A little over a week ago I got married in Southern California. For our honeymoon we took a cruise to the western part of the Caribbean. The stops were to include: Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize and Mexico, but due to bad weather we were rerouted to a trip including: Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Never one to miss out on some cool hiking and adventures I attempted to do something worthy of our adventure blog at each of the stops. The first of those three adventures was snorkeling with stingrays off the coast of the Cayman Islands.
First off, if you are afraid of deep water and big strange looking creatures swimming at you in that water, then this trip is not for you. For everyone else, read on. We boarded a small boat and set out to the reefs and the famous stingray city. Along the way we got an intro 
into how the sting rays react to people, and what to do with them when we were swimming. Next we went snorkeling in a reef for 30 minutes to look at brain coral and lots of other fish before our swim in Stingray City. The water was crystal clear and there were many fish and coral to see (brain coral is my favorite).
From there we arrived at Stingray city and were told to enter the water. I jumped off the boat only to see seven to ten sting rays hovering along the ocean floor. One, the guide had named Sally, was about 3 to 4 feet in diameter. To say seeing these creatures in their habitat was a little overwhelming would be an understatement. We were in 10 feet of water and were told that the sting rays were gentle and liked to be petted on their wings. We were also told that if you 
swam down to them they would swim up to you for you to pet them.
It was crazy because it was true, the sting rays liked to be petted, and as soon as you dove down 5 to 6 feet the sting rays would come up to you and allow you to pet them. Seeing a 4 foot sting ray swim at you to be petted is humbling. They functioned much like a dog that wanted love from its master. It was a truly amazing experience. We spent about 40 minutes in the water getting to know the creatures before boarding the boat for a ride back to the harbor. If you every have the opportunity to do something like this I would highly recommend it, the memories and the experience are worth every penny. See more Stingray City Pictures.
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