Portoberfest, Halloween, farewells, etc

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I have worked a LOT this last few weeks, doing between 5 - 8 days on and 2 days off, so the little time I've had off has been for chilling out. Besides not really wanting to write about work, I was too tired to write about anything anyway. I started writing this post about 2 weeks ago, so I've been constantly updating and changing it. I'll write about the highlights of the activities I've had the last four weeks or so. Today I've had the first day off after 9 days of work, so I think it's as good time as any to finally finish this post.





First major event we had was that Jessie, my American flatmate, left Australia for the time being and went off to travel for a while until November, month in which she has to be in India to attend a royal Indian wedding which she has invited to by the bride's brother. Crazy stories you hear about fellow travellers... (she met him while she was traveling through India riding a motorbike she bought in that country).

We heard from her a few days ago and she's in the Phillipines, traveling and diving. She sent a photo of a miniature seahorse. Before leaving Port Douglas she told us several times how badly she wanted to see one of them.

Anyway, Jessie wanted to throw a costume party and because she had a 70's outfit, she asked everyone to dress up in 70's costumes. All the people attending did their best to come up with creatve costumes and we had 70's disco music, etc. I went for a 70's tennis player look, but actually ended up looking like 70's white trash, which worked out well anyway.

When the party died down, Jessie convinced/forced a few of us to go into town for a few last drinks. We went to the Iron Bar which was full that day. I didn't really want to spend too much time there because I was working the next day, so I left at around midnight and said goodbye to Jessie there.





Something else that happened this last month was that very good friends of my parents were in Port Douglas for a few days; Gerardo and Susana Covacevich. I've known them since as long as I can remember.

They flew from Chile to Australia to attend one of their niece's wedding in Sydney. They took a few days before the wedding to just relax and see a bit more of Australia, so of all the destinations and options they had, they opted for Port Douglas.

I met them one afternoon after work and we went to have a few drinks and eat something at the Iron Bar. I hadn't seen them in ages and they're doing very well and it was great to catch up with them. Of course, before they left Chile, they offered if I needed anything from home and the only thing I asked for was a copy of my grandfather's recently released autobiography, which I'm very much looking forwards to reading (it took about 7 years since he started writing it to until it was actually published; he was 87 when he started writing it). It contains his whole life story until the late 80's. Of course the history of the family from my dad's side is all there and it also contains Chile's contemporary history which will be very interesting to read through his experiences.





The 27th of October we had Portoberfest, the local version of Octoberfest in Port Douglas. I was actually looking forwards to this for some time and even thought about buying a Lederhosen costume, but didn't end up doing it. Portoberfest started at around 2pm and finished past 10pm. Myself and most of the people I went with were working that day, so we got there at around 5, when the Bierfest was well underway. It was held at the marina and it was packed with people. There was a good selection of beers from all over the world, live music and the marina was decorated accordingly. I bought a 1lt "Steiner" (1lt glass) which I had for the evening. Best thing about the steiner were the cheap refills. Most of the Calypso crew were there, plus a few other friends. Besides the wide range of beers, the girls that were tending the bars did some German dances in their costumes, etc., it was great fun. After Portoberfest ended, a few of us headed down to an Irish pub called "Paddy's" for a last drink. Next day, as usual, back at work.

For Halloween we had a big party at the house. I don't celebrate Halloween in Chile (although it's pretty popular there even though it's an "imported" celebration), but Melina (one of my flatmates) really wanted to throw a big party that day. She put a lot of effort in it (and of course made all of us participate in the preparations).

about 20 people showed up and everyone got really involved and commited with the costumes (it had to be something "scary" and there was a price for best costume). The first floor of the house was totally transformed with fake spiderwebs, redlights, skull masks, etc. The backyard as well, with halloween lamps, a fake graveyard, more skulls and stuff like that. I dressed up as Jason from Friday the 13th and I was also in charge of music (Rob Zombie, Iron Maiden, Lordi, etc. to begin and set the halloween mood and them continued with and a lot of electronic and dance music for the rest of the night). Constumes that showed up included a shark attack victim, a pirate, a jellyfish, Medussa, gore make up, monsters, etc. The best costumes were a zombie bride (Alex) and Kane who dressed up as the Joker (from Batman) in the scene in which he dresses up as a nurse to blow up a hospital.

There was a also a dancing pole and a few people had a go at it while the music played on and on during the night. It was an awesome party.

The next morning the house looked like a crack house (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_house) and it took at least a few hours to clean it up and about 24 hours to get rid of the smell of wine and candy. good thing is, we had a really good breakfast with fried eggs, bacon and hash browns to recover and then had beers and stayed in the swimming pool in the afternoon. Tough life.





On November 2nd we had Brad's birthday (he's one of my flatmate's friends and stayed with us for a few weeks after Jessie moved out). He was in Port Dougla looking for a job until he recently got a job in the very exclusive Lizard Island. For his birthday, we went out to town and did bar hopping between The Courthouse Hotel, The Rattle N' Hum (where we played some pool) and finished at the Iron Bar.

The next day Melina threw him a surprise dinner party to which she invited Bruce, Giselle, a friend of hers called Lauren and her boyfriend Rob and of course Anthony, Melina and myself. At the end of the night we ended up playing card games.





Bruce and Giselle moved out of Tropic Court so we're no longer neighbors and they moved to a place which is still pretty close and the house is bigger, with a really nice backyard and a pool. About a week ago a few of us got together for poker night at their house (Bruce, Anthony, Kane, Brad, Lachie and myself). It was pretty chilled and it was something different for a change.





A couple of nights ago we had a barbecue at Bruce and Giselle's. Lachie and Peta had friends from France visiting them and they told their friends that once in Port Douglas they HAD to try a Chilean barbecue.

I did a barbecue once, several months ago and it was a total success. Since then I've done about 4 or 5 and usually people don't miss them. Peta and Lachie grew so fond of them that they asked me to do one for their friends (so techically now I guess I'm a Port Douglas attraction). That was last Monday after an unusually hard day at work (full boat and an abnormally high amount of divers), so it was also a good way to blow some steam off.

That same night was also my last day of work in Calypso. Because of my visa restriction, I can only work with the same company for no longer than 6 months, so I was forced to look for another job. An opportunity came up very unexpected (I got information that the competition, a company that owns a boat called "Poseidon" was looking for instructors). I called then that same day, got offered to do a familiarization the next day, went on the boat and got offered a job that same day. I asked the management to give me a week to notify "Calypso" that I was leaving and they were fine with it.

The people in Calypso were also OK with the whole thing (they knew I was looking for a job and that I wanted to stay in Port Douglas), so everything turned out well.





I've only worked on Poseidon for a couple of days now and it seems like a pretty good job, very similar to what I was doing and I only have to learn the way this specific boat operates.





Last week I renewed my Oxygen Provider course, which I did in the Marina after work and took a few hours. I hadn't done any first aid training since March and it's always good to do a refresher now and then.





I had some really good last weeks working on Calypso, especially the last weeks of October. The weather was perfect, with about 30ºC, clear skies and flat seas. Couldn't ask for better conditions.

I had some amazing dives, like one I did at a site called "Cathedrals", with visibility over 30 meters, beautiful landscapes and swim-throughs. I saw the biggest giant moray eel I've ever seen, about 5 sharks, a stingray, etc. One of the best dives I've had in the year.

One thing that I've been discovering at work: I think I prefer a lot of times taking people on the "Discover Scuba Diving" program (for people who try it for the first time) than taking out certified divers. With new divers, this is a totally new experience for them and they always enjoy it once they get comfortable in the water. The look on their faces when they come out of the water and the fact that you made a difference in their lives is a great feeling.



With certified divers, sometimes we get costumers who are incredibly arrogant and presumptious and when we ask them about the dive site, a lot of times we get responses like "I've dived in better places". I don't understand the mentallity of these people.

For me, diving is a fantastic sport in which you get to see things that the majority of human beings can only dream of. Even if I have a dive with 3 meters of visibility and harsh weather conditions, I still enjoy being in the water. Looking it form a different perspective it's a more challenging dive. Everything else in a dive is a bonus (good visibility, cool marine life, etc.). If you get to dive in some out of this world spot with great conditions, that's excellent, but I don't think I've a had a "bad dive" so far. Otherwise, what's the point in going in the water if you're going to complain or compare everything with the one amazing dive you've done in your life? If I had a choice I wouldn't bother with these people at all, they don't deserve it.

On the other hand, I have met a lot of great certified divers as well and when I get a really good group of people that you can see genuinely enjoy the sport and have a positive attitude, these are days in which I could work for free.

Portoberfest 2012

White tip at "Two Tone", Opal Reef

Grouper at "Two Tone", Opal Reef

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Photos

Portoberfest
With Bruce

Comments

[Andres]

saludos desde Lonquen
Hola Dani, que bueno vuelves a escribir. Ya se te echaba de menos. Por acá todos bien. Los niños ya están terminando el año muy bien. El 24 tendremos la 1era comunión de la Trini. Estamos en plena epoca de venta de vino personalizado así es que muy ocupados en eso. Ya sabrás que margarita y kiko llegaron muy contentos y sin novedad de su trecking a Bután. un fuerte abrazo de todos por acá, Andres