Diving in Utila- first day

alright it's monday and our first real day out in utila. the night before we'd signed jeff up for an advanced dive course- essentially 5 dives and some classwork. pete and i, already advanced had either the option of doing fun dives (diving just to dive, hence the 'fun') or getting our rescue diver certification. although i'd like to get the rescue diver cert (and then master diver too), it's a pretty intense 4 days (read: CPR training, carrying people out of the water, learning what to do when you find drowned people..) and I wasn't really down for that. so pete and I decided to just split a 10 pack of fun dives, which was more than enough. luckily, all of our dives were scheduled in the afternoon (so much better than 8am dives in koh tao..) so we got to sleep in.

so monday morning. i think we woke up late and decided to grab some breakfast down at 'the bakery'. the fact that the bakery needs no name other than that should give you some indication as to how small utila is. unfortunatley monday appeared to be 'the bakery's' day off. this was unfortunatle because pete had already been talking it up as the best thing since sliced bread (lame ass pun, I know). but with no dice on the bakery, we moved on to option two, big mamma's cafe. which was goood. no bagel sandwiches unfortunately ('sorry honey, the bakery's closed'. yeah we knew that.) but spicy mexican omelets made even spicer by marie's hot sauce and then cups of hot coffee did the trick. huge breakfast down the hatch, we had just a little time before hitting up utila dive center at 12pm to get ready for our 1pm dives.

we must have wandered around a bit, who knows, time gets kind of lost on utila--especially in heat like that-- but at around noon we do head to the dive shop. pete and i soak up some rays while jeff gets acquainted with his class. we get fitted for wet suits, fins, and BCDs and take our gear out onto a little blue and yellow boat. little, only compared to the huge pirate ship that our crazed thai driver was towing us around on out in koh tao. i hang back, a bit apprehensive since I haven't dived in 2 years now and honestly don't quite remember how to set up the equipment... luckily pete helps me out and after several 'duh' moments i get everything sorted out and remember that Bangkok Women Really Are Fellas stands for BCD Weights Regulator Air Final okay. That's the check you're never supposed to forget. yup.

we're on the same boat as Jeff so we get to all ride out together. pete and i get to be buddies which is good because then my life is in the hands of someone i've know almost 48 hours rather than a total stranger (mom, kidding, my life isn't really in their hands... more like the hands of the dive master we also don't know-ha). anyway, gear all in order, pete and I are paired up and going down with a really nice dive master named Troy. he's one of those super friendly guys that you just instantly like. big and huggable.

we go out to the dive site at 'little bight'. and little is right. not much to see, pretty boring actually. it's a let down from the vivid-am-i-hallucinating-memories of diving in new zealand. but there ares still jellyfist and sea cucumbers (which upon poking into it's unnaturally squishiness i let out a very embarrasing girly squeal) and not all is lost. 45 minutes later and we're back up on the boat to switch tanks and rest a bit. then we got to black coral wall, a new spot famous for its, well black coral. brilliant name I know. anyway, this site is much more promising and we see barracude, porcupine fish, trumpet fish, etc etc. the reef towers over us and there's much more to look at. so much in fact that I pretty much shake off the fact that as we come back up towards the surface, one of my teeth starts hurting. like my tooth hurt right before I had to get a root canal. except it's not where i got my root canal. i suck it up and keep on swimming, but am getting antsy to surface. i mean what's going on? finally we're back up and breathing fresh air, but my tooth is hurting worse than ever. it feels like it's going to explode right out of my mouth. tony hasn't ever seen anything like it, and i slowly swim back to the boat distressed that the pain is not subsiding.

i get back on the boat, and one of the other dive masters mentions it's called a tooth squeeze and is a pretty rare situation that happens when you have a cavity that has an air pocket in it. i ask if it's bad and someone says they heard of a person's tooth shattering from one. grand. i put up my equipment slowly slowy as the pain is still in full force. jeff kind of reassures me a bit, but it really is hurting bad enough, then eventually i have to lay down on the top deck and am crying intermittently. finally we come back to the docks. pete has some strong pain killers so i take one of those and lay down some more. jeff very kindly offers to put up my equipment which is good since i still feel like i might puke. about 15 minutes pass and maybe it's the medicine, maybe it's the time, but suddenly the pain disapates and i can breathe again.

which means it's time for a beer. salva vida indeed.

so a few salva vidas split amongst us three, then recording our dives into our log books then we're famished and it's time for dinner. pete, having been on the island before, knows all the best dinner options. unfortunately, the lady in the hot pants who sells baleadas is closed (maybe her and 'the bakery' people are having a day of it) and 'dave's' restaurant apparently has relocated. and 'la cueva' the pizza place is also closed. apparently monday's not a good day for food. so we end up at some rasta house that serves up seafood with comically unfriendly service. luckily the fish is nicer than the sharp tounged lady serving it up and we make a nice night of it.

afterwards i think we headed over to the treetanic, an outdoor bar like none i've ever seen. really. it is really a bar in a treehouse for one, and then that amidst a sprawling garden where every surface is adorned with something- marbles, seasheels, mosaics, whatever. it's all clearly found objects and although it's a bit too kitsch for my tastes, it's still impressive even just for the sheer effort that went into constructing it.

beers and a very strong margarita for jeff leave us pretty beat, and even though it's only like 10pm it's bed time. and it's bedtime for me too. more manana, I hope.

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