I think the best part of the cruise to this point wasn’t even on the ship. The sting ray excursion was so incredible that the rest of the entire cruise pales in comparison. We chose the sting rays over the dolphin swim simply because it offered more time with the rays. We were in the water with the rays for about 3 hours. It was on a private island, the rays seemed to be treated well, and the guides were quite knowledgeable about the rays.
Feeding the rays was incredible. It wasn’t as squishy as I had expected and it was really funny. We lined up in 2 rows across from each other. One line was parallel to the shore and the other line was parallel to the first line. The guide then went through the line with a couple of coolers and handed out frozen little squids. The rays knew exactly what to do. They swam in between the lines and grabbed the food.
Rays have their mouth and eyes on the underside of their body. To eat, they just vacuum up the food. So the rays were swimming up and down the line sucking up the food as they went past. Sometimes they would get confused and end up behind us and try to vacuum our legs or feet. There were rays flapping all over the place as they tried to get all the food. It was really a feeding frenzy and we were in the middle of it. Add that excitement to the fact that there were about 3 teenage girls in the group and it was a screaming good time! Sorry, had to say it. Then the guide singled out a huge ray and we all got pictures holding it. I am still looking for my pix. It was pretty cool since they got the pix while the ray was in mid flap.
The last hour of the excursion we spent on the other side of the island. There were lounge chairs lined up on the beach and the bar was there. We all pulled the lounge chairs into the water far enough where we were laying in the water but it wasn’t lapping over us constantly. Though there was a rogue wave or two…in fact, the only complaint I had about it was that a wave came up and splashed salt water into my fruity, girly drink. I drank it any way, it wasn’t that much salt water and the damn thing cost $7!!
I could tell I was getting a bit pink. I had been applying sunblock all day, but I was also in the water and the life vest was rubbing on my shoulders. Laying there in the water I draped my t-shirt over my head so my face would be protected and just basked. I had forgotten how good it felt to just lay in the sun.
I wore my sarong over my swimsuit back to the ship and after my shower I put on a sundress so there wouldnt be too many clothes rubbing on my increasingly sensitive skin. After a quick look in the mirror (no stroke today!)I knew that I was going to be uncomfortable later on…it was 1 in the afternoon and I was already sunburned, and it was only going to be worse as the day wore on. That in mind, we stayed in the air conditioned ship and just wandered around. They didn’t serve alcohol since they were in port, so I grabbed ice coffees from the bars we passed.
The ship was nice and empty during this time since everyone was either in port or on a shore excursion. We found the library and puttered around on the lower decks for a while. It was pretty relaxing to just wander around the nearly empty ship and explore.
By this time all of the sun and lack of sleep had caught up with me. We had supper at the italian restaurant and I was dead to the world by 10. No partying for me that night!
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