Cruise Day 3

We ate at the buffet for breakfast this morning so we could pack a lunch to take in to the first port of call, the Cayman Islands. We were tendered out to the island by 9:30am and started our bargaining. We were looking for a boat to take us out to stingray city. There were about 8 people hawking the trip and with our group we had a lot of bargaining power. The ship offered this trip for $80.00 and by the time we were done we got it for $25.00 each with 2 free for the 9 of us. We each put in $20.00 and that gave us even tip money. The picture below is our group getting ready to feed the stingrays This was a fantastic trip. The boat ride out was fun and quick. Once there we were able to jump off the boat into knee deep water on the sand bar. There were huge stingray's swimming all around. Our guide brought one up and we all took a turn holding her and getting kissed by her and letting her give us a back rub. Below is Beth and Mom getting ready to kiss the stingray and the kiss by mom Next Diane had to try After the kiss each of us got a back rub, here is Diane getting her back rub from the stingray
Diane was getting a little nervous in the picture below, the stingrays would all come bumping into us looking for food. Once all 20 of us on our boat had a turn we all got to start feeding the stingray. The others in the water must have smelled the food and came bumping us and swimming around us. The guides showed us the difference between the girl and boy stingrays, the girls are MUCH bigger. It was fun to feed them, they suck in the squid like a vacuum suction. Diane had a special friend once back on the boat, After that the boat took us to a great snorkeling place and turned us loose. They kept a life ring out if we needed to swim back and grab on but most of us were comfortable with our fins, breathing tubes, and masks. Once done snorkeling we went to where the star fish migrated, the picture below is of Evelyn and Peter holding up one of the many star fish I stayed out a little too long, I started feeling queasy but there was so much to see, by the time I was back on the boat I was quite sea sick. The boat ride back seemed to take forever and yes, I did end up feeding the fish, but only once!
Once back we went to 7 mile beach, the same beach we were on the last time at the Caymans but it was so sunny and warm and both Mark and I were sun burned a bit so we had to stay in the shade. We all had our packed lunch, then back on the boat for the rest of the day. Our dinner was again wonderful and after dinner we really did get to watch the juggler, then a comedian and he was really funny. All of us laughed a lot!