Georgetown, Grand Cayman.  Today we had an early tour at 7:30 am.  We took a bus to the other side of the island (about 10 minutes), and then a 30-minute boat ride out to the reef where we went snorkeling.  The water is about 12 feet deep and perfectly clear.  We got lots of good pictures with the throwaway waterproof cameras (no way I was going to take the digital).  Then we went out to a sand bar known as Sting Ray City, where the water is two to four feet deep.  We waded into the water and played with the sting rays.  This is an unbelievable experience.  You hold a piece of squid in your hand, put it under the water so the sting ray can see/smell it, and the fish will come up and suck it right out of your hand.  The rays are pretty tame, and very good at getting out of the way of clumsy tourists.  They’re very docile, too, and only dangerous if you step on them when they’re buried under the sand.  The picture at left shows Debra holding a sting ray with the help of the guide.

There were two other cruise ships in port today:  the Carnival Triumph, and the Holland America Maasdam.  Our good friends Jeff and Carol Duntemann went on a cruise this week, too, on Holland America.  I wonder if they were on the Maasdam.  We kept an eye out for them all day, but with three ships in port (about 5,000 people), the chances of actually seeing them were pretty small.

There’s apparently some good shopping in Georgetown, but all we saw were expensive jewelry places and expensive trinket stores.  We didn’t have a lot of time for shopping because the ship left port at 4:00 pm.