Cozumel 2021
Day 7: Anxiety Attack, Major Disappointment, and Sea of Fans
We are going to back up a day to yesterday for a part I intentionally left out. While we were at Buccanos mi esposo and yo (I) were talking about how much we enjoyed the Sea Trek adventure and wished that we would have actually kept our reservations with the Snuba at Chankanaab. I really really felt that I could do the snuba OR scuba diving. My stitches had fallen out, there was no pain, and I could feel the socket closing up with no issues. I had been snorkeling with no issues as well.
Soooo, I decided to send the following text to the diver that had talked to me before going on vacation and had told me that he would take us out to 2 reefs buy boat, brief refresher class since we had done the discover scuba so many times, and only charge us the price as a normal diver. I had told Ana about this person and she said she didn't know of him but looked him up and said he seemed like he's a nice person, loves his diving and....loves animals, which in her book that meant nothing but positive signs. ;) LOL
I decided to send him the following message: "We really want to scuba. I've been snorkeling with the snorkel in my mouth with no problems. My stitches are already gone and it's closing. Is there any way we can still do it?
To my surprise he replied with "wanna dive tomorrow? We can dive shallow 60 ft" Now I have to admit I was in complete shock when he replied like that. I honestly had hoped we would be able to talk him into letting us dive, but I figured I'd have to really work for it.
My reply was "Remember we are discover scuba and can only do 40'" He said we could do Palancar at 40' and is was a great reef. He ask me what size fins and BC we were and where in town were we staying and then gave me directions on where to meet at 8:30am the next morning.
SAY WHAT???? WE ARE GOING DIVING!?!? I couldn't believe it! I was so happy yet somewhat nervous. I mean I knew I could snorkel with no issues of the snorkel bothering my mouth, but I had no idea what air was going to do to it. I predicted it wouldn't be an issues...but you never know.
Ok, now that you all know our plans for the day, let's start from the beginning of the day. We were up at 6:30am and Sakari had her alarm set for 7am. Breakfast was short and quick. We only had 3 eggs left in the house and I boiled them and made us each basically a half an egg salad sandwich. Now something else I hadn't mentioned was that yesterday I had a bad case of diarrhea and it was continuing throughout the night and into this morning. I just couldn't stay out of the bano! I probably went a total of 5 times during the time of us getting up for breakfast to getting ready to head out the door. Ugh! I really wondered how this day would go with trying to scuba. I know we have always been told if you gotta pee, then pee. If you gotta throw up, then throw up in your regulator and it would go out. But diarrhea? That's going to be so obvious to everyone around me and the fish! This was going to be embarrassing!!!!
Now today was an important day. It was our husky, Loki's, 7th birthday. Our sitter said she was going to make it a special day for him since we weren't there with him and she went out and bought him a birthday hat and some treats for him to share with his "brother" (another husky).
The boys couldn't wait for this special day as you can tell.
They sang happy birthday to him and he had a feast.
I honestly could not believe that he kept his birthday hat on the entire time. I guess the birthday cookies were well worth the sacrifice he had to make by wearing a hat.
Ok, it was time to head out. We were to meet Alex (or dive instructor) at 8:30 at the new marina and it was now 8am. You know I hate to be late. But...first a quick run to the bano while mi familia was waiting in the car.
We pulled into the marina, parked on the street area because the parking lot is next to nothing there, and then started walking to the building he told us to meet at and then the urge came over me again...I raced to the bano and was there for quite some time hoping to accomplish getting it all cleared out and hopefully I wouldn't have any other issues. This was an important day for us! Meanwhile, Alex is texting me saying "where are you at?". I told him I stopped to use the restroom and we would be there in a moment. Nothing like being rushed while taking care of business right?
We met up with Alex and headed straight to the boat. There was another older gentleman already on the boat that was going diving and had his own personal instructor. I guess this guy comes here every year and goes diving with her and she seemed to know everything about his family and children.
We headed out of the marina and was excited for the day...although I was a little nervous about my "situation" and what might happen.
Alex Adventures Cozumel
by: Alex Salas
Along the way, we stopped to pick up 5 other divers at a resort. They had been diving every day with them and still had a few more days to go. That's just crazy to me. I can't imagine going diving every single day while vacationing. I mean it's beautiful and fun and I'm sure you could see something different every day but still. Not something I would want to do. (They were all certified and not diving to complete their certification).
So we were almost to where they were going to take us (which was the San Franciso wall) and they started getting our equipment out. They ask if we wanted to wear a wet suit and pulled a few out. They handed one to Sakari and said that it should fit her and ask if she wanted to put it on. It fit but just a little loose around the legs. Hubby said he didn't want one because he struggles to get it on and off. They handed me one and I figured why not. Maybe it would hold in the diarrhea right?
We had arrived and they had told us that we could either step off the boat or plop backwards. I was all about going backwards...until they told me to "come" and I stood at the side of the boat wondering how do you sit down and roll off??? I guess you didn't. You just stepped backwards. Yea, that wasn't any fun so I decided to go frontwards.
For some reason I was the first to go off the boat. As I entered the water I was quickly drifting away. I was kicking to try to stay in one place and Alex kept saying come this way...as I was desperately trying while trying to take a video of the hubby jumping off as well. I didn't realize it was going to be such rough waters. I had read several times on the cruise forums about certified divers saying that the waters at Cozumel was drift diving and now I knew what they meant by that. I remember some divers saying it could be very dangerous while our instructor stated that it would be an "easy dive" and we'd just float along. All these scenarios were going through my head. Fear started to over come me and when he kept telling me to come over by him and I was really having to kick to do so, anxiety started to creep up on me. The hubby was kicking to stay there as well and then it was Sakari's turn to jump off the boat.
All of a sudden they yell "LOOK DOWN!!! LOOK DOWN!!' There was the biggest Spotted Eagle Ray ever! It was so beautiful and graceful and there was a diver swimming along by it and it made him look like a very small person. I really didn't want to miss Sakari jumping in either so I was holding my camera up toward the boat, with my face in the water watching the Eagle Ray and hoping that I got her jumping off. I don't know what I was thinking. It's not very often you see an Eagle Ray and I will see Sakari jump off the boat plenty of times in the future...but for some reason the camera was on her. I did hand the hubby the Gopro prior to jumping in, so I was hoping he was catching the video for me.
Sakari jumped in and immediately started taking pictures. I'm so glad she was able to capture one picture of it. Sakari has become my backup camera these days. Every vacation I have always brought at least 2 camera's and sometimes 3....just in case! You never know what could happen (and has happened to me in the past) like I bring camera's and batteries and extra everything! Well, now I just bring her as my backup. LOL A pretty good backup wouldn't ya say? She does an excellent job with her photography (and at her arts school, she actually takes a photography and photoshop class and her teacher has been very impressed with her work all year). I think she's a natural but her favorite photography is macro. She absolutely loves the macro setting so I let her have my "good" newer camera every time.
Once the Eagle Ray was out of site, Alex was telling us to "go down". Sakari was already down and the hubby disappeared out of my site and I'm still struggling with the water. I start to go down and I was getting into my head for some reason. All the surroundings and the bottom of the ocean was way down there and I looked up and I started to panic. I don't know why. I haven't done this in years now. I used to have an issue when I first started doing these dives and then I had over come any of the issues for quite some time. But today...today was different. I wasn't feeling comfortable and if I'm not comfortable yet, it's not going to work. Alex was yelling and pointing down. I told him to hold on a minute. I was doing some deep breathing and he floated over to me and grabbed my BCD hose and started deflating me! I'm shaking my head no and struggling to stay afloat and this is when I really started to panic. How dare him do that when I said I wasn't ready? He kept telling me to go down! I kept telling him to wait...l don't know what's wrong with me and this hasn't happened in a long time. Then he said "close your eyes" and started pulling me down again. Like what the heck! You can't just pull someone under water.
I did some more deep breathing and looking up at the sky and then I was somewhat ready. I eased myself into it and deflated my bcd on my own. Both Sakari and the hubby was watching me. They knew I was struggling. Maybe I just wasn't used to "jumping in and going". We had always went over skills and everything and this time all we did was went over the hand signals. Not that we don't know everything and have done it many many times before. I guess I was just not prepared to jump and go. As a matter of fact, we didn't even do any paperwork prior (or after) either! There was no record of us diving. What if something happened?
Alex had the line up with the buoy and signaled for me to grab it. I latched on and we swam. This helped a lot. I'm not sure why. It was like a kid holding their security blanket. Sakari actually took a picture of me holding the line.
I swam along like this for awhile before I finally felt at ease and let go. Taking pictures are my meditation and helps relax me and I was snapping away and trying not to think of all the things that were racing in my head. I will share some of my pictures but I'm going to warn you right now...I have NO IDEA what happened and the pictures are HORRID! They are not my normal pictures for sure. In the beginning, I know that I still had my camera on the land setting instead of underwater. They turned out green. I have tried to color correct them the best that I can but they are terrible.
Hubby was still worried about me and kept asking if I was ok.
It was right at this point that I noticed I had my camera on the wrong setting. Geesh! So, I switched to the underwater setting and continued. However, once I returned home and just now looked at my pictures...they are still horrid! I have no idea what's going on with my camera. I've had this issue in the past once before. Maybe it's just getting old and I need to buy a new one. I'm not sure. Sakari had the newer camera and her pictures turned out a lot better. Not only are mine weird colors but they were blurry as well. Like nothing is crispy focused like normal.
It was gorgeous down there! So much sealife and coral. The coral just went on forever and so many beautiful colors! There were so many MASSIVE corals down there too! I'm so bummed that my pictures didn't show the beauty of this area!
Now Sakari's picture has some of that annoying blue tint going on too but she was messing with her settings off and on (I could tell once I looked at all the pictures she took in a row because they would change and a lot of times she would also forget to take it off of the underwater macro setting and she'd get blurry far away pictures). I also think the clouds have a lot to do with it too.
But, here are her pictures up to this point.
Then Alex spotted this guy. He was huge! Sakari and I LOVE crab legs and this thing could have fed us both! See how blurry my pictures are compared to hers?
I have to say, there were a lot of beautiful anemones down there. I don't think I have seen as many as we did this day on any other dives.
Sakari went into macro mode and did her thing...
She was really pleased to see that Sir Pedro San Migual had found us here...we were pretty far down from Buccanos and he still managed to come swim with her. ;)
Now one of my favorite fishes is the trigger fish...which I have mentioned many times before, but I have never seen as many as I did diving here. They were everywhere and HUGE! Here's a beautiful Black Triggerfish (maybe a Durgon) and they can get up to 16" long! Sakari did manage to get pretty close to a lot of the fish. It's like they know she's one of them! (just look at the difference between mine and Sakari's pictures...ugh)
Now I have a collection of reef books that I look up fish that I may come across that I've never seen and want to know what they are. In this book, it tells you all about each fish and how they react to divers. Take note that this is what it says about the Black Triggerfish: Reaction to Divers: Wary and keep their distance. Usually move away when approached. Will retreat into crevices where they lock themselves in place by raising their stout triggers. But yet notice how close Sakari can get to them! However, people have them in aquariums and I've heard they are friendly and you can train them to eat out of your hand. Hmmm
Heck, I can't even get a clear picture of the hubs and Sakari...everything is blurry. BTW, hubby had the GoPro and it completely stopped working. We've only had it worked once on vacation. The last time, we couldn't even get it to turn on. I had worked on it prior to leaving and finally got it working again (it's so random) but right when you need it...it stops. **edit, after looking at the pictures, it seems as though it somehow got turned on during our entire boat ride and the battery had ran dead is my guess**
Here's a collage of my crappy pictures...let's just get some of them out of the way so I can hang my head in shame and go on with my life after this embarrassment. Go ahead and use your imagination about how colorful these corals were in real life. Close your eyes as Alex would say. #rollseyesinstead
A large barracuda was spotted in the distance. I've just never seen so many of them before on one trip.
A white spotted filefish...which is hard to tell from my picture, but it was beautiful. (They are part of the Triggerfish family so I adore them as well).
And another type of white spotted filefish
Sakari got up close and personal with a Honeycomb Cowfish!
This blue tang surgeon fish was definitely invading her space!
Blue Parrot
Stoplight Parrot
Back to Sakari's up close pictures that she does so well with...
Then she took this beautiful picture and I just love it! The colors were so pretty and look at the Brittle Starfish hiding in it!
A few pictures of us...
And daddy having a little bit of fun
Then we spotted this gorgeous Queen Angelfish!!! She was a beauty! Or should I say "he" since the males are always so pretty in all the species.
We spotted a stingray trying to hide itself by shuffling the sand over top of it. Of course Sakari went to explore.
It had a friend which it was hard to tell if this smooth trunkfish was a friend or just an annoyance to the stingray at this point.
A Yellownose Goby...these are cleaner fish.
At this point, I was starting to feel like we were just getting too deep. I went to clear my ears and the right didn't want to pop. I tried several times, but then it started to hurt. I decided to check our depth (which I shouldn't have because this started my brain in overload again) and seen that I was around 45' and the hubby was further down than me and Sakari was way down.
I also looked to the side and could see a drop off. I knew we were diving the wall area and that's where the other divers on our boat went to and .... if anyone has ever read some of my other reviews... walls freak me out!! Like totally freak me out. I have managed to go slightly over one in Roatan, but I would not say I overcame that fear by doing it and have no desire to do it again.
Sakari must have noticed the wall too because she managed to get a picture as well.
Here's the problem...not only was there a wall there going off into the deep blue but the current was carrying us that way as well. Also, the current was carrying us sideways. So, you couldn't really stay facing forward because it would make you go sideways. It was uncomfortable. I was fighting it. I was getting tired. My back was starting to hurt from bending sideways trying to straighten myself out. My ear was still hurting. My anxiety started up again and I could tell I was about to panic again. I wanted out! I wanted out now!
I started to ascend a little and Alex grabbed ahold of me and pulled me back down, which really made my ear hurt more. I motioned to him and said "up" and he asked "up?" and I said "yes" and then gave him the "ear" trouble signal. He shook his head up and down and he knew I was done with it. We started going up. I think Sakari captured this moment perfectly. I think they display the fear I was having at this very moment. Looking down and then up.
The hubby could tell I was having issues again and panicking. He came up to check on me. Sometimes he can calm me and other times it won't work. This time it wasn't working. I was so over this dive and struggling in the water with the current and now my ear. I just needed to go up and get out!
Alex had come to us and grabbed me and held me down. What was he doing? He wasn't going to let me go up! Oh my gosh I'm going to stay here forever. Please, don't make me continue! Of course I knew this was for our safety and there could be boats over head, but he signaled that we could start going up and here he was saying no and pulling me down once again. Sakari came up to me and he grabbed her and held onto her as well. I tried to take my mind elsewhere and took a picture of us as he held onto us.
We started noticing a lot of jellyfish around the area. Both Sakari and I took a few pictures and was really hoping they wouldn't get close to us as the current carried them by. Of course mine didn't turn out and hers did. I am now finding out that these are called Spotwinged comb jellyfish. They do not sting and they will light up in the dark if you wave something in front of them. How cool...but nothing I will ever get to see because swimming in the ocean at night would scare the crap out of me!
After a few minutes went by, Alex signaled that we could go up. But first, there was a huge school of Horse-Eyed Jacks swimming by and Sakari and I just had to get some pictures! They were pretty big in size and the looks on their faces was if they meant business.
I was never so happy to have my head out of water and that's just not like me. I would be in the water every day if I could. This was just not a good experience for me. Something was really off for me. It really didn't help the entire situation with being pulled under in the beginning. That was just not cool and to me on the dangerous side. But I was up and my BCD was inflated and now all I had to do was wait for the boat to come pick us up so my heart would start beating a normal rhythm again.
Once the boat arrived, I couldn't wait to swim over to it and get out and back to safety. I was the first one up. I took off my fins and handed it to the guy on the boat and then I took off my bcd and tank and climbed out. I'm honestly shocked I had enough strength to do all that after fighting the current this entire time but I knew I had to do it. I'm just glad that my foot was doing ok. Being in the water is good for it. It's weightless and no pressure but there was a lot of kicking and movement this time around. I knew I would pay the price later. My ear was still hurting a bit and I just didn't understand that. I have never ever had any issues with my ears and clearing them and actually I don't even have to hold my nose and blow to clear them. I simply swallow and it clears. It did continue to hurt for about another half hour and then it finally went away. I didn't have any problems after that.
I did want to mention that I did see a porcupine puffer fish and also a snowflake eel but my pictures are so bad that I can't even find them in the hundreds of pictures I took. :( I knew that Sakari didn't get to see the eel because she was off doing her own thing a little ways away from me. I thought she had seen the puffer, but I didn't find any pictures of it.
Our dive was from 10:26 until 11:07, so 41 minutes total. Alex acted like that wasn't a very long time and I know that had I not had issues, we would have been down there a lot longer.
Once we were back on the boat and safe, I noticed the older gentleman was already on the boat. We went to pick up the other divers at the wall as well. Then we just sat there. I had no idea what they were doing. I took a few pictures at 11:43 of us just sitting on the water right in front of Alberto's so it had been at least 30 minutes of everyone sitting after the last person got out of the water.
Then they started handing out these little plastic containers with snacks in them. I guess it was lunch time. Each container had individual areas with something different in them. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it. That's so unlike me. However, I did find a picture online that was posted by him that I'm going to share, although ours was a lot fuller and had cookies in it.
It had a large piece of cake with icing on it, charritos puffed snacks (which were something like cheez-its), there were a few pieces of slices pineapple, and some of the miniature chocolate chip cookies. It all really hit the spot because we were starving after only having a small egg salad sandwich that morning. They also had bottled water and pop. Of course no diet. :( I had to suffer and have a regular.
So everyone ate and we continued to sit there for awhile. I was kinda cold and was trying really hard to stay sitting in the sun but of course the boat kept moving. I took my wetsuit off and pulled out the towels and bundled myself up. The wetsuit didn't do much good because my bathing suit was wet as well.
Then they started up the boat and we moved to Palancar Reef. Then they stopped. Hmmm, were they doing a second dive? I watched them change out the air tanks and people were gearing up again. I already had it in the back of my mind that I wasn't going. My wetsuit was off, I was getting dry, my ear was feeling better, food in my belly, and I didn't want to go through the same anxiety as I did last time and I was so afraid that would happen again. I wasn't about to risk it as much as it killed me. Safety first! The hubby ask several times and I assured him..."I am sure". My stomach was rumbling again and I wasn't sure if my diarrhea was about to kick in again.
Him and Sakari geared up again and waited to be told to jump. It was time for them to go and they must have noticed they were in the wrong position because they told them to hold up and moved the boat. It was really drifting.
I took one last picture of my beloved family and I had hoped to see them again soon. By me not going, I still had that anxiety of not knowing what was happening down there and if they were safe. Sakari had that look of "mom, we will be fine"
The hubby was armed with my camera now, instead of the non-working Gopro, and I told him to make sure he got some good pictures!
Sakari was in and immediately at it...no time to waste
We will start with mi esposo's pictures because...it won't take long to view those. I take about 300 pictures, he takes around 22 pictures. Seriously...I counted! I'll share a few with you.
He spotted a squirrel fish. This was a time that I hadn't seen any on this trip so glad he was good at capturing one. They have a tendency to hide in or under the rocks. It's too bad the color of the picture didn't turn out. They are a pretty red color.
Then he spotted a Scrawled Filefish. These unique fish have beautiful spotted skin and a fun interesting fact is that they can change their colors depending on their surroundings just like an octopus does.
Now when Sakari isn't taking pictures, I have started to notice that she puts her hands together...like you see real divers do, instead of using her hands/arms to "swim" like a swimmer. I said something to her about it when we got home and I seen this picture and she made a comment about it too (being like a real diver and starting to do that). I guess she doesn't have much of a chance to practice this skill because she's always busy taking pictures. I'm so glad she outgrew the ear troubles she used to have with equalizing them. For awhile, she didn't even want to dive and would beg not to but I would assure her that we wouldn't go deep and she was enjoying her shallow 20' dives. Now, she gets excited again to dive. She's just a natural at diving and so good at it. I wish I could be like her.
So there you have it! The extent of the hubby's pictures.
Now I will show you Sakari's pictures since I can always count on her.
Spotted Cowfish
Yep, I was up there...
There were a bunch of Caribbean Reef Squid in the distance. It's too bad they weren't closer for a better picture.
THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN....SOMETHING MAJOR HAPPENED.... but, I will leave this until the end of the dive because I had to wait to find this information out, so you will have to wait too. :(
This part is pretty amazing as well....Sakari found a GROUPER! I think it might be called the Speckled Blue Grouper but the coloring on the pictures makes it hard to tell. It seems to be the only Grouper I can find online but yet in my book, it sorta has the markings of a Rock Hind Grouper. If anyone knows, please comment below so I can mark this appropriately.
Looks like it was trying to mix in with it's surroundings. Good find Sakari!!!!
Then the big one moves....and then there were two!! Oh my gosh I'm so jealous! I was missing out! I love groupers as well because they are usually hard to spot and not plentiful on dives like a lot of the other fish you see all the time. Then there's that look...those big lips...there's just something about them that makes me giggle. It looks like they are having a bad day and pouting.
Another Black Trigger
Then they found a very large Green Moray Eel hidden under the rocks.
They were getting all the good stuff and they were closer to shore than when I went. Why couldn't I have went on this dive instead of the one I went on?????
A few macro shots
Adult French Angelfish
I don't know how she manages to get so close to these fish and they act like she's not even there. The fish whisperer I tell ya!
Here's a (too) close picture of a Smooth Trunkfish
Banded Butterfly fish
Sakari managed to capture a good picture of another White Spotted Filefish
Goby
Then there was a momma Goby and all her babies I assume. They were all lined up.
Like I don't even know how she spots these on the sand. They blend in so easily. I guess her prescription mask is working!
Two more beautiful Spotted Filefish
And then she found this beauty...I don't think I have ever seen one before. It was a beautiful Sargassum Triggerfish. Just look at those markings! Now my book says they are very wary of people and dart into holes and you can't get close to them. Hmmphhh, they haven't met my hija yet I guess.
An Arrow Crab hanging out in this beautiful coral and there's also an anemone inside there too! The color of this coral was just stunning! Man I'm really missing out!
The dive was loaded with Stingrays of course.
Sakari loves to go over someone and catch pictures of the bubbles they make. She always manages to catch one that looks like a jelly fish. LOL
Off in the distance they could see all the other divers. Our divers on our boat and a bunch of other divers were down there with them. I guess it was a popular spot.
Sakari managed to get one last picture coming up and that was of another Spotwinged comb jellyfish
Looking at the times of the photos both the hubby and Sakari took as their first and last picture, it appears that they were only diving for 34 minutes. That sure doesn't seem right unless it was awhile before they started taking pictures, which I can't imagine. I mean it seemed like forever when I was sitting on the boat.
My stomach was still rumbling and at one point I headed to the bathroom. Bathrooms on boats are just so small and this was seemed extra small to the point where it was hard to even close the door and have room to sit down. I weighed my options and I just couldn't go. I couldn't do that to the other members on the boat and I'm not even sure where all that stuff goes? I pulled myself together mentally and emotionally, just like when I was diving, and held it in. I had really hoped this day was coming to an end soon.
Now the other older gentleman that had his own instructor had geared up for this second dive only to decide not to go. He said he also decided it would be best not to go and he wasn't feeling well. He said he could feel his heart racing and he said he was better play it safe than sorry because something wasn't right. I was really hoping this guy was not about to go into Cardiac Arrest on me! What was really weird was every time he bent over, to put on booties or fins or his wetsuit on and then again to take all these things off, water would POUR out of his nose...like POUR...like a faucet type of pour. It was so strange. His nose wasn't dripping and it wasn't like snot or had any consistency, it was clear and looked like straight water out of the faucet turned on. When he lifted back up to a sitting position, it would stop. Off and on. I kept wondering how this was happening and where was it all coming from??? Like when you are diving you have a mask on. Water isn't getting up your nose. What the heck?
I kept looking around to try to see where my family was at. My worry-body-self couldn't help think of all the things that could go wrong. At one point I ask the other instructor that stayed back with the older gentleman "are we still around where they are at?" "Where is the balloon showing where they are?" She was completely confused and didn't understand what I was talking about. I tried to explain it and she said "Ohhh the sausage". I had no idea that's what it was called. She pointed in a direction, but I didn't see it. Maybe her eyes were trained better than mine. I never did see the sausage, but I was never so happy to see their heads surface.
Sakari gave the success and she looked proud of it!
So they come up out of the water and Sakari is so excited and the hubby has this weird look on his face. She couldn't wait to tell me what she had seen....
"We seen a shark!!!" Wait, no way! I thought they were messing with me and didn't believe them and the hubby confirmed it and started to describe it. He said "My heart was pounding so hard and it was coming right at me! It was HUGE" They couldn't stop talking about it and told me I'd see it once I get home and downloaded the pictures. Hmmm, I guess they weren't lying. But, when they described it, I was pretty sure it was a Nurse Shark and I was right after seeing the pictures.
I'm so sad that I wasn't able to experience this and all the other wonderful things they were able to see on that dive. It sounds (and from the looks of all the pictures and videos) it was a wonderful dive. At least I have swam with the sharks on an excursion before but it's just not the same as scuba diving and one come along...as long as it's a nurse shark! I would probably freak out if it was anything else.
They did say they were down with the rest of the divers and at one point they were down 70 feet. YIKES! One of the guys on our boat mentioned 73'.
Here's the video that the hubby and Sakari made during their dive. There's a lot of interesting things in it. You can also tell just how fast the water was taking them and he was following the fish around and going as fast as them while floating. He did confirm that I probably would have never liked it on that dive (not because of what all they seen of course) because the water current here was worse than when I went on the dive. He said it was really bad. Double YIKES!
Here's a video of Sakari and the hubbys during the second dive. This is why he didn't get many pictures. He was busy taking pictures. I think I'm going to just get him a good Gopro and let him do the videos so we get more during vacations. There's a lot of interesting things in this video and he did a pretty good job of capturing the area and fish...if only he wouldn't scan the area so quickly we'd have us a really good video. LOL
We started heading back and dropped off the group of people that we had picked up at the hotel and then headed back to the dock at the marina.
Once we returned, Alex disappeared somewhere so we decided to go to the bathroom. We looked all over for him and found him in his van in the parking lot. We stopped to pay up with him and to my surprise he had charged us $20 for the wetsuits. He never mentioned anything about having to pay extra for wetsuits when he handed them to us. I thought that was a little crappy of him. At least if he would have told us it was extra, I could have made the decision to not wear mine but I still would have let Sakari wear hers...although hers didn't do much good either because when she took hers off, she was wet underneath including her bathing suit. I just don't like surprise charges like that.
Also, since he didn't do any "classroom" work or have us fill out any paperwork, testing and so on like they normal do, we didn't get any books for him to write in to show our dive. I was pretty bummed about that as well. I guess I'll just have to write something down myself.
After diving, we were trying to figure out what to do next. I mean we still had the rest of the day left and I was pretty down about my experience and how I reacted this dive...like really down. So, I had to go somewhere to take my mind off of it.
I looked on my "Mapsme" to find someplace we hadn't been to yet. I decided we would check out the Skyreef. Hopefully it would have some decent snorkeling and I'd get some more of my "fish-fix" for the day. The Skyreef is located right past Chankanaa and beside Playa Corona and before you get to San Francisco, Paradise, Playa Mia and the rest of those beach clubs on down. So, a little closer to town and only 10 minutes from the cruise dock.
We were starving and new we wanted to eat when we first arrived. Parking was across the street in the dirt and we headed up to the entrance to have our brains scanned and bodies disinfected and then found a seat under the huge palapa. Free entrance.
The menu
Mi Esposo ordered wings (who wants wings when in Mexico??? He told me to take a picture and I'm like "no, it's just wings" Now I have forgotten what he ordered and had to be reminded) and Hija ordered a shrimp burrito and I ordered fish tacos. The food was delicioso. I had to ask them what type of fish it was and they told me grouper. Awww, I ate the grouper that Hija seen earlier scuba diving. No wonder they have such a sad look on their face. :(
Here was our view as we ate lunch. That water was calling my name!
I ended up taking pictures of the area before we left for the day, so I'll show you those now so you can get a vision of this place. It's pretty small but they do have different areas to kind of not have people just piled up on each other. I liked that.
We found a little spot right by the dock entrance to the water...perfecto! Of course I immediately put my things down and headed to the water. However, since we had been diving this morning, I hadn't brought anything other than my mask. No fins, no snorkel. UGH! Since I had never been here before, I really didn't know what the snorkeling was going to be like or how deep the water was. I decided I would go over to the snorkel shack and see how much they rented the fins and snorkel for.
Sakari decided to stay at the shoreline and check out the rocks and what might be in them.
I told them I only needed the fins and maybe just the snorkel itself. They looked puzzled and I had to show them. I ask how much and they said $10. I headed back to our seats to get money and only had a $20 on me. When I returned, he was nice and put the snorkel on my mask and then told me he didn't have any change to just come back and pay him later.
So off I went.
Of course this was the first thing I seen...
Now I'm about to show you the most AMAZING place ever! This is the SEA OF FANS! Like this area is LOADED with sea fans EVERYWHERE! It was the most beautiful thing ever! Like I have never seen anything like this before. There was every color of sea fan possible: purple, orange, green, red...orange with purple, purple with red, like you could just taste the rainbow. Muy bonita! These pictures don't even begin to show you just how beautiful they were and just how many. They just went on and on forever! Everywhere you looked. It was just so gorgeous! Seriously!
Aren't they just the prettiest things you've ever seen? All in one place! Imagine what they looked like in person! Even
Sir Pedro San Miguel thought they were pretty enough to come visit!
Now don't think there's only fans here to see. There's also some coral, especially along the shoreline.
And of course some fish as well...
Sergeant Major Damsel and Surgeon Fish
Bluestriped Grunt
Bluestriped Grunt and 5 Four eyed Butterfly Fish
School of French Grunts
Parrot fish
Horse eye Jack
Needle fish
It might be hard to see, but there is a Yellow Stingray in this picture
At this point, I'm pretty far over to the left and decided to turn around and head back, but out a little. As I'm swimming along taking more pictures of the sea fans and after seeing the stingray, something caught my eye. One of the fans was swaying back and forth in the sunlight, but there was something orange on it. Wait, that looks familiar....a flamingo tongue snail! These snails are so beautiful. They have this brightly undeniable color, which is actually how they breathe and is not part of their shell and if spooked, it retreats into the shell and then you will see just a plain white shell. It's pretty cool. I was so sad that I didn't get a clear up-close picture of it. The sea fan waving back and forth didn't allow me to catch it.
I still can't believe I spotted it! I was super happy. I have only seen these maybe 3 times in the last 11 years!
Another anemone hiding in
the coral.
I'm not sure what type of sea grass this is, but it was so pretty with the blues and greens swaying back and forth. There were tons of these. I know I've noticed these in Grand Turk and I thought they were so pretty, but I don't know if I've really noticed them everywhere else and they just weren't as brilliant in color or what. I'm sure they have to be all over the place. I've just never noticed them as much. I think my eyes were in hyperdrive during this snorkeling adventure after having such a flop of a day diving.
Sea Cucumber
Another anenome hiding in the middle of the coral
This coral was really pretty!
More of the sea of fans on the way back!
After I got out, the family was sitting at the beach camp and Sakari had been drawing in her book of course. She takes that sketch book everywhere she goes. Even if it means it gets wet at the beach or pool. My little artist.
I was telling hija about my little snorkel trip and how beautiful the sea fans were and encouraged her to come out with me. I downed a few Coca Lights light I haven't drank in day and I staggered off with Hija on my tail.
We spotted a rather large Juvenile French Angelfish
If you look closely on the rocks, you'll see an Intermediate Yellowtail Damsel fish. It's a brilliant blue with bright neon colored spots and a yellow tail. It's so neat how fish change colors during their life cycle. When they become adults, these are completely yellow.
We spotted this Lizard fish (or Sand Diver) trying to blend in with the sea floor. I just recently found out they have razor sharp teeth. I guess I never thought of that and when I think of lizard I think of them having lizard teeth and more of a jaw for catching food.
I just love this picture of the Black Grunts and Sakari in the background. I wish that I would have been able to capture her entire body in the picture and not cut off her arm and that she was looking toward me. It would have turned out really cool!
Spotted a few Christmas Tree Worms. We really didn't see many of these this time around. We usually see them everywhere, and I was looking because they are just so cute) but not this time. I wonder why?
Just a collage of these beautiful sea fans and our surroundings...
I also seen quite a few Fire Worms this vacation too. I always try to point them out to Sakari and remind her of the time we picked one up in Roatan when she was little. Awww, pretty little caterpillar. NOT! I always have to bring up those funny moments that weren't so funny back then. White, green, orange...they are all the devil!
A few macro and interesting shots for your viewing pleasure.
A cute little Smooth Trunk fish
Four-eyed Butterfly Fish were just everywhere this time around though. They were rolling deep in groups this time. Usually when I see them, there are two together and that's it. But they brought the entire family along for their Sunday outings...only it wasn't Sunday, it was Thursday.
Lobster hiding out but we spotted you.
Banded Butterfly Fish and Slippery Dick Wrasse was in the mix today as well.
We had a great time snorkeling and there were a lot of interesting things to see today. The sea of fans just made my day. I had a smile on my face once again and was not thinking about the cluster flark of a scuba diving day I had earlier in the morning. Mi esposo was happy to see that but he knew it still bothered me...a lot. But what can you do right?
We settled up with our bill of $66.50...that's a lot of pop! :D (Just kidding, our food was on there as well)
The vultures were in full force today. We had seen quite a bit of them this vacation. This one came to visit right on the beach. I guess he needed a drink of pond water.
It was getting late and we knew we needed to get home and shower and figure out what we wanted to do for dinner.
We gathered our things and I went over to return my fins and snorkel and paid them the $10 I still owed. They actually looked shocked that I came back and also like they didn't remember that I owed them any money and thought I was just returning them.
Then all of a sudden, something came over me...my stomach started talking to me and I was sure that everyone around me could hear it. I clinched my teeth and doubled over and walked as if I had just been sucker punched in the gut! Oh no! Not now! Couldn't it just wait until I get home in the privacy of my own bathroom!?! I went running for the bano's...it just couldn't wait. Explosion! I had really thought I was over it. I had been good since this morning at diving. I don't know what the deal was but I was already sick of it!
The bano's were empty. Whew! No need to subject others to this sewage smell. I tried hard to courtesy flush over and over but I'm sure it sounded like I had a microphone attached to the toilet with the somewhat open thatched roof ceiling. I felt sorry for anyone on the outside that was downwind. It was bad.
At one point I heard someone enter, but they didn't stay once they heard me. Did I really single handedly run someone off with the stench that was coming from inside? Now that's talent! I say blame it on Scuba Girl ---->
As I walked out of the bathroom, I found the person I had ran off...the cleaning guy. He was standing there with his broom and trash can and "closed" sign. The look on his face...oh my gosh. He seriously had to go in there after me and clean up the restroom. I felt bad for him. I'm sure he was regretting getting bano duty today and he would go home and tell his familia that he needed disinfected pronto! I tried to play it off looking around like "who did that?" but I know it didn't work. I headed to catch up with the family and darted out of the area like I was one of the vultures...only the vultures were now gathering around trying to figure out what died in there and they thought they were about to have a tasty meal for the day. Nope, jokes on you guys!
As we swiftly walked toward the parking lot, I just had to stop one last time and get a picture of hija at their Cozumel sign. Of course no picture is complete without the tongue sticking out!
A few last pictures of the outside of the place by the road and we were off.
Here's a short video I put together. I hope you like it. It's a little unsteady of course. I need to work on this!
We left here at 7pm and I discovered that my camera is now missing the dial lettering on it. This is what shows you what setting you have it on. Oh just great. It really is time for a new camera now.
After showering and getting ready, we decided to head to the little shop that was right beside Benitos (where we just loved the pizza). We had seen it when we ate at Benito's last time and it looked like a cute little ice cream store. We had vowed to come back and try it out.
It was called the Bubble Waffle. Sounded interesting enough for me and the bright cute colors was drawing me in. Good marketing!
Isn't it just totally adorable?
The menu's...they carried it all.
I ended up with the Haiko Fresa which had strawberries, whipped topping, strawberry ice cream, chocolate chips and strawberry waffle sticks on top of a bubble waffle. Man it was so good! Sakari ended up with the same thing. I guess we were both in the mood for strawberries.
Yea, you're not sticking all of that in your mouth hija...I double dare...um ok, you did it. I couldn't even get it all out before she had the entire thing in her mouth! Such a big mouth for such a quiet kid. Now you can't talk or swallow. Good choice! :D
Hubby went for banana's instead. It came with banana's, whipped cream, a chocolate waffle stick, nutella (I think) and chocolate syrup all on...you guessed it, a bubble waffle. Hubby also got a GRANDE Platano (banana) Smothie to wash it all down. I opted for some Aqua...can you believe it??? Me and aqua...shut the front door. Say it isn't so!
Yea, this was very filling. It was dinner like it or not. We had no room for anything else and I didn't realize these things were so big and so good and so....filling! All this and it only cost $13. It was a pretty cheap dinner!
I had told hija that we would go shopping again and figured this would be the night. We were getting down to the last few nights of our vacation and she had spotted this really cool sun catcher she wanted to buy her girlfriend so we headed back to the shopping area...only this time we knew we could come in the back way and park on the street.
I was in search of a Day of the Dead lady dressed in red. I really wanted one that was about 5-6" tall and I wanted it to be the shiny paint. We looked everywhere and it just didn't exists.
Sakari managed to find the sun catcher with feathers and she was super happy. I swear we went in every store within a mile radius and none of them compared to the one she had seen that first night. She had her mind made up.
Swim hair don't care.
I ended up on a shopping spree myself and got some tee shirts, a rash guard for Sakari and several other things. We had a bracelet made with Sakari's name on it. I don't think she has taken it off yet.
Woody's always seems to be the place to hang out at here. They always have live music.
However, they stopped the music as we were about to walk by and all of a sudden this started to happen...oh my gosh! This brings back my days when I was 18 and going to the dance club with my bff. She had a boyfriend that could do all this crazy stuff and it always just amazed me. I guess it's still pretty popular. Who knew?
We had a good time shopping (lol) and supported quite a few of the locals and was happy with our purchases and decided to head back to the car and head home.
We did the usual once we arrived...grabbed pop and our phones and headed out back to practice our Spanish lessons...but first...yet another trip to the bano for me! Ugh! I seriously had to have ate something bad. Something wasn't agreeing with my stomach because otherwise, I felt fine. But at this point, sitting down was becoming a chore if you know what I mean.
Off to bed
I almost forgot...Sakari took this beautiful sunset photo as we were getting ready to go out for the night. She just loves her sunsets and she had the perfect room to see them nightly.
