When I first found out I could touch and swim with stingrays in Cayman, I knew I had to make my way there myself someday.
It was the summer of 2010. We took the catamaran out into the sea, did some snorkelling and finally arrived at the Stingray City Sandbar.
“Stingray City is home to a whole fleet of southern stingrays who congregate near the shore.
The stingrays began gathering in the area decades ago when fisherman used to clean fish on the shallow sand bars. The stingrays would forget their normally shy dispositions and feast on the guts of the cleaned fish. Soon the stingrays began to associate the sound of a boat motor with food. In the late 1980s, divers started feeding squid to the stingrays, one of their favourites.
Today, Stingray City is a readily accessible, once-in-a-lifetime Grand Cayman experience for anyone who wishes to see one of nature’s most majestic creatures up close.”
It was a magical experience. We had so much fun.
We were lucky enough to go there a second time in September 2012 as part of a cruise trip.
As we had just swum with stingrays and nurse sharks in Belize a few days before, I had a new goal this time around – catch and hold on to my own stingray.
It proved to be much more difficult than I expected because they can swim really fast. We eventually succeeded after pooling efforts – Peter caught the head and I caught the tail. It was a big stingray. Much bigger than the ones the boat guys caught for us. We were satisfied.
I hope we get to swim with stingrays again – perhaps in Fiji next time.
