Under the Sea

It has been a week since we arrived home from Honduras, and I've got to get the diving pics on here. I'm at my folks' house for Easter weekend, and updated everyone on our trip, especially the diving! Questions included:

So how do you breathe underwater - through your nose? (No - you breathe through your mouth, with the regulator - once I got used to it, it wasn't an issue for me at all)

Were you scared at all? (Yes, of course, a little, but it was so cool! One of the scariest things for me was getting into the water - flipping over backwards over the edge of the boat, with all the scuba gear on...)

Did anything bad happen? (Nope, but there is a lot of training "in case of" over the five weeks of pool classes and then the two days of open water training - what to do if your mask comes off, you run low on air, etc. Those things rarely happen, though, with proper preparation and equipment)

How deep did you go? (Most of our dives were 40-50 feet, but one dive we went to 80 feet)

How long was the dive? (An average of 45-60 minutes)

Did you get cold? (The water was 80 degrees, but I did get cold by the end of each dive, even with a 3mm full wet suit. I think I will go to a 5mm for our next trip, and buy/bring my own)

Our open water training consisted of four dives over a two day time frame; one shore dive, where we waded into the water and started our dive from that point. The other three dives were boat dives, all within 15 minutes of the resort. We had to do some "skills" on the surface of the water, (direction finding with a compass and a couple other things - sometimes the water was so choppy, it was much harder to be on the surface in our gear than it was to go underwater- we were ready to go DOWN!) and then some skills on the ocean floor - removing our masks and then putting them back on, clearing the water out. That was one of the most stressful things for me at the start of my diving lessons back in February, but by April I was much more comfortable. Here we are on the ocean floor, our last class (Dave and Ric went with us on dive four, and Dave was the photographer):

When we were officially done with all of our skills, Dave took our picture before we all headed off on the remainder of the dive:

(Jaycee, me, and Lisa with our instructor, Tyler, in front)

And then we were off - our first three dives with Tyler were great - but this fourth one, knowing we were DONE with training, felt GREAT!

Dave and Ric did ten dives over the weeks' time; after I finished my four dives for certification, I did another four during our remainder of the time there - eight dives, in my first diving trip! Each time was a little more comfortable for me - working on my bouyancy, breathing in and out to raise and lower. Dave was the photographer, and had lots of fun taking pictures of the fish, turtles, eels and all the other strange and beautiful things in the underwater world.



















It is exciting to have something that Dave and I can enjoy together - we are already talking about our next diving trip - probably not next year, but hopefully the year after.






Ok, gotta go and get ready for church with my family, it is Easter Sunday. They surprised me last night with a fabulous 40th birthday party, a great photo album and much more - will have to write about it soon!

Table for Six

Wednesday night was deemed my birthday celebration portion of our trip (although trust me, we toasted to my birthday several times throughout the week there!); our new Canadian friends Jaycee and Lisa suggested to Dave that they all surprise me with dinner over the water at a nearby restaurant, Bite on the Beach. They had dined in the main part of the restaurant the evening before, and thought that the hut over the water would be perfect spot for our celebration that night:



Dave had told me that we were all just going to walk down the beach to find some place to eat, so we left Bananarama and started off on a stroll, enjoying the stars, the water and the peacefulness of the night. When we arrived at Bite on the Beach, they led us out and seated us in the hut over the water. After we were seated, the waiter brought out champagne chilling on ice, from our friends Shawn and Lucas - how sweet was that!? They're our friends who have been to Bananarama twice, and so highly recommended both Roatan and the resort- and how right they were! The only thing that would've been better is if they could have been WITH us to celebrate. (Maybe next time, guys - we'll have to plan on it!)

Dinner was fabulous; all three of us girls enjoyed the lobster fettucine alfredo, something I rarely let myself order - and we really could've split an order between the three of us, the portions were huge. The fruity cocktails were flowin' - island coladas, mango bellinis and more.

A wonderful dinner and evening, with four great friends - we already knew we loved hanging out with Ric and Jan, and then we were fortunate enough to make some awesome new friends as well, just by virtue of being paired up with them on my open water diving classes. It was so interesting to visit with them over dinner, about the differences in our countries - health care was a big topic, very interesting discussion about their system and the recent changes in our's. We also talked about the cost of living, housing and the differences in the provinces throughout Canada - I learned so much about Canada's culture; it was a party AND a history/geography lesson for this information gatherer!

Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me after dinner, and I made my birthday wish and blew out the candle on my slice of key lime pie. I think if Dave and I had one thing we would've changed about our trip, it was that they needed more chocolate on that island - we both love chocolate desserts, and that was definitely in short supply on all of the menus.

Thanks for the great evening, guys - a very memorable 40th birthday celebration.

More pictures soon, including diving - time for bed now though, after another load of laundry.

More Adventures

Wednesday was a full day, with a two tank dive in the morning (will post about all diving experiences and pictures when I return home and have more time) and then ziplining in the afternoon. Six friends, two guides, thirteen ziplines, some daredevil antics (not by me, I was happy just strapped in with the normal pose/ride) and some cute white-faced capuchin monkeys at the end of the adventure! (Hard to tell who's who on the ziplines with the helmets on; Dave's in a red tshirt and I'm in the olive pants) Enjoy!

"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.

We're Here!

It is a gorgeous Monday morning in Roatan, Honduras - humid, but there is a great breeze here most of the time. I'm sitting on our deck with friend Jan, relaxing with a cup of coffee (yes, coffee, even in the tropics - can't give that up!) and will head down later for day two of my diving certification.

We arrived by noon on Saturday, which meant we still had a whole afternoon and evening on arrival day - so nice! We didn't start with a beer at the airport, like many folks we saw, but I did have to take our first photo there, before getting in the cab to head to the resort.



The ride to the resort probably took about 30 minutes, and wasn't nearly as harrowing as in Jamaica - our driver was very friendly and full of information about the island, too. He moved here from mainland Honduras about ten years ago. He is somewhat of an entrepreneur - owns three vans, and has a few other drivers helping him. He talked about the history, vegetation, topography, great restaurants and other advice, and talked about his home that he owns on the island. He has a "leetle piece of paradise - not so big, but its mine" and it has a ocean view from his bed, which he said was just perfect for him. And I can see why!

When we arrived at the resort and got settled in to our cabins, the first thing we did was throw our suits on and head down to the beach, of course! It was very windy on Saturday afternoon and evening, and I was worried that it might be like this all the time, but we did have a storm that night and both Sunday and Monday have now been much more comfortable, with just a gentle breeze.

Jan and I enjoyed alternating between the beach chairs and the water, and the guys met "Roatan Bruce", an interesting guy in his mid-50s who has lived here for eight years. He and his wife moved down here so she could do some research with dolphins, and he is the radio host on the English speaking station on Roatan. He has lived in New York and Boston for many years and was full of great stories about the island.




The rest of my photos so far can just be called the Dave Show, I didn't realize I took so many of him - I'll have to hand him the camera over the next couple days as well.

We enjoyed dinner at the Thirsty Turtle on our resort the first night, and Ric and Dave both ordered one of the specials, and thoroughly enjoyed it:




It was a fairly early night for all four of us, we were exhausted from getting up early that morning to catch our flight, and three of us had to be up for SCUBA the next morning. Dave enjoyed the hammack on our deck, after he figured out how to get into it:





Highlights from Sunday, day 2 (feels so nice to know that we're so early in the trip!) included my first two SCUBA lessons (went well, and more on that later) and then some beach time in the late afternoon. Sunday night is a big night on the resort, with crab races (money goes to a charity to help babies of mothers with AIDS) and fire dancing, and a live band. The guys showered and headed down early to get us a good seat for dinner and the show, and the four of us ate with another two couples who are from Canada.

The sunsets are beautiful, of course, but we didn't get out on the beach soon enough to get very many on Sunday, luckily we have a few more nights to try our luck again.




Dave had high hopes for the crabs he picked, but they weren't the big winners:




The fire dancing was very entertaining, but I couldn't get any great shots of the three people doing it - the main guy (below) was a white guy with dreadlocks, who had been on the beach all day with his niece and daughter, and had also made this sand sculpture with some of the local kids' help:





We stayed up until 10pm, I found my drink for the trip, a seabreeze - vodka, grapefruite juice and cranberry juice - yum! Of course the creamy fruity drinks are awesome (monkey lala and bananarama were my favorites) but you can't have more than one or two without feeling full, so I think they'll only be an afternoon treat, when on the beach!

The guys are back from diving now, and we're heading for some lunch before dives three and four for me this afternoon. Cheers!