Diving!!

I first booked with Silverstein diving centre to go to Cousins and Bartolome islands. We left at 7am and headed across the island to get the boat, which is a mid sized speedboat with cover. The journey took about 1hr 30 and Graham sat at the back feeling sea sick, but the rest of us seem to be ok. There were 6 of us diving. Going round the group most people had done a lot of diving with the German couple saying that they had done 640 and 560 dives! So nice being out with an experienced lot.

The diving practice was to get into full dry suits with hoods as the water is cold. This was the first time diving in a dry suit and with a hood. I lots the hood after the first dive! Did not like how it restricted my hearing. We sat on the side of the boat to get our equipment on trying not to full backwards with the weight of the equipment as well as the rock of the boat as the sea was rough. Everyone had to do a practice dive to check boyency etc which consisted of going down to 6meters ok, then coming back up and getting back on the boat still fully equipped! Not an easy task!! We then went over to were we would dive.

After rolling backwards in we then dropped done to start diving. The visibility was not that good (10-15m) but on both dives we saw lots of fish, sea lion, turtles, White tip sharks and lots more. I took my camera down but did not take that many pictures because of the vis.

After our 2 dives, the weather had turn horrible and the sea was rough, so it was decided to press on back to shore before having lunch. Graham was again sick, so i gave him some night rescue remedy to help make him feel better.

Lunch was eat at the port surrounded by birds, 2 of which would come up and take rice from my hand!

Once back in Puerto Aroya and had my book stamped, i headed over to Iguana Dive centre. They are the best on the island, and got my kit for tomorrows dive.

Heading back to the Gardener hotel, i was really looking forward to a hot shower and a quiet evening. Of course there was no hot water and no one around to help, so i was not a happy bunny. Cold and salty!

Going onto the terrace i started chatting to Alana, and invited her to join us for dinner as she was on her own. We ended up in Esmelders for prawns, rice and coconut sauce! It was a nice evening and an early night.