Aquaphobia

I am an aquaphobic. Okay, so I'm not scared of water per-say, but I'm totally afraid of things living in the water and of course the idea of drowning freaks me out too. The first time I tried snorkeling, eight years ago, I totally chickened out. When we did it again three years ago, and my 78-year-old grandma jumped in, I knew I had to do it. I panicked for the first bit, but once I calmed down I was fine out there for about forty minutes. So when I found out we were planning on swimming with stingrays AND snorkeling on this last cruise, I was not all that excited. To make things worse, I was not feeling well at all that day with my strep symptoms,but I told myself I was going to do this (meaning swim with stingrays) without any problem. The fact that I knew you could stand up in the water and see to the bottom helped too. However, I was not so excited about the snorkeling and wasn't even sure if I'd do it. Well after prepping myself to swim with stingrays, the tour guide announced we'd be snorkeling first. I didn't like this idea much, since that's what I was dreading more. But without thinking too much about it, I got my stuff on and jumped in the water (even just being in salt water grosses me out). I panicked for just a short minute, but was able to control my anxiety pretty well.
It was neat, but still not my favorite thing. Tom was able to watch an eel being fed.
But I felt better staying a close distance from these guys.
Luckily there weren't too many fish and they didn't come too close.
After snorkeling for a bit it was time to go to Stingray City. At this point I was really glad we did snorkeling first because I was already all salty and that initial getting in the water fear was gone.
We got out at stingray city, and being the afternoon there were not many stingrays around. They only come when they want food, and they had been eating all day. However our tour guide caught one and I went right up to it, touched and kissed it (it feels like soggy sandpaper on the top, but smooth rubber on the bottom).
We all kissed it for good luck.
There were no other fish around and the fact that the stingrays were so big and you could see where they were really made it a pleasant experience. We were able to wander away from our group and found a lot more stingrays in another area. I was able to catch this one myself.
Only once did I have one surprise me and brush my leg which made me scream a bit. Tom was one of the last ones on the boat so he kind of had a stingray all to himself.
Overall I'm glad I did this once in a lifetime thing.
However, I think I'll pass on the snorkeling next time :)