"El Blanketo" (?)

More about the blog title a bit later, but first the big news - I am now officially a certified SCUBA diver! We finished our last dive yesterday afternoon, and only had 2 skills to perform - taking our mask off underwater then putting it back on and clearing it, and also hovering, a skill needed to stay at 15 feet for 3-5 minutes for the safety stop. Since we just had these two things, Dave and Ric were able to come along with us and go exploring with us after we were finished with our training. Dave took all kinds of pictures with his underwater camera, but here were two of my favorite:

(that's me in the pink fins!)

It was a great experience, and I loved doing my open water certification with Lisa and Jaycee, who are from Calgary, Alberta - we've spent a lot of time with them over the last couple of days, after finishing diving each day. Our instructor, Tyler, is a young kid from Tulsa OK who picked up and moved down here two years ago, great guy! Today's dive will be a two tank dive this morning, with Dave, Ric, Lisa, Jaycee and me - our first as certified divers.

Between the weather and the diving, Dave's sinuses and ears have been a bit cloggy, and have resulted in some good nights of snoring, whether he is on his back or side. So, on morning two, I left a note for the maid, asking for an extra sheet and blanket:

There was a cheat sheet for commonly used phrases and requests, so I knew what to put for sheet, but blanket was just my attempt at Spanglish, and apparently it was nowhere close! Luckily Dave happened to be in the room when the maid came and went and pointed to the blanket on the bed, and she then understood. But I asked Shanny, one of the servers at the Thirsty Turtle that night about it, and she LAUGHED so hard! Now she calls me "Miss Blankita" every time she sees me. I'll need to have Paige pull out one of her old Spanish books and help me brush up before we go on another trip, I guess!

It has been a fun couple of days, and I swear I haven't gained a pound even with some yummy and not-so-healthy food. We've been so busy with diving, snorkeling, walking, and other stuff that I think we're burning off all the calories we're consuming - even with those yummy blended drinks in the afternoon happy hours each day. Our favorite place is the corner table at the main bar & grill on the resort, the Thirsty Turtle:

Here's Albert, one of our favorite servers at the Turtle, and Dave and I gave him props for his fabulous taste in baseball teams:

Last night we had dinner at the Vintage Pearl, an upscale restaurant on the island, with absolutely wonderful food and beautful setting:

More soon, have to go get ready for breakfast and our two tank dive at 8:15.