Little Corn Island Day 4

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Woke up before alarm. Sooo sleepy still. Like I hadn't slept in weeks. My body is so tired from 5 dives in the last two days. It's amazing what a toll it takes on the cuerpo (body).

We packed up, brought our bags to the main lodge/restaurant, drank coffee, ate Laki (our fav cup of noodle but spicy, hope I can find it at home), paid our tab & headed to the dive shop.

We walked to the dive shop where we found everyone a bit hung over from the night before. Last night was the grand opening ceremony of the new baseball stadium on Big Corn Island & practically everyone went to it. So this morning is a bit of a cluster & everyone is quite slow moving. It's kind of funny. We got started out a little later than normal but it's always fun hanging out in a dive shop environment so we certainly don't mind.

Our first dive was at My Place: The site has big coral mounds surrounded by sandy bottoms (I just love that term). We saw our first Highhat & a school of Spadefish. It was a mellow dive, maybe related to the hangover factor... Again today we are lucky & blessed with super calm seas. It just makes the whole dive experience so peaceful when the seas are calm. Much less work involved in entering & exiting the boat & waiting for everyone in the water.

Back at the dive shop we ate Enchiladas. They're not like enchiladas from home they're more like chicken pot pies without the sauce. Yummy. Two different ladies bring their plastic bins & sell them in front of dive shop most of the day. They smartly show up as soon as the first dive boat returns to the shop. We do get off the boat hungry & they know it! It's nice though. Fresh homemade snacks for $1 & they're big & filling. They put them in their plastic bins all nestled in fabric napkins to keep them warm. We have eaten a lot of these enchiladas.

Our Second dive was at Yellowtail: This site had all these channels in the reef (wide enough for one person at a time to swim through). There were schools of Chub & lots of little fish. At the end of our dive James let out the "safety sausage," to let the dive boat know where to pick us up, & this Barracuda decided to mess with the case that falls toward the floor. Those Barracuda are so curious & love shiny things. Still super calm seas, which is just lovely.

On land we ordered fried chicken with plantain chips to share & a fanta from Cool Spot. We are semi-hooked on her fried chicken & I'm addicted to plantain chips. We were planning to call it a day after 2 dives but (thankfully) James talked us into a third dive because the weather is so perfect right now & apparently the winds are supposed to pick up tomorrow which limits diving on the east side of the island. Good conditions are a bonus & a definite selling feature. And conditions are so perfect today. No wind, calm seas. We are both so tired at lunch but pull it together to dive again, woe is us....

Our third dive is at Grant's Caves where there are lots of long tunnels to swim through. Some were dark dark dark at points which to my claustrophobic mind was a little scary but I just followed along & did it & I'm proud of myself! There were a couple really tight entrances that opened up into big open caves. The fear is worth the payoff because it was so interesting & different than anything I've been able to do. Usually I say no & pass overhead but I did it today! Although I found myself thinking about sharks every time it was really dark. They're likely not going to bite us but they certainly may bump us & I would freak out I think! In a tunnel, bad news. But that didn't happen so my worries were for nothing. There were really big schools of fish, hundreds of them. Geoff found a RN Shark in a hole looking at us. The first time we swam by her the main thing you could see was her tail when you looked in the small opening. The second time we swam by at the end of the dive she had turned around & was facing the opening of the hole. That was a bit shocking to look her in the eyes. I think we were bothering her. They do get annoyed, clearly we've witnessed that. As we were exiting one of the tunnels a huge 5 ft Eagle Ray swam right overhead. That just never gets old. It just keeps us coming back for more.

Back at the dive shop we took our "shower." There's a fresh water shower right in front of the dive shop which is just perfect to get all that salt off your skin after diving & satisfies the shower portion of the day, in our opinion. Every dive shop should have one.

We made the long walk back to Derek's Place, which is fun, kind of like a mini hike back home. We read & napped for a couple hours to be ready for our night out on the town tonight. We were invited to a "snorkel test" party at Tranquilo's Bar tonight where Felipe will be DJing. One of the Dive Master in Training guys who has been diving with us finished today & the last step is the infamous snorkel test. Ugh. I would not do well with that test.

It is so quiet & peaceful here at Derek's. Like a deserted tropical paradise. There is only us staying here & a guy from Napa. It's like we have the place to ourselves again, as usual. Our little cabana is big enough for a bed & a couple of shelves. It stares at the ocean & has a mosquito net for our bed so we can keep all door & windows open while we sleep. There's a little deck with a hammock & chair. It's just perfect. And the bed is sooo comfortable. Probably the best bed we've had up to this point. Almost like home....And there are 4 pillows on the bed & super cute sheets. What a treat!! We made another lukewarm rum & CA drink, ice is a novelty most of the time. I guess we're getting used to it? Probably not, I like cold drinks & will cherish my icemaker at home more than ever before.

We made our walk back into town (approximately 20 min each way depending on how quickly you walk). While walking, at night, there are many many little crabs on the path. They're funny to watch as they scuttle away from you but I mostly just worry about stepping on them. They're not as big as Oren, from NY, described but they are in abundance. He said they were basketball sized. We've only seen tennis ball sized ones. City slickers... 😊

These long walks are actually kind of fun. Although Geoff & I spend all of our time together these days we don't always chat. But for whatever reason, on the hiking trail, we always talk & talk & talk. Maybe to help pass time, but it's fun. We've come up with all kinds of great ideas on these walks so far.

Back in town we ordered shrimp pasta from The Shack. We watched The Snorkel Test at Tranquilo's. It was brutal. There was a girl from another shop so they had a snorkel test challenge. Shots & beer galore going into their snorkels. Poor things. The worst part was that they made them do a mask clearing demonstration where they filled their masks with beer! Ick! It was highly entertaining though. We spent some QT talking with Dave's (a new DM here) parents who dove with us today & are from eastern WA. We ate our pasta while overlooking the sea & dragging our feet around in the sand under the table. Best way to have dinner. The pasta was cool, like long uncut macaroni noodles. It was pretty good, but possibly frozen shrimp? Weird on an island considering there are lot's of shrimp in the ocean, we've seen them firsthand. We only had one drink at Tranquilo's & time for the walk back to Derek's. My Cuba Libre cost $3. Yikes, time to head home before our bar tab cleans out our bank account.

Another dark walk back. Good thing we have headlamps to light our way otherwise we might get lost in the middle of the island for sure. In bed falling asleep to the sound of the waves, the cool breeze, the windows open, comfy bed. I am hooked.

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