Steve Irwin would be proud

Alright, so back to the vacay.

One of my favorite excursions during the trip was on Grand Cayman Island.

Note: if you ever take a trip, try to book excursions with outside vendors rather than with your cruise line. There will be far fewer tourists in your group and it's often significantly cheaper.

And a huge perk of these islands is that you get to participate in at-your-own-risk events, in that there's no waiver, very few safety precautions, and often little to no direction. All of which are huge benefits if you're looking for adventure and definitely not something that would happen in the U.S. Did I mention that we spent an hour signing our lives away - literally - prior to skydiving?



Anywho, the Grand Cayman Wave Runner excursion was definitely an adventure!

After arriving at this gorgeous resort situated on a white sand beach overlooking the Gulf, we paid our money and were introduced to our jet skis.

With a total of three minutes of instruction, including a brief statement that if you've never driven a jet ski before you're kinda screwed, we rode off into the sunset.

Okay, not quite, it was 10 a.m.

But our rather rude "guide" kept the pack moving at a quick pace - though not quite quick enough given that the SO was reprimanded on more than one occasion for getting too far ahead of the others. Though what do you expect when you're moving along at full throttle?

Looking back, they definitely should have broken groups out based on ability level...then we really could have moved!

Regardless, it was a quick 4 mile trip over to the stingray sandbar.

This is where things got really interesting.

Okay, so nothing too out of the ordinary happened, actually, but it was great to hang out with these little....er, big guys.

We got to roam around with them:



Touch them:

(Note the appearance of the SO's hand here...)

And even kiss them!


I have to admit, there was a hint of fear inside me, given that these creatures have some lethal barbs that have been known to puncture the heart, but wading around in their turf, letting them swim by and rub up against you with their cool, smooth skin was pretty amazing.

And having them do this felt pretty good on the ole sunburned back!


If you're ever in Grand Cayman, I highly recommend taking a trip out to the sandbar. And if you can, get with a smaller group and make the trip on jet ski - it definitely made the experience that much more personal. I'll certainly be doing so again, if I have anything to say about it!

Cheers!

-A