Hola All,
We have just come back from panama and it was unbelievable and amazing. I am now Scuba Certified and tanned again. I had started to lose the tan that I had “worked” so hard to get on the Kayaking stage but after spending the day on a 40 foot Catamaran cruising on the Caribbean seeing turtles and countless numbers of fish you can get it back pretty quickly. I really just wanted to brag about what we did on the boat but link it to a seemingly innocuous statement.
When I spoke to you last, Sandra, Mitch, Evan and myself headed out at 2:30 in the morning to get in Jim Rowe’s car (we were lucky to get a nice ride as opposed to the bus) through to the Costa Rican/Panamanian border. We crossed on foot a rickety old bridge with big holes that you could fall through to Panama and then headed to a dock near Changinola in Panama. From there we caught a boat to the Boccas Del Torro Archipelago and landed on a cute little island with a rustic non flushing toilet and an area for our food and eating. Sandra and I got to have our own tent which always adds to the experience.
We started this phase off with learning the basics of SCUBA, Donned our equipment and then headed out to the Caribbean sea. The first time that you are under water is amazing. You are trying to breathe as normal as you can but everything literally takes your breath away. The reefs of Boccas Del Torro are amazing. The fish are out of this world and the water is the perfect shade of warm. The readings that we needed for the SCUBA course were odd. The first 3 chapters were all about how safe SCUBA is and the equipment that will be utilized to get you have the best experience underwater. So initially it lulls you into a false sense of security. The next two chapters are dedicated to informing you about the fact that if you do a couple things wrong you will end up either exploding your lungs or getting little bubbles of nitrogen creating embolisms in you bloodstream. The last chapters returned to tell you how cool SCUBA is and how safe and other courses you can do to get you to a level of Divemaster.
We were lucky enough to do 4 days of Diving. The first day was general and introductory. The next day we went out into open water and went down to about 10-15 feet. It is the best feeling to be so free from gravity, or more specifically, being able to control gravity. I spent a lot of my time spinning around, doing back flips and diving around people, I got to see fish but I really loved the moving around. The next day we went deeper and saw even more fish and coral. Everyday the water treated us to perfect conditions and spectacular vistas underwater. The first part of every dive was spent doing drills such as losing your regulator and filling your mask with water, and what you do to correct the situation, the second part was flying around underwater seeing the coolest things. My personal favorite is a type of worm/coral thing that disappeared into its home when you clicked your fingers near. We also got to do a wreck dive and that was amazing as well.
I think that this is all I have time for today because I am going on Solo for a couple of days, we have lunch now and then we go out into the wild yonder and look at our navels.
I have to say that the last few days have been the best in outward bound.
Love to all
Glen
