SCUBA dooba doo!!

'Ello Mates.. I'm Back!!

Just got into the hotel again from my amazing dive trip! I survived.. but I'm still digging the water out of my ears!!

I'm going to start from the beginning...

So we were picked up on the first day bright and early.. Headed to the dive shop and then on to the boat..

When we got to the dive shop I noticed that everyone there was around my age.. I was kind of excited but it was really unexpected. I had forgotten that we had signed up for the German dive group (that just meant that they would have instructors available who spoke German), so I was kind of surprised when everyone was speaking in different languages..

We headed out the boat... got our briefing and then our room assignments. Brian and I's room was right next to the common space/dining room. I didn't mind it too much, but I think Brian would tell you otherwise!

After we unloaded.. it was time for our first dive!! We met our instructor, Nadine, and found out that we would be the only two students with her. I was pretty excited because I knew I might have problems with my ears and didn't want to hold a bunch of people up. (Later I found out that it was because everyone else had done the class and pool work with ProDive while we were the only ones with referrals).

Our first dive was kind of scary for me.. not really knowing what to expect considering the pain I endured during my pool dives. We put on our gear and jumped into the water.. We went down VERY slowly because my ears were acting up again. Once we were on the bottom we did a few skills but then spent the rest of the time looking around the reefs.

I must say.. At least once in your life time you need to see these reefs.. It was sooo beautiful.. All of the colorful fish surrounding you..

Our instructor pointed something out on the bottom. I saw a pair of eyes in the sand and thought it was an octopus (I'm not sure why) I got kind of scared, but when she fanned some water on it, it swam away as a STING RAY! It was a smaller cute one!

I really just felt like I was swimming in a gigantic fish tank there were so many fish and other wild life.

Well the first dive didn't last long, and it was time for lunch so we swam back up to the surface and ate.

The second dive was right after lunch. During this dive we had to do more of the skills and less looking around. I didn't see anything other than some cool looking fish..

Then it was done diving for the day.. cake then dinner then bedtime because we had to get up early again to dive the next morning...

The first dive on the second day was going to be our deepest dive, and boy was I terrified. I was still having issues with my ears, so I didn't think I was going to make it down that far. Then to make matters worse.. we had to go down without using a rope that I liked to balance on while trying to clear my ears!

Well, I tried anyways.. and much to my surprise I think this was my easiest dive, where my ears were concerned! At the bottom we got to see two stingrays playing around, but that was about it because it took so long for us to get down that we didnt have a lot of time to look around.

After the dive it was breakfast then briefing for our last dive with our instructor before we were fully certified!

Our last dive was pretty easy, we had to go down without a rope again and finish up our last few skills. We had more time to look around the reefs this time. I saw a really cool angel fish looking thing. My favorite part of this dive was that we swam over this huge wall of coral and then got to go down the side of the wall to look at the stuff. There was a giant clam on this wall.. I couldn't believe how big it was!

By the time we made it down it was time to go back up for lunch.

After lunch we did our paperwork and were officially certified!! WOOHOO!! Then it was time for briefing for our first dive by ourselves.

I'm pretty sure the guy who was briefing tried to make the directions as difficult as possible considering there was a wager going on between the instructors to see whose divers would come up furthest way from the boat.

I didn't even worry about navigation.. I just wanted to see the reef so we set off by ourselves.

We started to follow a group of divers and ended up running into my first sea turtle.. I was so excited because I have never seen one before and they are my favorite sea animal. I ended up getting with 2 feet of it while it was eating.. It was really a cool experience.

It was at that point that we got kind of lost and decided to try to make our way back to the boat. During this process we ran into a SHARK!! I'm not even kidding you.. of course it was a reef shark which aren't at all dangerous.. but it was still really cool.. Anyway.. we finally decided to surface.. and unfortunately we were pretty far away from the boat.. so we had a lot of snorkling to do on our way back.

After dinner that night, we had the opportunity to do the Night Dive. We decided to take the chance, but luckily it was a guided tour so we didnt have to get lost in the dark! We honestly didn't see much.. we got to see a nemo and then I saw the tail end of a lobster before he went back into hiding. It was really hard to see, our flashlights didnt work very well.. and there were so many in our group that we kept running into each other. Definitely the highlight of the dive would be the gray reef shark we ran into right before going back up.. He was a LOT bigger than the previous reef shark we saw.. He just barely came into the light of the flashlight then disappeared..

Sleeptime happened.. only after I made friends with a few people.. I met two girls from the UK (Steph and Ellie) traveling for 2 months.. I'm so jealous.. Then there was a guy from Sweden (Jon) who is traveling for 6 months.. Freek (not sure where he's from some where in Europe but its his birthday today!).. George from the UK, and then Joao from Brazil. They all took their pool classes together so it was a little intimidating trying to get to know them considering they had all been together for 2 days before our dive trip.. but they welcomed me.. and I had a lot of fun with them!

Anyways.. on to our last day.. today! We woke up even earlier this morning to do our first dive. It was a little bit easier to navigate this one.. so I just made us go into like a square, and we eventually found our way back to the boat! During this dive I once again got to get really close to a sea turtle.. He was a really big one.. 3-4 feet wide I would say.. Other than that it was just seeing your typical fish.. and then we came back in!

Our second dive of the day was super easy to navigate so I made Brian do it.. even though he didn't really want to.. he was a trooper cuz I had the underwater camera. It was sooo hard taking pictures while SCUBA diving because you are sort of floating up and down but trying so hard to stay still! I got some pretty good ones of some fish and coral (no turtles : ( ) and some funny ones of Brian and I.. This dive seemed to end quicker than the others..

After this dive.. Brian was all tuckered out and decided he did not want to do the last dive (I don't blame him.. I was tired too but since I paid for 9 dives.. I wanted to do all 9!) Luckily Jon said that he was tired too so he allowed me to use his buddy Joao from Brazil.

This dive was definitely my most scary dive because I let Joao lead and he took us through all this small areas where we were surrounded by coral and reefs. To add to that it was extremely shallow so the current and waves from above kept making me go places I didn't want to be.. I was almost slammed into the reefs a few times..

On this dive towards the beginning we came to a smaller cave.. Joao had a peek inside and told me to come look.. I was having problems stabilizing myself to get a good look inside. I signaled to him to ask what I should be looking for and he made a signal that I took as a giant clam.. Well I didn't really want to waste anymore time to look at a clam so we moved on.. After the dive I asked him what he saw in the cave again, apparently there was a shark in there.. His "jaws" signal I mistook for a clam signal.. hahah..

I ran out of air pretty early on this dive considering I had to fight such a tough current.. so we had to end it.. I was kind of happy because I was SOOO tired after doing 9 dives in 3 days..

We got back on the boat and it was time to head home.. I'm really looking forward to going out with all of my new friends tonight! Should be good times.. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Ok I think you have read enough for one day! Lucky you I will be able to update on a semi daily basis again! See you soon!!