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Published: March 21st 2005
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Ahhh...back to life on a tropical island. I guess that all island life is fairly similar, for I am reminded a lot of my semester in Malta as the laziness of island life takes over my body and I find myself lamenting the "long" walk of 13 minutes from my house to the dive shop.
Speaking of which....yeah! i did my open water course! I wasn't exactly prepared for the barrage of studying and hurried pace I was expected to move at my first day on the island. I got reeled into the first dive shop I checked out, Cross Creek, and ended up staying because of the on site accommodations, kitchen facilities, low student to teacher ratio, and free fun dives. So at about 1 o'clock I signed up, and at 4 I started class and was supposed to have the first chapter of the PADI book read...73 pages long. I went to the beach with one of the divemasters and only got through about 25 pages before I realized there was no way I would finish on time so I might as well enjoy the ambience and go for a swim. At any rate, the next few days
Diving
The lifeblood of Utila passed at lightning speed between theory classes, water skills, dives, and then trying to read for the next day. Plus I met these two crazy Canadian girls that were little dancing party machines and great company for me.
The first day in the water I had problems equalizing my ears and was afraid that was it, I wouldn't be able to dive. I was scared anyway since they have as one of the cardinal rules of diving that you should not dive while congested or having a cold, and I wasn't really feeling 100 percent yet after being sick. But after a few attempts my ears equalized and I was a natural underwater...I absolutely loved it! The next two days when we went out to actually dive I thought I was experiencing some mask squeeze when I felt that acute pressure in the front of my face, and when I came up to the surface the last 5 feet or so always created an intense pain in my sinuses. But I was just so jazzed about being part of the underwater world that I forgot about it all once I was down there. However, by the last day of
the course, Friday, I was experiencing a little more trouble and when we came up from the first dive, Mallory pointed out that I was bleeding...I had a nosebleed and was spitting up disgusting amounts of blood. However, between the first and second dives the boat captain spotted some whale sharks out in the water, so we chased them down and were all standing ready in our snorkels, masks, and fins hovering on the edge of the boat to jump in at the captains command, when suddenly his tail flipped out of the water right underneath me. When we jumped in I was sure I was going to land right on top of the poor thing, but you can imagine how quickly the shark swam down when 18 people jumped into the water. Nonetheless I saw the ever elusive whale shark....they are HUGE, like 30 feet long....so I was really excited. Plus my bleeding had pretty much subsided after that so I went onto do the second dive, with basically the same results. While still superexcited about the whole dive experience and being certified that day, by 8 pm I was sitting with a beer bottle on my head to dull the pain of what felt like a giant hole in my forehead.
I gave it a rest for a couple days before attempting my fun dives on Monday, with basically the same results as what happened on Friday. But of course, by this time I realized that I was not experiencing mask squeeze but rather some kind of nasty sinus squeeze that hurt so bad on the way down the tears were just pouring out of my eyes. And, after resting for a few days and waking up feeling like someone punched me in the eye, I finally went to the doctor.
Going to the doctor in Utila is an experience in and of itself. Where else do you go to the doctor and have the aide wearing shorts and walking barefoot? And Doctor John comes in wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, Birkenstocks, with his long salt-and-pepper curls cascading out under his Jamaican flag beret and around his black rimmed 1960s style glasses. However, I have to say I rather enjoyed the experience. Usually in the States the doctor comes in and asks what is wrong while his eyes dart between you, the medical chart, the door, his watch, and his prescription pad, nodding continuously so you get the impression that they are only half listening to you (at best) and you leave with a recipe for some kind of absurdly expensive medication wondering if they ever even heard enough of what you had to say to make an accurate prognosis. Dr. John, in contrast, well fitting with his laidback clothing, took his time, asked a lot of questions, sat and chatted with me and explained his prognosis and why he felt that was the case.
Basically he thought that the doctor I saw in Nicaragua was whack and I had a sinus infection before I even started the course. However, now having dived 6 times on top of that infection, it escalated to sinusitis. The good news was that I wasn't permanently damaged; the bad news that I should wait 7 to 10 days on antibiotics to be able to dive again.
So....I started to debate, should I stay or should I go? In the end, I have passed the past week doing not much of anything, and I am pretty good at that. Sleeping in (which the medicine makes me privvy to...I swear I'm not really that lazy to sleep 13 hours a day!), swimming, lounging at the beach, and going out at night, along with an occasional kayak outing...that was my week. On the plus side, I have met so many people and can coordinate with any of their dive schedules to hang out since I had nothing else to do.
Being Semana Santa and extremely busy here and everywhere as most Hondurans have the week off, I figured that it was just as well that I stay this week too, since it could be chaotic trying to organize transportation and lodging. And that means that I will be done with my meds so I signed up for the advanced course starting on Wednesday. Yeah! I really love this diving thing and am looking forward to doing it without the pain of my last dives. Actually, I had been debating staying to do my divemaster course but that would push me awfully close to my departure date....and I am departing from MEXICO. Ay ay ay....4 months is not enough.
At any rate, Utila is such a fabulous place and I am having a blast here...and am still contemplating returning to do the divemaster (and possibly instructor?) classes. I suppose I will finish with my fun dives on Saturday and then be off to El Salvador. Hopefully. This island has a way of making you stick around a lot longer than you planned.
I'm working on getting more pictures up, although, since the true marvels of Utila are underwater, most all of my pictures are of the terrific nightlife and the outstanding individuals with whom I am spending my time. Speaking of which, I gotta meet some people for dinner.... If I don't write before then, HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!
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Rajtastic
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Looks great
I went to Fiji - that was awesome - http://www.wellgoodholiday.co.uk - there should be some photos of fiji if people want to see