Grand Cayman

Andrew and I read online that the Cayman Islands are famous for snorkeling and shopping. We also had advice from a friend to do Sting Ray City so we chose a tour that had a stop at Sting Ray City and another snorkeling place, leaving us enough time to walk around downtown and shop.

Cayman is neat - it seems pretty Americanized (probably so all the rich Americans with houses there don't have to do without Subway and The Gap). The beaches, however, are beautiful, with soft white sand and gorgeous blue water. 

Sting Ray City was awesome! I just kept wishing Pete could be there, since rays are his favorite animals. It's basically a cove where sting rays started appearing and living because fisherman would dump their old fish there. Now, the rays are very tamed and just swim around all the time because the tourists feed them. We got to get in the waist-deep water with tons of rays that swam around and rubbed our legs and feet. Our tour guides caught several and let us hold them, kiss them, and get back massages. We also got to feed them tiny little squids, which they sucked out of our hands with massive force. The rays are amazing! The females are HUGE. All the rays have kind of a slippery velvety feel - their bottoms are kind of squishy and the tops are soft skin of bony backs. We also got to see their barbs. The water was really clear so we could see them all moving around. At first it was terrifying - I didn't want to move because I was afraid I'd step on a ray (they swim at the bottom) and right onto a barb, but it never happened :-)

After Sting Ray City we went to another snorkeling place which sadly didn't even compare to Roatan, where we were spoiled. It was still fun, though. The guides were a blast and at the last minute also decided to take us to a really neat starfish haven so we got to see some cool starfish. Andrew and I picked one up then dropped it back down and it landed on it's back. We then got to watch as it flipped itself over slowly - so cool!

We were all looking forward to the shopping but after a few minutes of wandering around realized that it was mostly Americanized stuff at higher-than-American prices. Not that exciting. But the walk around was definitely worth it when we ended with fresh coconuts!