Kissing A Stingray For Luck (Cayman Island Part I )
The best snorkeling tours in the Cayman Islands are Stingray City, Starfish Point, and the barrier reef. It is a tourist attraction, where southern stingrays are found in abundance and visitors can pet and interact with the animals.
January 2, 2014
Grand Cayman island, Cayman islands
This is my first time in the Cayman Islands and I can't wait to step out into the sunlit streets and soak up this island. Who wouldn't? As I look around this unique place with small cliffs and electric blue sea water populated with the inhabitants who seem to be very content with things; I want to stay longer, or at least come back again, soon!
Now that we are here, there's no way I can visit Cayman Island and not go to Stingray City.
Our guide whispers to me, " The stingrays are friendly and will rub up on you to show they like you."
"There's no problem finding them, they will find us! He reassured me" " He also said, kissing a stingray gets you seven (7) years of luck!"
Stingray City is located on a sand bar in the shallow waters off the northwest corner of Grand Cayman's North Sound. It is just inside a natural channel that passes through the reef and consists of a string of sandbars crossing the North Sound from Morgan Harbor to Rum Point. It is home to a whole pod of Southern Stingrays, who congregate near the shore. Here, they are found in abundance and visitors can pet and interact with them.
It is said that it may be that stingrays began gathering in the area decades ago when fishermen returning with their catch, navigated behind a reef into the sound, and cleaned their fish in the calm water of the shallows and sandbar area. The fish entrails and squid were thrown overboard, and the stingrays eventually congregated to feast on the discarded remains. Soon the stingrays associated the sound of a boat engine with food. As this practice turned into a tradition, divers realized that the stingrays could be fed by hand!
Today, I imagined, how would I react when I saw and touched the Stingray? Will I think of sashimi with lime juice and soy sauce? I imagined it would be slimy like jelly, soft and squishy and yielding to the touch.
From about a hundred yards, we could see several boats already anchored circling the sand bar. Hundreds of people were already there and from a distance, the heads of bobbing people made it looked like a giant cauldron with floating peppers and veggies.
Our guide carefully anchored our boat amongst the many others. Soon we finally disembarked from our boat. I was the second to disembark and enter the chest-high water, to interact with the stingrays. It was sunny and beautiful and the Caribbean water was warm but choppy. I didn't know what to expect. It was a wild and crowded scene. Once in a while I caught a glimpse of a silvery gray like figure and then it was gone.
Behind me, was a group of ladies shrieking like ten year -old kids. One lady in particular had a look of terror on her face while the guide was reassuring her that the Stingrays were not going to harm her. It didn't help her overwrought nerves which were already on edge; when the guide grabbed what could possibly be the biggest stingray in the group, and offered it to her to hold like some kind of Christmas present to enjoy.
Another group, screaming, " They are here, they brushed on my side." A man beside me said, he almost stepped on a few rays.
I did not know where to look, whether under the water, or behind me, or beside me. I had my underwater camera ready at anytime. A few Caymanians manhandled a ray and one by one he asked his group to pose for the coveted kissing the ray.
"Can I join you?" I asked. "No Sweetie, you have to go back to your guide," he replied.
Kevin our guide was from Kelowna, British Columbia, and he didn't like the scene all around us. He and a friend Chip, from another boat were shaking their heads at the way the Caymanian guides were forcibly grabbing the rays for the photo ops.
He called the people in our group and gave us instructions on how to feed the rays.
"When holding the bait fish remember, to make a fist, and don't show your thumb," he clarified.
I held the small fish in my right hand and lowered it a few inches below the water. Soon two stingrays peeled off to either side of me; ahead several stingrays as wide as big basins swirled towards us. Our guide pointed towards more stingrays. None of these creatures seemed very shy, perhaps they have gotten so used to tourists feeding them. A big stingray came and ate the fish from my hand. It felt like a quick suction cup. I asked for another fish from Kevin. As I fed the rays, gone were the evil thoughts of sashimi style or barbecued rays served on banana leaves with chili.
"How come we cannot hold them?" I asked Kevin. "I need to have that picture!" I demanded from Kevin. So finally Chip held one up and Kevin took my pictures. This was it, finally, I held and kissed one of the older rays.
Minutes passed by, the chaos and excitement still filled the air. At one time, we were surrounded by more than two dozen friendly stingrays. A few slipped by on my feet and some times three to four rays would brushed along my waist. They all felt soft like a sponge and didn't scare me at all. There were several instances when in my attempt to capture some of the scenes in pictures, I was facing their huge long barb and they would move and splashed water on my face. But that was just about it.
I had a blast petting, holding, and feeding these gentle marine creatures!! I had a fabulous experience and would definitely do it again; though I wished our friends Fred and Georgette were with us during this tour. I know it would have been more fun.
This experience in Stingray City is unlike any other encounter I have had with sea life, and it surely made my Cayman Islands vacation unforgettable.
And guess what? I just renewed my luck!!!