Swimming in Stingray City, Grand Cayman

Fear Not the Rays of Stingray City

My trip to stingray city was in January, and visiting stingray city completely changed my view of Grand Cayman.  I had previously visited Grand Cayman twice on cruises and found it overwhelmingly boring.  To be fair during one of those visits, we had to cancel our scuba diving trip due to my head cold.  On our third visit, we decided to attempt an activity that a little head cold could not cancel.  So we booked a shore excursion to stingray city.  Stingray city is a sand bar on the eastern side of the island, and it was an experience I will never forget.  Be warned this post is photo-heavy, as is often said a photo is worth a thousand words. . .

A stingray swimming past my legs in stingray city.

To get to stingray city, we boarded a shuttle from the cruise port, which transported us to a boat.  On the boat we received a safety briefing on how to interact with the rays.  We were told to shuffle our feet so as not to accidentally step on a ray (known in Florida as the stingray shuffle), and not to touch their lower back unless we wanted a spine in our arm.  Most importantly we were told to stay calm, something many tourists failed at.  A few minutes after lowering myself into the water both of my arms were grabbed by older women who were screeching in fear at the same time.  After that experience I moved quickly but carefully to the outer edge of the crowd.

Rays intermingling with the tourists at the stingray city sandbar.

When we arrived to the sand bar, a floating bait bucket filled with squid was placed in the water.  The squid was available as food for whomever wanted to feed a ray.  I did not, although that did not prevent a ray from pushing my torso with its body in a demand for squid.  I cannot describe how hard that ray pushed me other than to say, it did not hurt me be definitely sent me off balance for a minute.  The rays congregate in this area for the free meal provided by the tour groups.  However, I had no problem remembering they are wild animals and that I was on their home turf.  

Rays swarming the area around the squid-filled bait bucket.  Rays can smell the squid.

My boyfriend fearlessly feeding a ray.

After the bait bucket was emptied of squid, the rays quickly lost interest in us and left for other tour groups still equipped with squid.  I swam back to the boat, climbed aboard and prepared myself for our 30 minute trip back to shore.  The entire trip required about 3 hours of our time in Grand Cayman and cost about $40.  I highly recommend this shore excursion to anyone visiting Grand Cayman.  The minimum physical fines requirement is the ability to climb a latter out of the water, and it is less expensive than many of the other shore excursions.  A few members of our tour group did not disembark from the boat, but merely watched the swarm of rays intermingle with tourists from the safety of the upper deck.  

A ray swimming by me at the edge of the crowd in stingray city.

Given hundreds of tourists swam with the rays only counting the day we visited, would you swim with the rays of stingray city?