Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I Almost Died at Sting Ray City

We recently went to the Ocean Explorium where they have a tank that you can touch sting rays. The kids loved it but for me it brought back memories of the time I was almost killed by a sting ray. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I guess more accurately it would be the time I almost died of fright at Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman.

Tim and I were on a cruise with a bunch of friends (back in our pre-married, party days!) and decided to go on an excursion. We weren’t looking to spend a million dollars and avoided the “beach day” type ones given my pasty pale skin. So we decided to go on an island tour that ended at Sting Ray City. Now I’m not a complete idiot so clearly I knew that there would be sting rays involved but I had no idea what I was getting myself in to. I stupidly thought that we would take a small boat out to an island where we would all get off. All the crazy people (including Tim) would venture out into the water and I would sit on a towel on the beach. MAYBE I would go in up to my ankles but that was it. I had no desire to be close to sting rays and I definitely didn’t want to swim with them. I almost didn’t even wear my bathing suit that day but it’s kind of your uniform on a cruise ship. 

Soooooooo…we go out on the boat and the captain announces that we have arrived. I look out to see no land ANYWHERE. They had thrown the anchor down on a sandbar, threw a ladder over the side, and people were jumping off the boat into the middle of the ocean. I started to freak out. It was then that Tim confessed that he knew that this was what was going to happen but didn’t tell me because he feared I wouldn’t go! So sure enough here I am on a boat in the middle of the ocean and everyone else has happily jumped to their death in to see the sting rays. I knew if I didn’t go in that (1) I would look like a loser being the only person left on the boat and (2) I would most likely regret it later. So I begrudgingly went into the water which was much higher on my 5 foot 2 body than most of the other people. Tim was able to be about waist high while I was shoulder high in water (in the middle of the freaking ocean!). Oh, and sure enough the sting rays loved me and were zipping past me and gliding off my legs. Meanwhile, they didn’t go near Tim or the other people who wanted to actually get up close and personal with them. 

I have no idea how long we were out there but it felt like an eternity. When they finally said it was time to swim back to the boat I had never been so happy in my life. So looking back, I am glad that I got off the boat but you better believe that I’m definitely doing more research before I agree to any excursion again!

This was the next day. I would have been so pissed if I died before I got to see this view.
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