I Freaking Snorkeled With Stingrays!!!

I can't even find words to describe this! As Katura declared in a video, I am NOT a good swimmer. I've never passed a swimming test. I went to the lessons. I didn't exactly leave them with passing grades. And when I do swim I don't really go underwater. To go under I HAVE to use my fingers to plug my nose. In Hawaii I tried to snorkel once and I completely sucked. I didn't even do it for a second. I ended up using goggles, plugging my nose and holding my breath while my brother in law guided me around with my lifejacket. So when Katura and I decided to sign us up for snorkeling with stingrays I really had no idea what was going to happen.

Upon check-in we received our lifejackets and snorkel gear. Shawn is pretty much a pro at snorkeling, so he was great and got our goggles fitted for us and taught us how to get all situated. He taught us how to breathe, and Katura had no problem. Breathing should be easy, right?!? But for some reason I could not get myself to become a mouth breather. But I wasn't going to give up!

We had a little orientation with one of the Castaway residents that takes care of the stingrays. They are all female rays and many of them are pregnant. It was really cool to see the pregnant ones and it was easy to tell who was pregnant once we learned how to identify it. Also they assured us that we cannot be stung. They can trim the stingers just like we trim our nails, so there is no pain for the ladies and they will grow back. 

Soon we were off to the beach and being presented with a bucket of slimy seafood to feed the ladies when they came up on the platform. You just hold the food under the water on the Mickey head. When they swim up to your hand just move your hand away leaving the food and they will grab it. Also we had to be careful with our feet. They were constantly tickling us when they swam by, and we were taught to do the Stingray Shuffle so we wouldn't risk stepping on any that had buried themselves in the sand. 

I absolutely loved them! They felt so soft, and not really slimy, but definitely slick. But not slick in the way the dolphin felt. We even felt their tail area which was NOT soft! You definitely wouldn't want to accidentally step on that. Ouch!!

So feeding was done and we had a lot of time to head out into the closed lagoon area to swim with the stingrays. Time to put myself to the test and see if I could actually snorkel or if I would be floating and looking down into the water. The title of this blog gives it away, I DID IT!!! It was hard at first. I had a huge mental battle, but I looked over and Katura was already gone snorkeling like she does it all the time, so I had to try. I feel like I was always telling myself "breathe in, breath out, mouth in, mouth out". I even got fancy enough that Shawn and I were able to talk to each other underwater without me drowning!

We all loved it so much... so much that we are signed up for it TWO times on our next cruise! This time my mom will be with us and she feels about it the way I did before I tried. So hopefully I can help her be a mouth breather and we can fumble our way through the lagoon together!