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When we took a cruise of the Western
Caribbean, it included Grand Cayman
as a port. We were able to scuba
dive one of the shore dives there.
There are actually two shore dives
off the downtown area of Georgetown
which were recommended to us. For
cruise ship passengers, it is fairly
easy to locate. As soon as the
tender boats arrive at the pier, we
walked to the right and less than 5
minutes; we arrived at Eden Rocks
Dive Centre. Don't be fooled by a
new competitor they have just before
it. Eden Rocks Dive Centre is closer
to the dive sites than their new
competitor. Cayman Islands are
relatively expensive for diving with
an average of $85 US for a two tank
boat dive trip. However, with
limited time as with cruise ship
passengers, we were able to do
decent diving for much less. If you
are bringing all your gear except
for tanks and weights, you can rent
them for about $10 US. Even renting
complete gear will run much less
than a boat trip. Eden Rocks has a
patio with lockers in the back and
an area with a ladder where the
entry to the water is. The two dive
sites are called Eden Rocks and
Devil's Grotto. They are reached
with a short swim out towards some
various buoys that mark the sites.
We ended up doing Devil's Grotto
which had some nice coral
formations. The maximum depth was
about 46 feet with a water
temperature of about 80 degrees. The
visibility was even better than what
we experienced in Key Largo just a
few days prior. There was a very
nice large swim through tunnel and
several smaller ones throughout the
site. Inside the large tunnel, we
saw a large resident tarpon. The
fish life including parrotfish,
groupers and tangs was healthy at
this shore dive and it is
interesting to note that it even
exists so close to the cruise ships.
Other divers said they saw some
turtles too. We would like to do the
other shore dive site, Eden Rocks
which is to the right of Devil's
Grotto during the next time we are
in Grand Cayman. These sites are
ideal for beginner level divers. My
partner was a newly certified diver
and had no problems with this shore
dive. One of the most famous natural
attractions in Grand Cayman Island
is Stingray City. This is an area in
the ocean not far from the northern
tip of Grand Cayman where tourists
can get up close to hundreds of
friendly stingrays. Stingray City
can get quite crowded especially
when the cruise ship passengers are
at port. Fortunately for us scuba
divers, the masses are taken to a
shallower section of Stingray City
where the sandbars are high enough
for tourists to stand in waist deep
waters. Scuba divers are taken by
one of the many dive operators in
Grand Cayman to the deeper part of
Stingray City. However, this deeper
section is still very much a shallow
dive by scuba diving standards. In
fact, Stingray City has been
referred to in the scuba diving
world as the best twelve foot or
four meter dive in the world. It is
believed that many years ago,
sailors visiting the area threw fish
remains overboard and soon noticed
the stingrays coming for the free
food. These particular stingrays
became conditioned over the years to
the humans and the food handouts
unlike stingrays elsewhere in the
Caribbean. If you have seen
stingrays during dives elsewhere in
the world, you will have noticed
that they are usually quite shy and
will swim away but not those here at
Stingray City.
The dive boat took us to a
designated site and indeed the depth
was very shallow as we could easily
see the bottom. The site itself was
pretty barren with just the odd reef
cluster around a mostly sandy
bottom. The dive master gave us a
briefing on how to interact with the
stingrays warning everyone that even
though they will appear to be
friendly, they should still be
regarded as wild animals. We were
told not to touch them by their
razor sharp tails or abuse them in
any manner. A bucket filled with
squid parts was suspended in the
water underneath the dive boat and
this is where we fetched our supply
of food to feed the stingrays. As
soon as we jumped in the water and
made our descent to the bottom, we
could see the first few stingrays
coming towards us like UFOs. The
dive masters showed us a trick where
if we held the squid in our closed
fists and moved our arms in wide
circular arcs around us, we could
make the stingrays follow our hands.
It was sort of like teasing them for
a bit before giving them their
treats. Their mouths were located
underneath their flat bodies and we
were instructed to hold the food in
our palms flat facing up when
feeding them. The dive masters had
demonstrated this on the boat using
a little stuffed stingray toy during
the briefing. With their keen sense
of smell, the stingrays hovered
towards and over the food to collect
their squid snacks. It’s was
incredible to see how fast they
could stop in the water if they
sensed food. They don’t have any
teeth but have these two strong
structures like vise grips in their
mouths they use to chomp with.
Feeding them sometimes felt like a
vacuum cleaner sucking up debris on
our palms. Sometimes, we felt their
vise grip mouths close up against
the flats of our palms. This is why
we were advised to keep our palms as
flat as possible in order to avoid
them from closing up on our fingers.
Because the eyes of the stingrays
were on the top of their bodies,
they couldn’t see our palms when
they hovered directly over them.
They would have to guess where our
palms and the food were. At one
instance, I was holding on to the
food a little too long in order to
further tease one stingray. This one
missed my palm and his jaw closed
down on my forearm instead leaving
me with a nice bruise. It was my
fault since the stingray couldn’t
see and thought that my forearm was
my palm holding the squid. I was a
bit careless and should have paid
more attention to where the
stingray’s mouth was. No other diver
on our boat had any other problems
or mishaps. Some of the stingrays
although not aggressive, will be all
over a diver if they still sense
food but couldn’t find the palm. It
was hilarious to watch some other
divers pushed over on the sandy
bottom by a stingray trying to find
the squid. One large stingray even
bumped me in the scuba mask but it
was all fun. If the stingrays sense
that a diver doesn’t have any food
after awhile, they will go towards
another diver that does. The
Stingray City dive is a single tank
trip usually done in the afternoon.
It is a unique dive that is worth
doing but keep in mind that the
stingrays are the main and usually
the only attractions during this
dive. There isn’t much else to see
in terms of other marine life or
coral reefs at the site so it would
be advised to spend the morning
doing some regular reef dives too in
order to take in what Grand Cayman
scuba diving has to offer.
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