Once on each tropical vacation, Andy joins me scuba diving.
Today was that day.
Andy picked a good day for his dive. Our first dive was off a coral wall. (A coral wall is a huge shelf of coral, potentially dropping down to thousands of feet, and you swim along the side of it over the drop-off.) The second was along ridges of coral. Both were beautiful.
At noon, I got back to the hotel and wolfed down a quick lunch. Then it was off snorkeling with the girls. The first two snorkel sites were nice enough – a little coral along a sandy bottom, with a diverse set of wildlife (including a four-foot long barracuda, a ray, and several conch). The third site was quite special: Stingray City.
Stingray City is a sand bar where several of the tour boats go with their customers. You get off the boat, wade through waist-deep water, and are swarmed by stingrays looking for you to feed them. The guides hand you pieces of squid and the rays slide up you looking for food. You can pet them, hold them, kiss them, and do whatever else you like. Just watch out for those barbed tails!
Here’s some pictures:
And here is a video: