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Published: November 13th 2010
Yup, still here! Promised to report on the cave diving so here goes...
Background: When we went scuba diving in Cozumel, about 2 weeks ago, it was the first time I´d been under waves since we were in the Phillipines a year and a half ago. On the boat the divemaster just asked where we wanted to go, and since we were with a group that had done lots of diving in the area before, they encouraged us to go to a site called ¨The Bricks¨. Turned out to be a gorgeous coral reef, uneven, with lots of swim-throughs (like coral tunnels) and fairly deep. Just below 30 meters or so, though I´m not sure how low the bottom actually goes.
So, we were diving, admiring the huge angelfish, and I felt myself just....I don´t know. Something changed. My thinking got kind of fuzzy, my breathing got very shallow, and I was suddenly fascinated by the way my arms looked in the water. Then I looked up at the diver ahead of us and noticed that he had something odd on his hip. In retrospect, I was probably seeing his alternate regulator looped around his right arm, but my
thought was ...¨Hmmm...why is that guy diving with a baby? That doesn´t seem very safe!¨ And sure enough, I thought I could barely make out a tiny baby with a regulator in its mouth.
Yikes. What happened, and what I realized later, was that I got narked! Called nitrogen narcosis, it´s what
happens to your body when you go deep. Jaques Costeau called it the rapture of the depths, but for me it was more like terror. The funny thing about it is that, if you swim up out of depth, it goes away. Instantly. No hangovers, no ill effects.
I swam up a little higher and the effects were gone. My fuzzy thinking changed to an adrenaline fuelled rush. I got control of my breath but I still managed to be the first person to be low on air. Alex and I ascended. I was very upset and still panicked so I didn´t do the second dive.
SO, after much thinking, I decided that if I was ever going to dive again, it was going to HAVE to be now. Gotta get back up on that horse and all that. We ended up going diving in
Coatimundi!
I did not know what to make of this weird raccon type animal.Playa Del Carmen about a week after that, but only after making sure the dive master knew about my experiece and went over every aspect of the dive beforehand with me. And we only dove in shallow dive sites, with no tunnels, and small swim throughs. I could look up and see sun at every moment.
With bit of coaxing, Alex convinced me to dive the cenote (fresh springwater cave) with him.
We wore two wetsuits, a long one and a shortie over it. We had a lot of time in the cavern while our divemaster was getting his gear on, so I got a bit acclimated. But anyways, to the dive itself!
It was incredible. In the tunnels, there are limestone stalagmites and stalagtites, cool looking fingers reaching both up to you and down to you. We each carried a flashlight and the lighted bounced off the white fingers of limestone into blues, greens and teals. There were very small fish that would catch the light and project huge shadows on the walls of the cave. A thin yellow rope marked the path but, as I mentioned before, we of course had a guide with us.
In the second dive, we surfaced in a large cave which turned out to be a bat cave! Dozens of tiny little bats flew around above our heads. The air was so humid and thick.
Have I mentioned I love bats? Seems like everywhere we go, we find bats. I love it!
Well, the only bad thing about the dive was that by the time the two dives were over I was freezing. I was very happy to get out of the dark cold water and back into the sunshine.
That´s all for now. Couldn´t get photos to load but will try again. Love to all.
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Mom
non-member comment
Yikes!
Julie, girl, how did you get too deep and not know it? I'm glad you got back on the horse. Still doing primitive honeymooning? Lots of love, Mom.