Poker Quartet

Have you ever been to Southern California? In the winter time? The weather there is absolutely amazing!
Except for a few weeks in January, the days are all sunny, in the 70s, 50% humidity, and cool at night for sleeping. No air conditioning is needed and very little heat in the winter. One July a few years ago I spent two weeks visiting my brother in Oceanside, California for a summer vacation. My wife, Marianne, decided to visit her friends in Munich, so we took separate vacations – a great idea to recharge the old batteries.

After a wonderful breakfast of buttermilk pancakes (the real thing, my brother is a great cook), I borrowed his bicycle, strapped on a backpack containing a good mystery, a cherry yogurt, my notebook, a book of poems I wrote and my camera. Three miles south led me to the charming town of Carlsbad. I noticed a stained glass store and stopped in to talk to the owner and watch him work on a beautiful piece of his own design. I took a picture of him with his piece over by the window so the morning sun could highlight the rainbow of colors in the glass.

On the left a few streets further I saw a dance school letting out. I took a picture of one of the aspiring dancers as she put on her dancing shoes. I introduced myself to the dance instructor and promised to bring the picture to her later in the afternoon. The subject I chose happened to be the instructor’s daughter, so she couldn’t wait to see the finished picture. A wonderful aroma of baking bread caught my nose and I bicycled around until I found the source. A small arcade of stores contained a bakery which served coffee and Danish on a covered patio. This spot became a favorite of mine in the next two weeks, enjoying a second breakfast and talking with the regulars. A few were even poets! One of the regulars mentioned that he didn’t have any hobbies but he liked to collect poker chips. A few days later I came across an antique store. The proprietor said that on of the antique boxes he had for sale contained some old poker chips. He said I could have them all for two dollars. They made the poker chip collector very happy. Of course I had to take a picture of the lovely Mexican girl behind the counter with all those long loaves of fresh baked bread.

In the center of town stood a lovely fountain in a small park. Across the way I spied an unusual boutique selling fish related items. The owner painted beautiful pictures of exotic fish, framed and matted them for sale. Among her creations was a mobile of various reef fish made out of tin and hand painted to look like the real thing. A nearby poster of an underwater scene made a perfect background for a picture of the mobile. The result fooled a lot of people into thinking those fish were real!

By now it was one o’clock and by the advice of a local, I traveled to a restaurant which had in its window two huge vats of gleaming stainless steel surrounded by shiny clean pipes, valves and all the paraphernalia needed to make beer. My kind of restaurant. The deli inside made me up a huge sandwich accompanied by a frosted mug of their own brand of beer, a strong, but light ale with a definite hops flavor. Delicious.

Retrieving a double set of my photos from Motophoto, I retraced my steps and dropped off the extras to the owners. Of course I refused any payment, thanking them for being so generous with their time and making my stay in California a pleasant one. A few days later I was approached by a young man whose mother owned the fish store and asked me to take a few pictures of himself for use in his acting career. I did so and accepted the cost of the enlargements. I hope he makes it.

During the next two weeks I made many friends on my rounds in Carlsbad. One day was spent on a nice fourteen mile ride down the coast along the ocean. The scenery was magnificent! Another day found me riding the coastal train on a trip up the coast to La Jolla. The conductor was nice enough to allow me to take my bike on the train. Some other highlights included a session with a piano teacher who politely listened to my songs, offering some expert advice, and a visit to an artist’s shop. The artist, who was in his nineties, rented a small ramshackle bungalow on the main street on the outskirts of town filling the front room and porch with his paintings. They were priced reasonably, and seemed to be worth every penny. One I liked was a painting of a red chicken I swear looked casually annoyed. He claimed that one of his paintings, bought by President Kennedy, hung in the White House. I noticed that he didn’t have any food to eat and asked him what he liked. He answered that he sometimes made a big pot of black bean vegetable goulash on his hot plate which kept him in food for a week or more. So I went to the local outdoor vegetable market and bought all the necessary ingredients and left them on his porch. I counted this as my good deed for the day. Much too soon I was home again, sporting a California tan, a bunch of photo memories, and lots of story ideas.

Nowadays I like to take photographs and turn them into digital art for art shows.

When GlaxoSmithKline released their first over-the-counter weight loss drug in 2007, it was bound to be a huge hit, since many people are now overweight, or simply want to lose a few pounds. Alli was specifically made to treat obesity. When the prevalent epidemic of people becoming overweight came to be, diet practitioners and gym trainers tried to find various ways to lose weight, yet only a few succeeded in the pharmaceutical field. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved of this drug, simply because they were convinced that Alli can safely and effectively cure the growing problem of obesity; a problem encountered by thousands of people all over the world.

Although Alli has side effects, according to Drug Information Online, these are temporary. Users of Alli can now breathe with ease after learning about this fact.

The gradual results when taking Alli are steatorrhea, or the presence of oily loose stools. If you have an allergic reaction to Alli, contact your doctor immediately and stop taking Alli for the moment.

The good news regarding the common side effects of Alli is that the fat-absorbing action works well with the body. Plus, it is merely temporary, and will eventually lessen as the user continues treatments with the weight loss pill.

Health insurance usually isn’t top priority when planning for an education. In general, health insurance isn’t typically utmost in a student’s mind. Teens imagine they are immortal and naturally they will not become ill.

However, irrespective of how healthy an individual is, there is no guarantee of their continuing good health. Inexpensive student health insurance is not a great plan, it is utterly necessary.

Students who are included in a parent’s health insurance are by and large covered up to they turn 23. For individuals who do not have insurance cover through their family policy, an essential part of planning for going to school should be obtaining an inexpensive health insurance policy.

So what’s important in health insurance designed for college students? So what is a deductible? It is an annual payment made before any health benefits begin, much the same as an auto deductible. To illustrate, if your deductible is $500, you must to pay that sum before getting any benefits from the insurance policy. What’s a co-pay? Once your deductible is met, commonly for every doctor’s visit, medication, or operation you’ll need to contribute a part of the bill. This is called a co-pay.

Just what should your medical insurance plan pay for? Many plans are Health Maintenance Organization or Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA). This often means particular doctors might not be in your list of health providers and might not be included by the insurance policy. Most policies will include a directory of approved providers, so look at that before you select a medical insurance plan for college students.

What exactly does the phrase catastrophic insurance coverage mean? Limitations are common in college student medical insurance policies in particular as far as terminal illness, the coverage offered in virtually all student medical insurance is by and large lower than a standard policy.

Restrictions: Limitations are frequent in student health insurance. Be sure to read over your policy to discover the scope of your plan. Keep any health insurance documentation with you at all times. It is not just impossible to plan for an accident or illness, they’re also likely to take place at the worst possible time. Familiarize yourself with your plan, whether you’re covered by your parents or with your own insurance policy.

Investors and even non-investing people are more and more aware of the worth a financial planner can give. Regrettably, not all financial planners are dependable. Some of them are sparingly disguised as investment sales people. Financial planners who do not have adequate training in inclusive financial planning often know only what their companies tell them about a variety of investments to sell.
An excellent financial planner on the other hand, gives the impression of being knowledgeable at every feature of the client’s monetary situation ranging from budgets to real estate plans. More often than not, many planners, however, center their attention on one narrow aspect of a client’s monetary condition which usually is the area that corresponds with whatever financial training they have received.
There are only few financial planners who seek continuing education on their profession. A few excellent financial planners opt for the compliance of the RG146 in order to become competent in the area of finance. “RG146” stands for “Policy Statement 146″ and is a document governed under the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (FSRA) which is mandated and administered by the Australian Securities Investments Commission (ASIC).
When a financial planner has a RG146 compliance, it is an assurance that he or she is a knowledgeable and updated planner in the area of finance and investments services.

A barrister bookcase is a traditional bookcase Its discerning feature is a clear glass front. This glass front end is hinged at the allowing someone to easily admittance volumes and other legal documents simply by lifting the glass door. A Barrister’s bookcase is perfect for just about anything. Barrister bookcases were frequently used by lawyers since it was necessary for them to keep on moving. Nowadays, they are also very convenient, peculiarly if one is forever moving. This is because the bookcase is closed by use of doors.. This implies they can be moved while full.

Glass Furniture
Solid Barrister’s Bookshelves avert the use of the normal sidelong opening doors and use doors that have the up and over opening mechanism. A scissor mechanism when used inside the barrister shelves ensure the mobile doors do it in a parallel manner without getting the doors jam or tipped in the process. One favored position of A barrister bookcase is the ability to have several of these units stacked together and have them secured to a wall. When done well, these bookcases give the effect of an attractive cabinet. A of materials can be used to make barrister’s bookcases Whether it is constructed utilising wood or glass, barristers give an elgance to a room.

This special brand of furniture, despite many benifits,can be quite pricy. Fortuitously, their many rewards have moved some producers to start making replica editions and some in modern versions at very small prices. Some editions have simple looks. These can fit any theme.They can also be made into customized at little cost.They can be stacked together allowing them to be easily used to create very interesting unit placements. Some can be used to create sofa tables, kitchen tables or even dinning tables.

More Here bookshelves on twitter

It’s the correct period to purchase some cheap West End theatre show tickets. The West-End of London is the middle of entertainment! The Theatre quarter of London is 1 of the most adored tourist holiday-makers of London. As a result, it is no wonder that fans queue-up for a considerable number of hours at the box office without even a slight grimace on their faces to obtain West End show tickets. For fans who don’t like queuing, the internet or the telephone are always available to procure theatre tickets. Experience the West End on a budget with cheap theatre tickets for top London shows.

It’s feasible to book West End show tickets at sale rates. You can look at remarkable West End which include “Lion King,” “Mamma Mia,” and other top plays without shelling out ludicrous money. In addition to these plays, the other London theatre shows showing now comprise of “Chicago,” “Wicked,” “Sound of Music,” “Les Miserables,” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

So, if you’re on a short break to the Capital, then you’re going to have one of the greatest time of your whole life! Do not overlook to s West End in your places to visit. London is the birthplace of theatre. It possess over 35 superlative theatre productions running at any given time. Moreover this is not every single one. You can also have access to ticketing services that are experts in supplying you with the finest seats in the show. They are here to make your theatrical trip a truly cherished one.

Besides calling the ticketing services, you can purchase London theatre show tickets from the Leicester Square Box Office (more commonly known as LSBO) situated in Leicester Square, as well as from the ticket managers. The Leicester Square box offices are commonly open from 10 in the morning. They close about half an hour after the commencement of the evening show. If you decide on the ticket cubicle at Leicester Square, you can get discounts on shows for the present day’s performance. The stand is open from 10 o’clock in the morning to 7 o’clock in the evening during weekdays and weekend. However, on Sundays, it is typically open from 12 to 3 in the day. This is the solitary authoritative stall in London. It is operated by the Society of London Theatre. While you possibly will not purchase theatre tickets for each and every performance, you can of course get show tickets for the excellent hits. You can even visit the LSBO site for more info.

Sports shoes is believed to be the most indispensable piece of equipment you’ll splash out on so it is imperative that you pick & choose the suitable pair. Find superb deals on horse riding boots online today.

A large number of people do not appreciate that there are huge differences in the way sports footwear pad your feet. It is not good for your feet if you participate in football or tennis in the exact same shoes you wear whilst running.

“It has been reported, that sixty-five percent of the United Kingdom’s recreational male athletes and women athletes put on the incorrect trainers for their elected leisure activity,” he says. “Shoes are the most essential piece of exercise equipment you’ll ever purchase and changing what you wear on your feet can thwart injuries.”

Football can put lots of strain on the feet, particularly when playing on firm surfaces for example AstroTurf. The football boots can also put tension on your feet, and it’s not odd for a footballer to suffer from corns, calluses or damaged, thickened and ingrown toenails. A marvellous well-fitted pair of football shoes is vital & there should not be any signs of pressure on the foot after a football game or training session.

Racquet sports: It’s critical when participating in racquet sports, like that of tennis or squash, to pick shoes expressly intended for the purpose. These sports involve a lot of left-to-right movement and sports shoes won’t provide the required solidity. Racquet sport shoes are heavier and more rigid than jogging shoes, since their toes are engineered for stop-&-go action. Comfort ought to be your core concern and it is very important to replace your sports trainers recurrently.

Hill-walking is a terrific way to begin a gentle exercise regime, while the more daring go for mountaineering. It is good for your cardiovascular health but is lower impact & so comes with less risk of harm.

Namibia is a largely arid country of stark rough-hewn beauty. The most vivid images are those of a haunting technicolor landscape of swirling orange dunes, shimmering mirages and treacherous dust devils. The apparent desolation is deceptive and plant and animal life and even man has adapted to this environment. The country is designed almost specially with the active and adventure seeker in mind. Timeless deserts, thorn bush savanna, desolate wind ravaged coastlines, majestic canyons, and sun-baked saltpans are the bounty that awaits the traveler.

Namibia’s top draw is the Etosha National Park, rated as one of Africa’s finest game sanctuaries. The birding experience in the country is truly superior. The range of activities you can indulge in the unsurpassable physical environment is truly impressive. Ballooning over the desert, skydiving over land and sea, paragliding, whitewater rafting and sand skiing along coastal dunes are good activities for starters. More fun games to pick from include abseiling – that most spectacular of rock sports, coastal and fresh water angling, desert camel riding, scuba diving, 4×4 desert runs, hiking and mountaineering.

Namibia has four distinct geographical regions. In the north is Etosha Pan, a great area for wildlife and heart of Etosha National Park. The slender Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana and is a wet area of woodland blessed with a few rivers. Along the coast is the Namib Desert, which at the age of 80 million years old, is said to be the world’s oldest desert. At the coast, the icy cold Atlantic meets the blazing African desert, resulting in dense fogs. The well-watered central plateau runs north to south, and carries rugged mountains, magnificent canyons, rocky outcrops and expansive plains.

Namibia, one and half times the size of France, is very sparsely inhabited and carries only 1.8 million souls. The people are as unique as the land they live on. The most intriguing are the San, otherwise known as Bushmen. These most hardy of people have a highly advanced knowledge of their environment. It is a marvelous thing how well they are adapted to their difficult habitat. Just pause and think that these are the only people in the world who live with no permanent access to water. In the Kalahari Desert, one of their domiciles, surface water is not to be found. Tubers, melons, and other water bearing plants as well as underground sip wells supply their water requirements.

In Namibia today, Bushmen number about 50,000. Historians estimate that they have lived, mostly as hunters and gatherers, for at least 25,000 years in these parts of the world. Bushmen speak in a peculiar click language and are very gifted in the arts of storytelling, mimicry, and dance. Namibia’s other people, who are indigenous to the continent, are mostly of Bantu origin. They are thought to have arrived from western Africa from about 2,400 years ago. The African groups include the Owambo, Kavango, Caprivians, Herero, Himba, Damara, Nama and Tswana.

The Africans aside, other groups comprise about 15% of the population and have played an important role in the emergence of the modern nation. White Namibians amount to about 120,00 and are mainly of German and Afrikaner heritage. Germans arrived in significant numbers after 1884 when Bismarck declared the country a German Protectorate. Afrikaners, white farmers of Dutch origin, moved north from their Cape settlements, especially after the Dutch Cape Colony was ceded to the British in 1806. This strongly independent people, whose ancestors had lived in the Cape from 1652 resented British control.

Two other distinct groups complete the spectrum of Namibia’s people – Basters and Coloureds. Coloured in Namibia and southern Africa refers to people of mixed racial heritage, black- white for example. They have a separate identity and culture. This makes sense considering that Namibia was run by South Africa after the First World War. Even in pre-Apartheid South Africa, racial classification was a fine art. The Afrikaans-speaking Basters, descended from Hottentot women and Dutch settlers of the Cape. Alienated from both white and black communities, they trekked northwards, finally founding their own town Rehoboth, in 1871. Baster is actually derived from “bastard”, but it is not derogatory, and the Basters are indeed proud of it.

Namibia’s barren and unwelcoming coastlines served as a natural deterrent to the ambitions of European explorers. That was until 1884 when the German merchant Adolf Luderitz established a permanent settlement between the Namib Desert and the Atlantic seaboard that afterwards took his name. Bismarck subsequently declared the territory covered by Namibia a German colony and named it Sdwestafrika or South West Africa. As German settlers moved into the interior, conflict was inevitable with the inheritors of the land.

The German occupation was a particularly unhappy experience for the Herero. The Herero resented the German’s harsh and racist rule and the effect of the encroachment on their lands on their livelihood and way of life. On the first day of the year 1904, the Herero led by Chief Samuel Maharero, rose suddenly and unexpectedly in arms against their colonial overlords. The Nama joined the insurrection and the authorities did not regain control even after six months of trying. Over 100 German settlers and soldiers died in the uprising. Historians now consider events that followed to constitute the first genocide of the twentieth century.

Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha was furnished with a contingent of 14,000 soldiers and tasked to put down the rebellion. The governor general of the territory was then Rudolph Goering -the father of Herman Goering, Hitler’s right hand man. Lothar von Trotha was a generation ahead of his time and his kind of thinking was to become government policy under the Third Reich. He argued that the Herero must be destroyed as a people and he did not wince at the murder of women or children. At the end of it all, 100,000 Nama and Herero were killed. The survivors were herded in concentration camps where unspeakable things happened. The Herero fared very badly and 80% of her people perished. The population of the Nama diminished by 35-50%.

Windhoek, the capital of 165,000 people is the only true city in the country. For those traveling to more remote regions, this is where you settle practical matters. The positive aspects of the German period can be seen in the charming style of older buildings in the city. Places of interest in the city include the State Museum, State Archives, and the Namibia Crafts Centre. The Dan Viljoen Game Park lies 24 Km west of Windhoek on the gentle hills of Khoma Hochland. In this resort you find ostriches, baboons, zebras and over 200 species of birds. The Waterburg Plateau Park, located 230 km from Windhoek is popular with weekenders. This extensive mountain wilderness is home to cheetah, leopard, kudu, giraffe, and white rhino.

Etosha National Park is what brings wildlife lovers to Namibia. The park is comparable in size and diversity of species with the best in Africa. The unusual terrain of Etosha holds savanna grassland, dense brush and woodland. But it is the Etosha Pan, a depression that sometimes holds water and covers 5,000 sq km, that is the heart of park. The perennial springs around the pan, attract many birds and land animals in the dry winter months. The effect of this background is magical and some of the best wildlife photographs have been taken here.

There are 144 mammal species in the park and elephants are particularly abundant. Some other interesting wildlife here includes giraffe, leopard, cheetah, jackal, blue wildebeest, gemsbok and black rhino. The birding is great at Etosha and over 300 bird species have been recorded. You will get best value by spending at least three days here. There are excellent accommodation facilities at the three rest camps of Namutoni, Halali and Okaukuejo. The best time to see animals is between May and September, when water draws them in huge numbers to the edge of the pan. Etosha is 400 km to the north of Windhoek by road.

The Fish River Canyon is unrivalled in Africa and only the Grand Canyon in the U.S in larger. The Canyon runs for 160 km and reaches a width of 27 km and depth of 550 m. But size alone does not explain the appeal of the canyon. You experience incredible views at various points along the rim. Adventure lovers do not merely come for the views. Hiking through the canyon is the ultimate endurance adventure for hikers. There is an established 90 km hiking trail that will take you 4-5 days to cover.

The trail ends at Ai-Ais hot spring resort where you can unwind. You are allowed to hike between early May and end of September. The hike is quite strenuous and needless to say, you must be physically fit. The authorities disbelieve the capacity of most people to undertake the hike and will actually insist on seeing a medical certificate of fitness before allowing you to start off. Fish River Canyon is 580 km to the south of Windhoek.

The Skeleton Coast has been the graveyard of seafarers and whales and deserves that morbid name. The problem is the dense fogs. And woe to the ship wreck survivor who expects respite onshore! Ahead is the Namib Desert, one of the driest and most unwelcoming places. Adventure travelers love trekking along the coastline as they enjoy the stark beauty of the area. To the south at Cape Cross, you find a seal colony carrying tens of thousands of seals. The Skeleton Coast Park covers 16,400 sq km and begins at 355 km northwest of Windhoek.

The Portuguese explorer Diego Cao reached this part of the world in the year 1486. He is probably one of the people whose experiences discouraged Europeans from venturing ashore until the arrival of the Germans 400 years later. Further south is the Namib-Naukluft National Park, a vast wilderness covering 50,000 sq km. The landscape is very diverse and covers mountain outcrops, majestic sand dunes, and deep cut gorges. For really spectacular dunes, the Sossusvlei area is unsurpassed. Here you have dunes rising to 300 m! The orange tint giants extend as far as the horizon and the area has an unreal, unforgettable atmosphere.

To the northeast of the country, the well-watered Kavango and Caprivi Strip region offers an unspoilt wilderness suitable for rugged game viewing and camping. The area also promises a feast for bird lovers. Game reserves in the area include: Kaudom, Caprivi, Mahango, Mudumu and Mamili. Poachers did great damage to wildlife during the years of the civil war in neighbouring Angola. Animal numbers are however building up rapidly. Some of the wildlife in the region includes leopard, elephant, buffalo, cheetah, lion and various antelope species. The Caprivi Reserve falls in an area of swamps and flood plains. Here you have an opportunity to partake fishing, hiking, game viewing safaris and river trips in traditional mokoro boats.

In Namibia you can enjoy up to 300 days of sunshine. The coast is temperate and thermometers run between 5C-25C. Inland, daytime temperatures range from 20C-34C, but can rise to 40C in the north and south of the country. Winter nights can be quite cold and frost occurs over large parts of the country. The rains inland fall in summer (November-April) and are heaviest in the Caprivi region. Rains do not much affect travel, but beware of flash floods in the vicinity of riverbeds. The best time to travel is over the dry months of March to October, when it is easier to see animals at waterholes. It is best to avoid the Namib Desert and Etosha between December and March when it can get unbearably hot. Before you travel to this country, make sure you review our Namibia safari and tour offers.

You can get by wearing light cottons and linens in summer. Over winter nights and mornings, you need heavier cottons, warmer wraps and sweaters. Comfortable walking shoes are essential, as the ground gets very hot. Some useful stuff to pack includes: camera, binoculars, sunglasses, sun hats, sunscreen and mosquito repellant. Be ready for dusty conditions and carry your clothing, equipment and supplies in dust proof bags. Do not be tempted to buy items made of ivory. You may not be allowed to carry them through customs at home. And it also good that you do not encourage the trade in ivory products that keeps poachers busy.

Andrew Muigai is editor of AfricaPoint Insider online newsletter. It is part of Africapoint.com – the Africa travel website that has helped thousands of travelers discover Africa. You can view more info on Namibia Safaris at the website. www.africapoint.com/tours1/namibia.htm

Crazy prints, clear colours, the excitement of London’s Spring & Summer fashion seasons are thank god nearly here at long last. Ladies & Gentlemen, its the perfect time to begin buying a bit of your spring & also summer fashion items and what greater place to buy from than http://www.matchesfasion.com. Please don’t worry yourself too much if you can’t tell what is going to be trendy & what’s not this forthcoming season. Matches will be readily available to guide its existing customers every single step of the journey in the same excellent way they endlessly do with all their clothes from two pieces and simple summer outfits to flat sandals & dark glasses.

From the beginning of February customers can have one extra advantage to help them get into the finest fashion and this of course is the beginning of London Fashion Week. This event will probably help anybody who desires a shove in the correct direction. During the 20th till 24th Feb the most popular experience in fashion will occur and last nearly 1 spectacular week. This stylish event lets any of the “designers” or “houses” as a great deal of them refer to themselves as, to show off their latest collection on the catwalk and for potential buyers to take a look at the latest styles. The unbelievable event is just the thing for all store buyers as it gives them have a peek of what’s “in” & also what is “out” for the future season. As a result you should be able to have confidence that Matches will be there in the front row taking notes of what they will have to obtain in order to keep their existing regulars on this season’s chic style. The year’s leading fashion affairs are to be found in a small number of cites around the world for instance Milan, Paris, London not to mention New York City. Get this season’s latest Stella McCartney fashion from Matches Fashion.

Some vital fashion pieces this season are believed to be by the fashion designers such as Marc Jacobs, Christian Louboutin and Stella McCartney, all of whom customers should acknowledge as being huge in the fashion world. These designers always create one collection after another collection of astonishing clothing for any given event. For this reason though, clothes fabricated by these designers will absolutely not come with a discounted price tag. However garments obtained from them are assuredly going to be cherished on the fashion rack for a great number of years to come.

One of the most famous natural attractions in Grand Cayman Island is Stingray City. This is an area in the ocean not far from the northern tip of Grand Cayman where tourists can get up close to hundreds of friendly stingrays. Stingray City can get quite crowded especially when the cruise ship passengers are at port. Fortunately for us scuba divers, the masses are taken to a shallower section of Stingray City where the sandbars are high enough for tourists to stand in waist deep waters. Scuba divers are taken by one of the many dive operators in Grand Cayman to the deeper part of Stingray City. However, this deeper section is still very much a shallow dive by scuba diving standards. In fact, Stingray City has been referred to in the scuba diving world as the best twelve foot or four metre dive in the world. It is believed that many years ago, sailors visiting the area threw fish remains overboard and soon noticed the stingrays coming for the free food. These particular stingrays became conditioned over the years to the humans and the food handouts unlike stingrays elsewhere in the Caribbean. If you have seen stingrays during dives elsewhere in the world, you will have noticed that they are usually quite shy and will swim away but not those here at Stingray City.

The dive boat took us to a designated site and indeed the depth was very shallow as we could easily see the bottom. The site itself was pretty barren with just the odd reef cluster around a mostly sandy bottom. The divemaster gave us a briefing on how to interact with the stingrays warning everyone that even though they will appear to be friendly, they should still be regarded as wild animals. We were told not to touch them by their razor sharp tails or abuse them in any manner. A bucket filled with squid parts was suspended in the water underneath the dive boat and this is where we fetched our supply of food to feed the stingrays.

As soon as we jumped in the water and made our descent to the bottom, we could see the first few stingrays coming towards us like UFOs. The divemasters showed us a trick where if we held the squid in our closed fists and moved our arms in wide circular arcs around us, we could make the stingrays follow our hands. It was sort of like teasing them for a bit before giving them their treats. Their mouths were located underneath their flat bodies and we were instructed to hold the food in our palms flat facing up when feeding them. The divemasters had demonstrated this on the boat using a little stuffed stingray toy during the briefing. With their keen sense of smell, the stingrays hovered towards and over the food to collect their squid snacks. It’s was incredible to see how fast they could stop in the water if they sensed food. They don’t have any teeth but have these two strong structures like vise grips in their mouths they use to chomp with. Feeding them sometimes felt like a vacuum cleaner sucking up debris on our palms. Sometimes, we felt their vise grip mouths close up against the flats of our palms. This is why we were advised to keep our palms as flat as possible in order to avoid them from closing up on our fingers. Because the eyes of the stingrays were on the top of their bodies, they couldn’t see our palms when they hovered directly over them. They would have to guess where our palms and the food were.

At one instance, I was holding on to the food a little too long in order to further tease one stingray. This one missed my palm and his jaw closed down on my forearm instead leaving me with a nice bruise. It was my fault since the stingray couldn’t see and thought that my forearm was my palm holding the squid. I was a bit careless and should have paid more attention to where the stingray’s mouth was. No other diver on our boat had any other problems or mishaps. Some of the stingrays although not aggressive, will be all over a diver if they still sense food but couldn’t find the palm. It was hilarious to watch some other divers pushed over on the sandy bottom by a stingray trying to find the squid. One large stingray even bumped me in the scuba mask but it was all fun. If the stingrays sense that a diver doesn’t have any food after awhile, they will go towards another diver that does.

The Stingray City dive is a single tank trip usually done in the afternoon. It is a unique dive that is worth doing but keep in mind that the stingrays are the main and usually the only attractions during this dive. There isn’t much else to see in terms of other marine life or coral reefs at the site so it would be advised to spend the morning doing some regular reef dives too in order to take in what Grand Cayman scuba diving has to offer.

Clint Leung is a NAUI certified Master and Rescue Scuba Diver. He is also owner of Free Spirit Activewear (www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com) , an online retailer and designer specializing in premium quality activewear with specialty sports themes including scuba diving, skiing, snowboarding and martial arts. Free Spirit Activewear has numerous information resource articles on selected specialty sports as well as free eCards.