CAYMAN ISLANDS

Well after a busy first day of getting acquainted with the cruise ship, we got up early to go on an excursion, snorkeling and swimming with the stingrays. we tendered into the island early, and once there quickly made our way through the barrage of " look at my shit " street vendors. At the excursion sight, they loaded us all into a boat to take us out to the coral to do some snorkeling. As the time approached to jump into the ocean water, I could feel my 'bits and pieces' cringing at the thought of this very chilly water hitting them so early in the day, but like a real trooper and the fact that my wife and daughters had already jumped in, I took the plunge.......OMG that was a very cold "how do you do". Snorkeling for me was a filler to the more anticipated stingray swim, so I went through the motions. After several dips and swims with the fish and coral, we were finally heading to the stingrays, and I could see the excitement in the faces of my fellow travelers.

As we arrived at the spot, we could immediately see the stingrays swimming freely among the other swimmers, who were already here from other tours. Both of my daughters and my wife were in very fast, and as usual I was last to make the plunge.

I was amazed, as was all involved, at the huge stingrays as they rubbed up against us, and some even seemed to climb up onto our chests as to say "hug me". Our guide then turned to all of us and said, "OK everyone you are going to receive a kiss from the stingray. It traditionally is 7 years of good luck." As I had not won any lotteries, I thought maybe this may be the turning point. So we all puckered up for a smooch.

It had turned out to be an awesome day. both my girls were exhausted and slept on the way back. I'm not sure if the exhaustion was due to the activities of the day, or all the activities in the evening and early morning.

Before we headed back to the Ship we decided to have

a quick lunch on a very nice patio, seemed to be a great way to say goodbye to the Cayman Islands. We all enjoyed what we had, however it came to my attention that the Cayman Currency was worth 25% more than the American dollar. So when the bill came, it seems the last laugh was had by the Caymans as my bill for a light lunch for 4 reached $133.00 US. Wow

Tomorrow we head to Roatan.