Port of Call: Grand Cayman

If you've never done a Stingray encounter before, it's highly recommended. Encounters with wildlife such as this are among the most precious, memorable, and very, very cool experiences one can have in their life.

If you're a SCUBA diver, this is one of the premiere places in the world for diving. I took diving instruction specifically for the trip to Grand Cayman because it is so admired.

Quick Tips:

Grand Cayman is by far the most affluent island I’ve visited, and the prices reflect that. The Caymanian dollar was worth .25 U.S., so the dollar didn’t go very far. T-shirts that would have been perfect souvenirs to take home to my teen-age daughters were already too expensive at each, but with the exchange rate, they would have been each! Not on this trip!

Best Way To Get Around:

The cab drivers we encountered were extremely friendly and happy to answer all of our questions. On the way back from the Turtle Farm, the driver took us through a poorer neighborhood so we could see that the island wasn't all expensive hotels and banks. Real people live here, who work hard for their living on this island paradise.

Stingray City is amazing. At 9am, we boarded a boat and headed out to sea. After about 20 minutes, the water went from deep blue to aqua, and we could see the sandy bottom. An awesome sandbar 2 miles out to sea! Looking out a few hundred yards from the boat, we could see an underwater cloud moving toward us. A swarm of stingrays! We were the first boat out that morning and they knew we had treats just for them.

We had been briefed on the ride out about safety and feeding of these wild marine creatures. A bucket of squid would be floating for us to feed the rays. After putting on our snorkels and masks (which, by the way, were really unnecessary), we climbed into the waist high water to interact with the rays. Shuffling our feet so we didn’t step on any creatures, we made our way to the bucket and grabbed a piece of squid. If you hold it tightly in your fist, the rays will follow the scent as long as it is in your hand. The large female rays brush up against your body, much like a cat rubbing your legs. They feel soft and slippery, and can knock you a little off balance if you’re not paying attention. When you’ve got a persistent ray that really wants that food in your fist, just open your hand flat and it will suck up the squid like a vacuum. A very odd feeling!

The smaller male rays swim closer to the bottom, around your ankles. I was feeling sorry for them because they weren’t getting near the amount of food the females were harvesting. So I bent down and opened my hand in front of one of the males; he didn’t suck the squid off my hand, he scraped it! It hurt a bit and drew a small amount of blood. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?

When the squid bucket started getting low, the guides gathered us around as one of them gently held a large, female ray they affectionately named "Stubby," because of her broken-off tail. The guide gave us a bit of an anatomy lesson on these strange and wonderful creatures before releasing Stubby to join the rest. By this time, other boats of lucky ray-feeding tourists had arrived, and the rays moved off to more plentiful squid buckets.

After our incredible adventure feeding the stingrays, we walked a short distance to 7 Mile Beach, a long, narrow stretch of white sand that separates hotels, condos and restaurants from the bright aqua sea. Inexplicably, the beach is 5-1/2 miles long, but maybe its name comes from its appearance of stretching on farther. The beach is public and there are numerous public access points, not always clearly marked. There are a number of places along the beach to indulge in your water sport play: parasailing, SCUBA, snorkeling, jet skis, windsurfing, etc.

Our traveling companions elected to spend the rest of their day lounging on lovely 7 Mile Beach. My husband was on a mission to go SCUBA diving here on world-renowned Grand Cayman, however, so we caught a cab to Turtle Reef Divers, near the Turtle Farm.

My husband was able to join with a twosome who had been diving here before and they headed off to the ladder that drops divers and snorkelers into a small inlet. This inlet is at the beginning of a trench, or small underwater canyon. You descend into the trench, to get out of the surge, and follow it out until you reach "The Wall." He later told me that the water clarity was incredible. The sea life looked like a brilliant, underwater garden on the reef wall. Everything here almost looked manufactured by Disney; perfectly manicured with every color imaginable. A small reef mounded with sea life, a stretch of white sand, a picturesque arch decorated with more brilliant-colored plant and animal life. While he was enjoying the dive of his life, I tried to make the best of it by snorkeling around close by the dive shop. It was a little rough and I had to keep track of where I was so I didn’t get knocked into the cliffs. I did enjoy my encounter with some beautiful angelfish, butterfly fish and others.

Now, you’d think that since I was just up the street from the famous Turtle Farm, I would have gone for a visit. Somehow, I didn’t think of it. I spent the next hour reading a book at the end of the dock and just enjoying the Caymanian sun. Someday we’ll go back, but only after I’ve been able to finish my dive certification and can see for myself this underwater Disney-like wonder!