Swimming with Stingrays: July, 2004

At our next stop, I lead the way into the shallow water to encounter the stingrays, and again I was unexpectedly greeted, this time by stingrays four to six feet in diameter swimming up to brush against me like kittens seeking a bowl of milk. These creatures look surprisingly friendly up close, like dolphins that have been flattened by a steam roller. They ate fish out of my hand, and any fear I had quickly evaporated. This was before Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin met his untimely demise as a result of a stingray's venomous barb piercing his chest, or perhaps I wouldn't have felt so at ease.
Again, they had to drag me out of the water when it was time to go.

The tour continued with a barbecue on a nearby motu (small private island), which included free drinks and some great marlin, both as sushi salad and barbecued. Snorkeling off the shore in the afternoon would have ordinarily been a highlight, since a couple of friendly stingrays came quite close to shore, but an underwater photographer showing a video of our morning dives proved more tempting to many of us. We were prepared to spend up to $40 for a DVD, but the Frenchman’s price of $80 was a bit too steep for our blood. If we could have distinctly identified ourselves in the movie, perhaps we would have bit, but we decided to rely on our memories of this $60 tour.