Hmmmm.... what's happened? LOTS of snorkeling! We really love snorkeling. The reefs here are beautiful and there are fish EVERYWHERE! We even saw a SHARK!!!!
That's not actually the shark that we saw while snorkeling. The one in the picture ^there^ was actually at the Cayman Turtle Farm. More on that place in a bit. The shark that we saw looked a lot like that one, though... It was a Nurse Shark. It was young and small.... probably 3 feet long. But, it was AMAZING!!! It wasn't big enough to be really scary. And, they're bottom feeders, who feed on shellfish. So, their teeth are for grinding and not tearing. But, it would probably be a real drag to have one of these suckers get hold of your finger or toes!
We also saw a stingray while snorkeling. It was beautiful! And, we finally saw a turtle while snorkeling, too! I've been dying to see a turtle for years. I've seen just about everything that I wanted to see so far. But, we still can't get enough. We're snorkeling twice a day. It's so much fun and great exercise, too!
Speaking of exercise, we've been playing a lot of tennis. Neither of us are very good. Krystal's never played. And, I haven't played since high school. But, we're discovering that we really like it. So, we'll probably dive in head first and make this part of our exercise regimen when we return. Here's what we look like pretending to play tennis:
And, yes, that is a tennis ball in my pocket. ;)
We checked out the Cayman Turtle Farm. It would be awesome if this place was just there to help replenish the declining sea turtle population. But, it's not. They do release a lot of turtles into the wild... but, they also raise them for food. Turtle steak is a popular food item on Grand Cayman. But, don't worry.... We refuse to eat those cute critters! The park was waaaay expensive for what it was. There were some tanks where you could see turtles in various stages of growth. You could even pick them up and pet them. Apparently, they like to be petted under the chin. I don't speak turtle, so I couldn't really verify this.
They also had a predator tank, with some brown sharks, some nurse sharks, and some other predator fish that were much less interesting. We got to see a scheduled feeding for the nurse sharks. They're training them to be fed by hand. It seems pretty scary. They feed on shell fish that typically live just under the sand on the ocean floor. They have a very powerful sucking apparatus. They suck crabs, conch, lobster, and other shellfish out of the sand and grind 'em up. So, it looked like it would be pretty easy for one of the biologists who were feeding them to lose a finger. It was fascinating, though... Like some live Discovery Channel shit. Very cool.
Here are some more pics from the predator tank:
brown shark
nurse sharks
They also had some cool birds:
We took a couple of posed pics out in front of the Turtle Farm. The sea was rough, and it was windy. We wanted to get some pics of the water crashing on the rocks:
We also wanted a pic of me with our sweet-ass ride:
Lets see.... What else? hmmm.... Well, we checked out a local skate park. It's billed as the largest skatepark in the world. I can't confirm that... but, it was badass... It made me want to get in better shape and rehab my bad knee properly, so I can get back on a skateboard.
That's it for now. I'll post more when I get around to it. I'm sure you understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment