Boat Day and Stingray City

Well, it took me exactly a week to post these pictures, but better late than never! As I mentioned in other posts, last Monday was Remembrance Day so Brent got the day off work. About 20 people from PwC and BDO (two accounting firms on the island) put together a boat tour. It was a half day trip with five stops (lasting from about 1-9pm) - all for $25 a person!

These pictures were taken with my Canon PowerShot point and shoot...I was too nervous to take the SLR on the boat! I borrowed a couple shots from others on the boat too. As always, you can click on the images to see them larger.

Our first stop was just a wide open part of the ocean where you could dive for conch. I didn't get in at this point, but Brent did. He borrowed a snorkel mask and retrieved a conch shell for me!


Look at all the shells they found!


The creature inside the shell - see his eyeball at the top corner? The boat driver cut out the conch so we could feed it to the stringrays at Stingray City. He also made some kind of cracker spread with it, which was pretty tasty.


The second stop was Stingray City. This is such a crazy spot. Basically it's a sandbar out in the middle of the ocean. You can't see any land, but it's only about waist deep. It's a big tourist spot - over the years countless boats have come along with pails of cut-up squid meat, which attracts dozens of stingrays to the feeding spot.

I found this history on wikipedia, which I thought was pretty interesting: "It may be that stingrays began gathering in the area decades ago when fisherman returned from an excursion and cleaned their fish in the calm water of the shallows and sandbar area. The fish guts were thrown overboard and the stingrays eventually congregated to feast on the discarded guts. Soon the stingrays associated the sound of a boat engine with food. As this practice turned into a tradition, divers realized that the stingrays could be fed by hand."

Brent was one of the first to jump in. Watch out, Brenty, it's coming right for you!


Look at all those stingrays surrounding Brent and Nate!


These next three pictures are from Mike Edgington. He brought his camera out into the water and got some cool shots. Here's a stingray up close and personal!


Brent holding a stingray


For the record, I did pet a stingray, but opted not to hold one at this point. I was pretty busy concentrating on not audibly freaking out every one brushed against my leg. That and repeatedly turning in circles to make sure none of them snuck up on me.


After I got back on the boat, I took this picture of all the jet skis parked at Stingray City. It's neat that this is just a public spot open to anyone who can get here.


View from boat window


Crowds interacting with the stingray


What boat trip would be complete without cheez-its?


The third stop was Rum Point. This is a beautiful public beach on the north side of the island. It had hammocks, picnic tables, and sun-loungers all along the shore. We didn't stay too long here, but I definitely want to come back and make a day of it.


On the long pier - Brent caught in a yawn smile :)


The fourth stop was Starfish Point. This was an interesting stop too because you anchor to the beach, but there is immediately this crazy drop where the ocean gets really deep. So the boys were all doing jumps off the top of the boat. That's Brent in the front:


So pretty!


Jenn took this picture of us from the top of the boat:


The fifth and final stop was to Kaibo, which is the name of the beach and the restaurant. We ate dinner at the beach bar, which was a great spot to watch the sunset.


After dinner we had a 30 minute ride back. It was very dark, but I liked night riding on the boat. At one point we could see fireworks going off for Georgetown's Heritage Day. They looked so much smaller when viewed from the ocean! All in all, it was a perfect day.