Staying wet

We showed up at the dive shop at 8:30 for our two dives this morning. Unfortunately, Kim was not able to go because her last dive was four years ago, and she needed to complete a "refresher course" before going out again. Personally, I think this is PADI's way to generate more income, but I suppose if her passport had been good, she may have gotten a dive in since New Zealand in 2006. Anyway, we arranged for her to do the course tomorrow, and she and I will dive together on Saturday. In the meantime, I went ahead and dove the two sites today. Why waste the opportunity, right? We dove just outside the Hol Chan Marine Park, at a site called Esmeralda. As soon as I hit the water I dropped down where three nurse sharks were trolling the coral garden. They are pretty harmless, but there's still the memory of Jaws forever burned in my mind. The highlight was coming across some sand and seeing a hawksbill turtle floating over the coral just ahead. I stayed where I was, and he glided right past me. They are so darn cute!

The second dive was near the Caye Caulker protected area. We dove the North Cut, where we again saw a turtle. The visibility was not too good because of the incoming storm, but what you could see was amazing. The coral is in great shape, with a huge variety of coral types such as brain coral, elk horn, fan, and tube. There were more snappers, wrasse, angelfish, sharks, and lionfish, too.

When we got back to land, Kim met me at the dive store and said there had been a downpour. Apparently the rain broke for us, because it started coming down again when we got to the hotel room. I decided to lie down and listen to the rain, which really turned into a full-on nap. It sounds like it will be rainy again tomorrow, so I see more naps and reading in my future. The internet cafe has a nice selection of used books, and there is a coffee shop just around the block from us. We'll be there all day tomorrow, I'm sure.

Kim reminded me of a story that I thought I would share. The first morning we were in San Ignacio, we were enjoying breakfast at a restaurant/bar (7:30am), when a woman walked in. She went straight to the bar, ordered a beer, and proceeded to chug it. She paid for the beer, went to the doorway, and looked like she was trying to hide from someone. It appeared she might have hooked up with someone the night before, because the roadrash on her forehead looked pretty new. I imagine it would have been similar had she slid into second base on her head. She finally left and we went about eating our breakfast and enjoying our day. At dinner that night, we were eating at a completely different restaurant and guess who walks in. It's the same woman with the wicked roadrash on her forehead. At this point I decided that we would give her a name, since we were apparently destined to spend our vacation with her. I told Kim that I was going to call her Anita, Anita deTox. Well, we had a good laugh at her expense, which has probably messed up my karma, but we got a lot of mileage out of it. We arrived in Caye Caulker on Monday, checked into our room and immediately went to the hotel's restaurant/bar to eat. And there, sitting at the bar with a different guy, was Anita. Are you kidding me? We couldn't believe it. I'm pretty sure I overheard her say that she was from Santa Barbara, but I'm worried she has a flight back to Denver on Sunday, on which her seat will be next to mine!Read more