20000 leagues under the sea

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Yup, so I had a wonderful tropical x mas on utila. I'm still here, just chilling out because it is time for that. There are lots of good people, and I was fortunate enough to have good friends all around me for x mas. On xmas eve, the europeans celebrate, so we were planning on going out. I had another gig up at the fairy tale bar, for it was sunday again! I was suppossed to go in the afternoon, but I had my advanced diving course. That day we were to go down to 100 feet! We got up early in the morning and before we knew it, we were dropping down to the bottom of the ocean, equalizing often. Merry xmas! Down there, there was a sunken ship, a big one. We were over 100 feet below! It was pretty incredible. We swam down into the ship, which was overgrown with life and had fish and crabs around it. We penetrated the wreck, going under the overhang in the front. Then we swam through the lower floor, then through the captians quarters. It was really neat. I looked up, trying to see the surface, and I don't think I could see it, just bubbles going up up up. It was really wild. Then we did another dive practicing navigation. When I got done, I went up to the Treetanic bar, where I was to play. Not many people were there, so after chilling out a while and soaking in the atmosphere, for the garden is such a nice place to just sit and think, I started walking back with my guitar. I ran into a huge group from my dive shop, about twenty. We all went out to xmas eve dinner together and had a blast. We sat at this huge table and I got ribeye steak. At first it came out and was really raw. I ate about half of it (cause I like it that way) then had them throw it back on the grill for a little. It was great. Then everyone wanted to know when I was going to play. I said, right now, come on, let's go. So we all wandered up there to the treetanic bar, which was already pretty already. And about 20 people from our shop came up, so we had lots! In a bit, I started playing, and a lot of the people from the shop sang along. The first I did was chim chimmeny, they really liked that one. They sang along. Then we did silent night, jingle bells. We all sang "with a little help from my friends." Then, I really didn't want to do it, but everyone wanted me to do my rap song about 17 year old girls. Everyone just got dead silent and listened on the edge of their seats with eyes wide and jaws dropped. And there were about 50 people right there, more in the garden... More or less that's how it was...and the people from my shop sang along. That song got a good response, ha ha ha! everyone cheered. After that, it was all down hill, but I have to say, for a minute there things got a little tense.

After that, the rest of the concert was nice. I didn't pass the tip jar around, because I wanted to give them a free concert for x mas.

Next we went to another bar and hung out there a while. Finally, I headed back with my guitar. Two girls at this shop were really friendly, saying, feliz navidad! and they asked if I wanted drinks and snacks. I played them a song, and we drank lemonade and ate some cakes. Then my friend from new mexico came by, and he sat down. I serenaded everyone with my music, and thought, it's pretty amazing how you can connect with people with music. I'm very good at speaking with music, and also articulate at expressing my thoughts orally, but I have problems sometimes with just average conversations. They bore me quite a bit. I always find myself talking about philosophy, life, and the most fascinating things, the most deep things I can think of. But I think that's how it should be anyhow. I really speak to people with that music, I'm glad I can.

So we all hung out, and one girl, Lena, was from bolivia. The other was from honduras. Lena said she was going on a hike tomorrow, for xmas, and would we like to come. She was going up to the hill, and me and Eric said we sure would. When I came into the island, i said, I'm going to climb that hill. And on xmas day, we did! It was so great, because I didn't have any plans what to do for xmas, and being open, it was the perfect thing. Being so busy with diving, I hadn't gotten to explore the island at all. Here we were walking to the other side, and up the hill. There were nice open fields, trees, mud, and bugs. It was really pretty. We climbed up the hill, and we heard there was a cave near there.

I said, we should look for treasure, since this was a pirate island. And we found treasure aplenty! The view from the hill was amazing, much better than gold. And the fresh air blowing over all the way from africa, was preciosa! And the company good, Eric and Lena. Then we went down to the beach, only to find more treasure. It is amazing the gifts the earth will give you sometimes, and the richest ones are those of the heart. The beach was great. There was a nice surf, and we walked out to the highest rock and climbed it, and sat on it. I looked around, surrounded by waves lapping below me. I was thinking that I needed to make peace with the ocean. That is a good thing to do in your lifetime, if you get a chance. I never spent much time with the ocean, but I started making peace right there.

As we were hiking back, we saw these amazing flowers, white with dancing polinators. Lena picked two and gave one to eric, and one to me. Eric slowly picked his apart as we walked back. We watched fireflies, and we saw a scorpian! It was so neat. But I kept my flower intact, for I didn't expect to get any presents, but it turned out, I got more than I could have hoped for! Also, on the beach, I picked up pieces of coral, to give the people at the shop presents.

Eric and I parted Lena, intending to meet her for dinner. We were to meet at 730, but we were both tired, so Eric and I just sat down to eat. A bunch of our class was at the restaurant already. We sat down with them, and one guy was like, you look like a cult leader! I had a walking staff in one hand and my flower in the other, and I was wearing crazy colored clothing, as usual. I said, well I am a cult leader. He said, what were you doing, some cult stuff, how come americans have to hang out together. I said, we have to stick together, to take over the world and all.

We were just kidding around though.

Later, I was hanging out at the dive shop, outside, playing some chess, and Lena came by. It was a little later. But I stopped the game, and took her out to dinner, because she got me that nice flower. I still had it with me. We sat there hanging out, and she turned out to have a really neat philosophy. She said life was all about sun, wind, trees, water. Breathe, was her philosophy. I thought that was pretty beautiful, for I'm one who loves simplicity. She told me she planted bamboo five years ago, because one day she wants to build a bamboo hut in the jungle of bolivia, and live there and eat fruits.

So we had dinner, and she preserved my flower for me in newspaper! She was suppossed to leave the next day, but there was a storm, so the ferry didn't run. I had to dive all day, went down to 120 feet! It was really crazy. The second dive, we just floated with the current, not too deep, but looking at all the fish. It was my favorite yet. I could just relax and watch. at night we did a dive in the dark. We went down with our flashlights, looked at the fish. Then at the bottom we turned them off, and moved our hands around. It was neat, the flourescent green little lights, which are phosphorescence. Then we shined all our lights together and saw all these little shrimp swimming around. It was neat at night, but our divemaster kinda ruined my dive, he kept pulling at my fin, trying to get me to stay near my buddy, but I was right near my buddy. Plus I was having trouble with my ears and kept getting water in my mask, so I didn't really need him pestering me! Once he pulled me down, when my ears wouldn't equalize. It hurt a bit. I was like, man, quit it! He was sorry afterwards though.

So Lena and I had dinner that night, and she bought me some burritoes. I always get a soft spot when a girl buys me some burritoes, or beers work too. Because I would never expect that. I always spoke spanish with her, because she didn't speak english, so you can see how good my spanish is getting! We even talked about maybe building this bamboo hut together in the jungle, raising fruits and all that good stuff. It sounded crazy enough that I just might do it.

So that was my xmas. The day after was when we had the three dives. I was up late that night, celebrating being done, actually just relaxing. The next day I aspired to do absolutely nothing, and I achieved my goal pretty well. And today is pretty much the same! It's been busy. But I've been playing lots of chess with all the guys at the shop, and I beat them every time. I swear, I've won about 30 games so far, some of them really fast! But they're getting better. I'm still the undisputed championship though, as usual, ha ha ha. And last night we sat around reciting deep thought quotes by jack handy, and that was so great. I laughed so hard I cried.

It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

So, I'm thinking about doing the rescue diver course. Then you really are a well rounded diver. Also, chewing on doing a divemaster, but that takes a month to do. Then I'd really be hanging out on the island a while. At this one place, if you do a divemaster with them, you get free diving for life after that. Man, that's a good deal.

Anyway, it's time for me to get out of this internet place! I just printed out a bunch of jack handy deep thoughts. It had been too long!

Well wishes to all!

Colin

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Photos

The Booze cruise
OK, time to party!

The girls I met on the ferry
we came over together to utila. Luise gets special mention because she carried me on her back--she was from sweden, and real strong. Later, she tried to carry 3 guys. Man!

Tom
I gotta tell you guys tom´s story with the donkey, that is a doozy.

Luise, we admire your power
she is trying to get three guys at once on top. She already got two danish guys, all she needs is one canadian!

Orin, the big english dude
This guy was really big and tough, but inside, he was just a bag of cuddles, ha ha ha! The first day I saw him he had a kitten sleeping on his shoulder. This is at the treetanic bar, there were always lots of cats up there.

Xmas day
with eric and Lena. Lena showed us the other side of the island, it was beautiful.

The advanced course
a smaller class. But we were studying hard! Not really. Phil was my buddy, in the green hat.

Our boat
comin back at the sunset

Comments

[swills82]

Christmas Under Water
I too spent my Christmas diving... What an awesome thing that is. I was in Roatan doing my Advanced Certification as well. Congrats! Much easier than the Open Water huh? I was in Utila in September. That's where I got my Open Water. What dive shop are you with?