I don't understand, everyone here in Cozumel, Mexico speaks Spanish, or at best Spanglish! Just kidding, I speak some Spanish, so no es una problema grande.
Drift diving yesterday was spectacular, first at Pasar de Central and later Paradise Reef. There was heavy current on the first dive after which my dive computer died. Fortunately I have a backup.
The first dive's highlight was a swim through that was as pretty as any I've seen in fifteen years diving. I didn't see the dive master make the turn into the swim through and had to swim against the current to make the entry or be left behind. Emerging into the light from the darkness of the swim through is something that just can't be explained, it has to be experienced. Lots of sunshine and deep blue light and sweet shadowed places where the smallest creatures live and thrive. Other than the swim through the highlight was a blue Parrot fish that must have weighed nearly fifteen pounds. When they reach that size they are grotesque and have distorted features that give no clue to their delicate and stunningly colorful juvenile past. As it passed the giant fish evacuated. The poop's fall reminded me of the way bombs look as they leave the hold of an aircraft and spread their devastation on the landscape below. The poop, though, just contributes to the sandy bottom's growth.
You are never supposed to dive on someone else's computer, all the books say so. Naturally, my wife and I dove on her computer for the second dive. The person sans computer must watch their air consumption on their own gauges and the dive time and no decompression dive time on their dive buddy's computer.
Our second dive was much like diving in your aquarium, with its endless changes in light and with schools of fish arrayed in colors from bold to subtle and soft. A school of young Barracuda facing into the current, French Grunts huddled in schools between coral heads, young solitary Tiger Grouper, all of them confident and at peace among themselves. Oh, there is the occasional territorial squabble, lots of chasing and kicking up of sand, but no shooting and no knives, just invisible lines not to be crossed. The violence though begins at nightfall when the predators begin to hunt the reef.
Best of all were the several Queen Trigger fish, who look like hand painted china and are so rarely seen. I watched Cowfish turn a spectrum of shades as they moved near then away just as an octopus will. Little Trunk Fish that for all the world look like bathtub toys as they bobble about without noticeable fear. And a huge crab that would more than fill an old iron skillet.
I am always amazed by the ocean, blue as the sky, but clear and transparent when you are part of it, yet the distance is still ocean blue.
Today it has rained and we didn't dive. I've seen the ocean many times and its glory, its life is in the sunlight which blesses the water with vibrant light. And this is the way you think life should be with its infinite and slow moving time, casual talk, short naps, books to read, plentiful food and cares that belong to someone else. In the end the boredom and restlessness overcomes you and, like almost everyone, you must move, create and be productive. It is the nature of man.
Maybe there will be more blogging as the days wear on, maybe not. This is the land of tomorrow and there is always that.
Drift diving yesterday was spectacular, first at Pasar de Central and later Paradise Reef. There was heavy current on the first dive after which my dive computer died. Fortunately I have a backup.
The first dive's highlight was a swim through that was as pretty as any I've seen in fifteen years diving. I didn't see the dive master make the turn into the swim through and had to swim against the current to make the entry or be left behind. Emerging into the light from the darkness of the swim through is something that just can't be explained, it has to be experienced. Lots of sunshine and deep blue light and sweet shadowed places where the smallest creatures live and thrive. Other than the swim through the highlight was a blue Parrot fish that must have weighed nearly fifteen pounds. When they reach that size they are grotesque and have distorted features that give no clue to their delicate and stunningly colorful juvenile past. As it passed the giant fish evacuated. The poop's fall reminded me of the way bombs look as they leave the hold of an aircraft and spread their devastation on the landscape below. The poop, though, just contributes to the sandy bottom's growth.
You are never supposed to dive on someone else's computer, all the books say so. Naturally, my wife and I dove on her computer for the second dive. The person sans computer must watch their air consumption on their own gauges and the dive time and no decompression dive time on their dive buddy's computer.
Our second dive was much like diving in your aquarium, with its endless changes in light and with schools of fish arrayed in colors from bold to subtle and soft. A school of young Barracuda facing into the current, French Grunts huddled in schools between coral heads, young solitary Tiger Grouper, all of them confident and at peace among themselves. Oh, there is the occasional territorial squabble, lots of chasing and kicking up of sand, but no shooting and no knives, just invisible lines not to be crossed. The violence though begins at nightfall when the predators begin to hunt the reef.
Best of all were the several Queen Trigger fish, who look like hand painted china and are so rarely seen. I watched Cowfish turn a spectrum of shades as they moved near then away just as an octopus will. Little Trunk Fish that for all the world look like bathtub toys as they bobble about without noticeable fear. And a huge crab that would more than fill an old iron skillet.
I am always amazed by the ocean, blue as the sky, but clear and transparent when you are part of it, yet the distance is still ocean blue.
Today it has rained and we didn't dive. I've seen the ocean many times and its glory, its life is in the sunlight which blesses the water with vibrant light. And this is the way you think life should be with its infinite and slow moving time, casual talk, short naps, books to read, plentiful food and cares that belong to someone else. In the end the boredom and restlessness overcomes you and, like almost everyone, you must move, create and be productive. It is the nature of man.
Maybe there will be more blogging as the days wear on, maybe not. This is the land of tomorrow and there is always that.
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