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Cruise: Day 5 - Stingrays
We learned just a tiny bit about the Cayman Islands on our way to the boat that would take us snorkeling.
First stop: Stingray City. There were lots of people here, but plenty of friendly stingrays to go around. Here is what I discovered:
* how sharp the skin is - not very. It's a bit rough on top, but nothing like a shark's. The bottom is very, very smooth. It's actually covered with a protective mucus, and for this reason we were not allowed to wear shoes of any kind or gloves.
* what the eyelids look like - I could see the top eyelid, but not the bottom one. I never saw a stingray blink. I'm guessing they only do it in reaction to something getting too close to their eye. No, I did not test this hypothesis.
* how many fins and gills I can see - There's a hole the size of a cherry tomato in each side that just stays open when the stingray is being held above water but which has a flap that moves over it under water. I just noticed one other set of fins besides the big ones; I couldn't see any resemblance to sharks at all, even when I was looking for it.
* how they swim - yep, it's beautiful and elegant
* what it feels like if they eat out of your hand - we were told to hold a squid loosely in our hand, shaping our hand like an ice cream cone with part of the squid sticking out the top. Then a stingray would smell this and come by and suck it out of your hand. We were assured that they did not have any teeth. I decided that they were lying and that these rays do have teeth, like shark do, but they are very small and blunt. The suction is very powerful and I definitely felt some roughness. Raaga123 got bitten pretty hard, but although this resulted in an interesting pattern on her skin, the skin was not broken and there was no blood.
I also learned that the sting is halfway down the tail.
Stingray City is a popular excursion at this stop. We found this in our cabin upon our return:
Our next two stops were at coral reefs which had some cool parts and some very pretty fish, but they were mostly dead. And we realized it's because of millions of people visiting and peeing and touching. Yes, it's exciting to interact with sealife, but when it's likely to hurt them, I'd just as soon watch an IMAX movie about them. The people making those movies are experts and do not hurt things, and they collect images for a long time on very high-quality film, and it's totally awesome, and from now on, that's going to be good enough for me and Robin.
**
This was the night we ate at The Point Supper Club, which cost extra and was very fancy. Here are the differences I noticed between eating here and eating at our regular place:
* free starter - here is where I learned that if you make tiny balls of honeydew melon and sprinkle poppy seeds on top, it looks like you're eating an alien life form, or perhaps large roe, but it tastes just fine.
* portion sizes were considerably larger, making it impossible to even pretend to comfortably eat everything.
* service was slower, perhaps to give us more time to digest between courses, but this strategy didn't work. Also, they had trouble keeping Robin's water glass full.
* all main courses consisted of large hunks of meat. Of course most normal people who are not vegetarians find large hunks of meat to be special.
* one-third of the most popular dessert was the best thing I ate there: a flourless chocolate cake a la mode (below, far right). There was also a fudge a la mode and a very alcoholic tiramisu. And that was all just one dessert.
* the food was even more artfully arranged, with even more artful flourishes.
Afterwards, since it was the birthday of one of us, extra plates came out. This normally exciting prospect was met with groaning. We began the happy-birthday song with groans of varying pitch. This comes out a bit like a dirge.
No Thanksgiving dinner was available here, so part of me feels like I missed Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I ate like a pig for a full week solid, and that's what Thankgsiving's all about, right?
First stop: Stingray City. There were lots of people here, but plenty of friendly stingrays to go around. Here is what I discovered:
* how sharp the skin is - not very. It's a bit rough on top, but nothing like a shark's. The bottom is very, very smooth. It's actually covered with a protective mucus, and for this reason we were not allowed to wear shoes of any kind or gloves.
* what the eyelids look like - I could see the top eyelid, but not the bottom one. I never saw a stingray blink. I'm guessing they only do it in reaction to something getting too close to their eye. No, I did not test this hypothesis.
* how many fins and gills I can see - There's a hole the size of a cherry tomato in each side that just stays open when the stingray is being held above water but which has a flap that moves over it under water. I just noticed one other set of fins besides the big ones; I couldn't see any resemblance to sharks at all, even when I was looking for it.
* how they swim - yep, it's beautiful and elegant
* what it feels like if they eat out of your hand - we were told to hold a squid loosely in our hand, shaping our hand like an ice cream cone with part of the squid sticking out the top. Then a stingray would smell this and come by and suck it out of your hand. We were assured that they did not have any teeth. I decided that they were lying and that these rays do have teeth, like shark do, but they are very small and blunt. The suction is very powerful and I definitely felt some roughness. Raaga123 got bitten pretty hard, but although this resulted in an interesting pattern on her skin, the skin was not broken and there was no blood.
I also learned that the sting is halfway down the tail.
Stingray City is a popular excursion at this stop. We found this in our cabin upon our return:
Our next two stops were at coral reefs which had some cool parts and some very pretty fish, but they were mostly dead. And we realized it's because of millions of people visiting and peeing and touching. Yes, it's exciting to interact with sealife, but when it's likely to hurt them, I'd just as soon watch an IMAX movie about them. The people making those movies are experts and do not hurt things, and they collect images for a long time on very high-quality film, and it's totally awesome, and from now on, that's going to be good enough for me and Robin.
**
This was the night we ate at The Point Supper Club, which cost extra and was very fancy. Here are the differences I noticed between eating here and eating at our regular place:
* free starter - here is where I learned that if you make tiny balls of honeydew melon and sprinkle poppy seeds on top, it looks like you're eating an alien life form, or perhaps large roe, but it tastes just fine.
* portion sizes were considerably larger, making it impossible to even pretend to comfortably eat everything.
* service was slower, perhaps to give us more time to digest between courses, but this strategy didn't work. Also, they had trouble keeping Robin's water glass full.
* all main courses consisted of large hunks of meat. Of course most normal people who are not vegetarians find large hunks of meat to be special.
* one-third of the most popular dessert was the best thing I ate there: a flourless chocolate cake a la mode (below, far right). There was also a fudge a la mode and a very alcoholic tiramisu. And that was all just one dessert.
* the food was even more artfully arranged, with even more artful flourishes.
Afterwards, since it was the birthday of one of us, extra plates came out. This normally exciting prospect was met with groaning. We began the happy-birthday song with groans of varying pitch. This comes out a bit like a dirge.
No Thanksgiving dinner was available here, so part of me feels like I missed Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I ate like a pig for a full week solid, and that's what Thankgsiving's all about, right?