Swimming with a stingray fever (Antigua)

Yes, that’s what a group of stingrays is called. A fever.  One of the more unusual collection names I’ve seen.  Although my favorite is probably “a murder of crows”.

In Antigua (Ann-tee-guh), one of the popular attractions  is to swim with stingrays at Stingray City. This is quite fun and easy to do.

The boat to Stingray City for the NCL line tour leaves from an area that has many picnic tables, a few pop-up shops selling the same things you see everywhere, and bathroom with showers.

The experience starts with a brief introduction to the stingray. Using a stuffed stingray  similar to the one on the left, they explain the difference between the males and the females, in that males have 2 claspers near their tails and are smaller than the females when full grown.

For safety, it is explained that you should shuffle through the sand so as to not step on them and inadvertently get stung. This causes the tourists to all bring up Steve Irwin who died in a bizarre (and really unlikely to happen to you) stingray accident.

Additionally, they explain how to feed stingrays as you’ll have an option to do that while out in the fever (sorry, I can’t help myself). You can hold a piece of food in your hand loosely and let the stingrays suck it out of your hand as they swim by. If you do not let go you will suffer a stingray hickey as they suck your hand into their mouth.

There is a brief boat ride out to the location. Then you get off the boat and walk on a floating platform to step down into the water.

Immediately you are surrounded by stingrays — they know the food is coming. First the guides let you hold a stingray. They are velvety soft except for some bumps on their backs.  The tour operator brings a bucket of squid that the stingrays will suck from your hands, which was emptied pretty quickly by the stingray collective.

You have a bit over a half hour to play with the stingrays and watch them. They aren’t afraid of humans at all, so mostly you just try to avoid stepping on them accidentally as they smoothly glide around and between all the humans, not seeming to mind all the hands reaching to touch their smooth skin.

Then everyone gets back on the boat and goes back to the landing for free rum punches. These are big manly-man punches and I think everyone had one glass or less since they are so strong.

One note: there are no lockers at Stingray City for your stuff. NCL said in it’s tour listing there were, so some people are misinformed.

While looking for a stuffed stingray similar to what they used, I found this super cute set.