i was supposed to dive the blue hole today. the boat was coming at 5:30am to pick up me and john, and like a moron i set my alarm for 4:30pm. miraculously, i woke up at 5:19, jumped into a bikini, grabbed a pareo and a banana, and ran out the door. i made it with a minute to spare. we got to the pier where the big boat was leaving from and thankfully they had coffee and breakfast waiting.
we got our gear ready and took off for a 2.5 hour ride to the dive site. after about half an hour the boat did a u-turn and dead stopped. all the guys ran around, opened the hatches, messed with the engine, and we had to come home. boo. it took us almost an hour to get home and rescheduled to tomorrow, on the condition that they can fix the engines. and that i can go another nite without drinking at the bars.
i later find out that even with all these boats on the island there are very few diesel mechanics, and all of their parts have to be flown in when needed.
there were 4 of us from yesterday's dive group going to blue hole so we had to go to our original dive shop to see if they had space for us today. the blue hole is a long, involved trip so the individual dive shops sign people up, then when there's enough people everyone goes with one company on a 50 foot boat, and its a 3 dive day, in total about 10 hours of boat and diving.
so i did more dives today with our group, the first was at sandy bottom, near the hol chan marine preserve. again, an amazing dive. we went to about 90 feet and saw more of everything, lion fish, huge grouper, those little crabs that look like super leggy spiders. a nurse shark kept bumping rubin, our divemaster, and eventually he had to punch it in the head. a remora swam with us for the entire dive.
then we grabbed snorkel gear and went to shark & ray alley for our surface interval. the guys dangled a long white container that looks like a buoy with holes over the side, filled with chum, and dozens of nurse sharks and rays fought over it. we could dive down and pet them, they didn't care. it was kinda strange the first time i touched a shark, i knew it wasn't going to bite me but it kept staring at me with these crazy yellow eyes, and my mind kept telling me that i should be swimming away as fast as i could. the rays were sort of slimy.
best snorkel ever. ok maybe second, after the whale sharks a couple weeks ago.
our second dive was at esmereldas and rubin carried a long line with chum and again we had nurse sharks and giant grouper fighting over it. this might be my favorite dive so far, every kind of fish and marine life as the other dives with amazing underwater landscape. my favorite fish is the filefish, they are the most amazing color purple. with kissy lips. i was staring at one, floating along in the current when i must have drifted through a patch of fire coral. it felt like my entire left leg caught on fire. ok, lesson learned, good to know what fire coral looks like.
one of the crew was swimming with us and he prodded a puffer fish, maybe cutest thing ever. the fish's fins look normal when its just swimming around, but when he's puffed up he still has these teensy fins that are now pretty ineffectual. but so adorable.
i made plans to snorkel tonite, about 9pm, john brought a couple dive lights from home. but as i was making lunch i sliced a chunk out of my thumb so i guess i have to cancel. i ran to the medical center, its gushing blood so i have a feeling it would be better to get some stitches but they are closed today. i was wondering when this would happen, its been a few months since i've needed stitches and knew it couldn't be too much longer. think of all the cool new sharks i'll get to see tomorrow, though.
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