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Published: June 10th 2015
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Lovely Sting Ray Fountain
At night this is lit by red flood lights. Beautiful! Cayman Islands
My hotel room was quite comfortable and it was easy to just kick back and wait for life to happen. Despite all my internet searches I could not find a cheaper hotel. Thank goodness Cathy Church, the noted underwater photographer and environmentalist, has a studio within walking distance. I decided to take a photography class. Oops! Everyone there was busy preparing for her Photo Fest, a week long photography seminar starting the following week. A very nice photography instructor named Jim managed to squeeze me in for a ninety minute class two days later. We planned to focus on editing, using Adobe photoshop Lightroom, as well as sorting and organizing photos. I was looking forward to that.
When I got back to my hotel I saw some divers on the beach near our parking lot so I went down and talked to them. Yes, they had an extra tank and weights and yes, I could join them for a dive on the hotel reef. Luckily my camera was ready to go so I got my gear and dove with a new dive master from the east coast. He was thrilled that we had
Two Lobsters
This was the biggest lobster I have ever seen. over an hour of bottom time. It was his first hour plus dive. The water was very clear, the visibility underwater was great and there was a lot to see. Thanks to good light from the surface I was able to get some decent photos, but the strobes (flashes) were not working properly. Again! The dive was a real bargain, $10 Cayman, or about twelve dollars.
After cleaning up my dive gear I borrowed a bike and visited about five dive shops near my hotel. I chose to dive with Don Foster’s dive shop. The dives cost about the same as a boat dive in my home state, Washington, but by scheduling four two tank dives I was able to get a small discount. With dives to prepare for I was able to focus on something other than my budget issues.
After the first day of diving a young dive master introduced himself and said he thought he had dived with me in Sipadan, Borneo two years ago. I was amazed Scott remembered me. We had fun reminiscing and catching up.
The following day I had my photography lesson. Our focus
Diver with grouper
These fish were always swimming around me as I took photos. turned out to be a short course on using manual mode and how to use my strobes to light my photos underwater. At the end of the instruction when the strobes still didn’t work properly we learned one of my sync chords needed replacing; now I have reliable flashes. I am so excited about getting color underwater. On subsequent dives I was almost cheering with each photo I took.
Staying hydrated is a challenge in any country, especially when you are not renting a car. I rode the bicycle to the supermarket often, and each trip was terrifying. The traffic is heavy, highway shoulders nonexistent, and I was told to ride with the traffic, so I didn’t know when, or if, there was a car behind me. Finally a young woman I met said to heck with that, ride facing the oncoming traffic and that was much better. But riding a bike with groceries, especially gallons of water, is a frustrating activity. It did, however, get me out and about, enabling me to meet people and see more of George Town.
I didn’t realize that soon the dreaded bike rides would be a thing
Hard and soft corals
I like to take photos of the reef formations. of the past.
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