pictures taken from land.
Per usual I brought the cold weather with me to the Caymans, but fortunately that just means they had an abnormally windy few days and the temperature remained in the 80's. One of the "must do" things in the Caymans is to visit Stingray City. Stingray City is a sandbar where stingrays congregate to sun themselves in the shallow water and probably gossip about which fish from the reef have gotten fat. Story has it that many years ago the sandbar was where fishermen would stop to clean their fish before heading back to land, so the stingrays would hang out around the boats and eat their scraps. One very smart (and now filthy rich I assume) entrepreneur decided to make some money off of it. Fast forward a few years, the sandbar is now regulated by the government and the rays are totally domesticated and dependent on the fish the tourists feed them.
These are some pictures of us snorkeling off to the side of the reef. It was just like "Finding Nemo"- colorful fish everywhere; you could almost touch them. I couldn't find Nemo though...
This is Cookie. She hangs out on the reef more than the sandbar I guess, but she's very friendly. She lost her stinger and tail at some point so she is totally harmless as well. I liked her. The guide said that the big rays are female and the smaller ones are males.
The good part about bringing the "cold front" (as the locals called the breeze) was that the government closes the sandbar when the waves were too big because it was dangerous for boats to be bouncing around silly tourists. (also cool- we saw dolphins swimming when we were jet skiing back to shore, which I guess is rare unless the seas are angry. No pictures though- they were swimming fast and I was driving somewhat erratically...) The bar was closed for a few days and our first trip was canceled, but we were able to squeeze in a Jet Ski tour the morning we left the Caymans. There was only one other boat on the sandbar, and since the rays are dependent on the fish from tourists, they were VERY happy to see us. As soon as the guide stopped his jet ski you could see huge black saucers coming at him from all angles. Very cool but also a little scary.
They come right up to you and nuzzle with their sides looking for food and just saying hello. Because of the waves I was afraid of stepping on one or having it pushed into me and getting angry, but I guess they are used to it. I still refused to hand feed them or hold one like Cameron did (give me some credit, I got into the water and touched them after a harrowing jet ski ride!).
Cameron is holding/kissing this ray. The guide knows the rays so he waited for one he knows is super friendly and picked it up. They are very slimy and sort of rough and its very startling when they come up from behind and rub on your legs!
I'm not sure what is going on below, I guess Cameron is getting a hug from him or something. They can sort of launch themselves up a little bit to get closer to you if they want. The guide got this stingray to pose like that.
Totally unrelated- after Grand Cayman we stopped in Miami for a couple nights with college friends. We rented kayaks and went around islands off South Beach. It was a work out but it was really fun to look at all the mansions and get out on the water. There was a little island with a beach we stopped at for a break, and this photo has South Beach in the background. I feel Statue of Liberty-esque.