I'm not kidding around here. So we board the boat to take us to "Stingray City". This is the shallow area of water in the ocean where lots of people come and can see the stingrays. They are used to people, so they aren't aggressive. I am a little nervous before we arrive since stingrays can kill you, but I am reassured that the barbs/stingers are different than the ones that killed Steve Irwin. Okay well they also didn't tell me that these stingrays are not 12" wide like the ones at the Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach where I grew up. No, this is the Cayman Islands where these are HUGE, some are up to 6ft wide (wingspan). And they are not afraid of you, they swim right up to you, brush up against you and look for food. They don't have teeth, just a small mouth on the underside that uses a sucking motion to eat. We bring with us squid to feed them which I beg our captain not to bring into the water because I am already scared to death and do not want these things swarming toward me in groups of 20. I ended up getting in the water but only for about 3 mintues because I was too scared. Something about their large alligator-like eyes (viewed from my snorkel mask) was just too much to handle and I preferred to view them from the safety of the boat :) In this photo, Ashley's face pretty much sums it all up.
