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Published: October 20th 2007
Sandra and the Paramedic
Sandra is the interesting German who now lives in Mexico. This is her friend she met there - I can't remember his name, but we're lucky he was along for the ride.Dive number one was good...we were excited to see schooling hammerheads, but dive number two was even better!! The surge was over powering and so again we had to plummet fast and hang onto the rocks to stay in one place. Even that proved to be difficult. Not only did we see schooling hammerheads, but they kept swimming up to check us out and literally came within 5 to 10 feet of us! It was incredible. Heart pumping - intense. Alex squeezed my hand, sharing the experience.
Maricio, the panga driver, pulled up to pick us up as we bobbed in the waves after a dive.
"You have your ticket? I need ticket or no ride" The crew has a fun sense of humor. Someone put blue die in Pacho's (crew member in training) fin...he came back with a very vibrant foot.
In other news, Matt phoned the boat to update his brother, Mike, that they made it back to Costa Rica and the hospital says he broke his thumb in three places and has to get two pins before being shipped back to the states. Yeow. Mike said Matt has a really high tolerance
for pain. I guess so seeing how he wanted to dive and stay here.
I'm more then half way done with the book I started yesterday. I hope to finish it tonight. I also spent a half hour conditioning my hair and slowly but surely combing through the mess. It's as good as new. I lost a good chunk of hair in the process, but at least it's back to normal.
10/15/2007 10:50 a.m. As a kid I was envious of the Little Mermaid. As a teen I had a few fish that would swim back and fourth in the morning following me as I got ready for school until I fed them. Diving is like being in a massive tropical fish tank. There's nothing cooler then being weightless and able to breathe under water. We hid behind rocks again waiting for hammerheads. They come to you, if you go after them they won't come close. I have to short of an attention span to sit - wait - watch into the deep blue for the massive creatures. The rocks aren't just plain rock, they're covered with life. There was an eel to my
left foot, a star fish to my right. In front of my face were teeny tiny fish, strange species I wouldn't be able to identify, and little claws that come out now and again and pinch your gloves. Big fish and angel fish come up and look you in the face, not caring what you're doing, just curious. They get swept with the surge then swim back for another look. We were within three feet of a large sting ray. Alex would poke me to point out the hammerheads when a school of them came into view.
10/16/2007 2:58 p.m. We are done diving. I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation. Between the strong surges and the rough panga rides, I can't wait to visit my chiropractor and possibly splurge on a massage when I get back to town. There are two more dives today/tonight and four more tomorrow, but we're sitting them out and relaxing.
Alex and I need to learn Spanish. He took it in high school and it comes back here and there, but he doesn't know much. I don't know anything. I want to be able to communicate
Panga Uno
Photo by: Beto/Captin
Left to right:
Eric, Shala (in front of him), Oendites (dive master), Mike
Back row:
Kim, Beth, Moi, Alex
Front row:
Jack, Sammy, Jim, Pacho better with the crew. Heck, even the States is going to be majority Spanish speaking before you know it...it'd be good to learn.
9:07 p.m. Some of the guys that work on the boat randomly sing my name as they walk by. "Susanna" or "Susanne". Only here do I let the pronunciation slide...it's appropriate. When I thought about sitting the trip to the island out for a siesta and changed my mind they cheered as I came out to the boat...
"Susanna is going!" I want to take them home with me. How can you not smile with reactions like that all the time?
One of the cooks spoke the words they've been singing and waited for a response. I told him I don't understand and the other cook said,
"Susanna I'm crazy for your looks". When I asked if it's a local song he just heard
"local", thought I said
"loco" and replied,
"yeah! loco - crazy". Alex and I are sunburned. It would be a lie to say I'm miserable...I actually like it. I can't remember the last time I've seen this much color on my body. Sometimes my shoulders and cheeks
The gang
Top row:
Fernando and his wife, Alex, Beth, Kim, two germans, Mike, Me, Sammy, Alex
Bottom Row:
Sandra, paramedic, Jack, Dave, Igor, Peter, Shala, Eric get to much sun. My knees and lower thigh got burned last year and have been dark ever since. Now I have color on my face, neck, arms, chest, back...even my legs, my whole legs. We were warned not to be in the sun for very long without sunblock because even 15 minutes will burn you. They weren't joking.
Two and a half weeks and then we'll be in Australia! No schedule. We can do anything - anytime. Nobody to report to except for ourselves. I am getting a little nervous about how long we'll be gone. It'll be an interesting test to our relationship, but not just that...Grams hasn't been doing so well lately. I just hope nothing big happens while we're gone. I'd like to try to see both of my grandmas before we leave. I do wish they lived closer.
10/17/2007 4:07 p.m. The day started off great. Alex and I slept in, joined the group late for breakfast, then headed to the top to soak up some rays. The gang came back and said they saw dolphins on this dive. We could see them jumping out of the water from
the boat. Up until today, I didn't even know they had dolphins in this area.
After every meal the cooks dump the left over melon rinds and other food into the water. The fish go nuts over it. It surprises me that fish would find melon rinds appetizing, but they do.
Everyone went over to the island to hang out for an hour. It started off great...the boys and some of the crew were playing soccer, Alex and I climbed rocks back to a little water fall area, some girls hiked up a trail...then we got the news that one of the singing cooks tripped and broke his arm playing soccer. The sand is smooth, no rocks, but solid. I guess he went after the ball, accidentally stepped on it causing him to loose his balance, then landed on his elbow. It broke the bone between his elbow and shoulder. I'm not sure what we'd do without the one guest here who happens to be a paramedic. They don't have one on staff.
He seems to be doing okay...tough guys we have on this trip...personally - I'd imagine I would flip out.
Our gear is rinsed,
Panga Dos
Top row:
Fernando, his wife, Sandra, Alex, German, Markus
Dave
Bottom row:
Igor, Crew, Paramedic, Peter dried, ready to be packed. We're all ready to go home...
6:00 p.m. The boat is officially in motion and on it's way back to the main land. My stomach is in knots just because I'm nervous how the next 30+ hours are going to go. We took our motion sickness pills and are told that the way back is USUALLY much easier because we're going with the current.
There were people on the boat doing interviews on what we think about the fishermen in the area. It's illegal to fish because the island and surrounding waters is protected, but it's pretty obvious that the island rangers are paid to not enforce it. When the crew we're with calls them to let them know there are fishermen in the area, conveniently their engine is "broke" every time. Our dive master said they always have an excuse and it's depressing. They have a beautiful thing going here and a lot of wildlife to preserve, but when the very people sent here to keep it safe are batting for the other team - who knows what will happen down the line.
My pop just fell over if that says anything for how the ride is going four minutes into it...I'll end this here.
6:50 p.m. Alex said,
"For some reason I get the feeling this will be my last meal." as we caught our plate and drinks before they slid off the table. I replied with,
"For some reason I get the feeling I might be seeing this meal again later." They fed us some kind of spicy tomato based pasta. Fabulous. Because
that is what my stomach needs to keep calm...
We were told we'd gain 10 pounds on this trip because the food is so good. I think things have changed in that last 13 years since Jim came here...either that or we have different tastes for good food. Breakfast is a spread of cereals, bread with jam and butter options, eggs made to your liking, some kind of meat, and sliced cheese. Every. Single. Day. I usually have a little stale cereal and egg on toast. No, wait, we had dry pancakes twice and french toast once.
They've been really good about making me fish in place of whatever meat they're serving that day. Mostly they've served chicken. The soup has been delicious and a few meals here and there...nothing has been terrible, but nothing I would brag about. At night they have wine glasses and cloth napkins out for dinner.
Speaking of, Alex just came down from finishing his so we're going to see how well things go watching The Simpsons Movie. Someone got a copy of it in London so we're borrowing it to watch on the laptop.
11:13 p.m. We made it! The ride back was a LOT better. I think the combination of going with the current, rocking back and fourth as opposed to up and down, and being on a boat all week made the return trip much smoother. We pulled in around 10 o'clock..."went to bed" a little after 8:30, but I'm to excited about being so close to land I can't sleep. We sleep here one more night then pack up and head to San Jose at 8 a.m.
Everyone was actually functional the ride back - no one got sick. We made it to every meal. Kind of - I skipped dinner because it's been such a lazy day, I didn't do anything to actually work up an appetite. The alarm goes off at 6 tomorrow for breakfast.....
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Bullcrap
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McCloskey... you are now #1 in coolest ever.