For the majrity of the time between the 4 and the 10th of may we got ourselves into the beautiful rhythm of getting out of be around 10, going for a walk to get breakfast, going for a swim at the beach, reading a book for a couple of hours, playing a bit of table tennis, eating lunch, having a ciesta, going for a swim in the pool, having a couple of beers, watching a movie and going to bed..it was like ground hog day, but the kind you never really want to end!!
THere were however periods of sustained activity, highlighted by our one big night out (saturday) and the 4 day open water scuba diving course lach and I did.
THe one big night of the week started at the hostel (as usual), progressed to a fire show (it was the grand opening of a friend of a friends restauraunt), to the local club (which overlooks the bay), to the good old back yard after party and then to an early morning dip in the ocean with a few new friends..For some reason it seems impossible to call it a night before the sun comes up, and again this trend was followed..
As aluded to previously, on the friday, saturday, monday and tuesday (we took the sun off to recover from sat night) Lach and i completed our PADI open water divers course..it was one of the most rewarding things i have ever done and well worth every cent (although in our favor was the fact that it costs half here of what it would cost in AUS)..the first day was a little slow as it was just theory and gear tutorials but as we got out into the open water we got to understand the allure of scuba..our first day out in the ocean was (as were the proceeding 2 days) magical..early morning starts (we would genrally head out about 8am)combined with perfect weather conditions gave us the best possbile chance of making the most of our experience..
Our first dive was spent learning skills and was done in water about 6m deep..we learnt how to clear a full mask, work all the gear, how to share air,equalise, replace masks and what would happen in the event of gear failure..It was a demanding session (not as easy as i had expected) but it set the essentials in place from the word go..
Our second dive was a "fun dive" and took place at a reef called salidero. It was an amazing way to kick things off and we were both completely blown away, enjoying it even more than we could have imagined..on this dive we went to a depth of 12m and saw all manner of wild life including barracuda, eels, angel fich, lion fish and many others..our guide Victor was amazing, as were the rest of the crew..each day was broken up by a morning tea rock throwing competition which kept our small minds occupied..
Dives 3, 4, 5 and 6 were equally amazing and were at Torin(12m), Pecera (18m), Punta Aguta (18m) and saliders (18m), all of which are situated in the Tyrona national park and are approximately 15 mins boat ride from Taganga harbour..each dive threw up its own unique challenge or highlight, sometimes it was strong currents, amazing coral, wildlife, depth etc..it was a brilliant experience, and combined with the theory (and the final exam) we leart a hell of a lot..its amazing how hard you concentrate when discussing matters which directly effect your personal safety...
The best way to describe scuba is like your at the aquarium or looking at a fish tank and when you go to tap the glass there is none!! Your in the tank and you can look the fish in the eye..at first a very surreal and exhilerating experience..
We are now qualified open water divers, meaning we can dive with a buddy anywhere in the world to a depth of 18m..definitley looking forward to moving forward in the course and comleteing mroe levels..thinking maybe south east asia on the way home would be a cheap way of doing it..will see!!
Will, tom and tony all decided to head off on the 5 day lost city trek on monday which should be awesome, obviously lach and i chose to do scuba instead and are more than pleased with our decision..
We are going to check out tyrona national park over the next coule of days, supposedly home to the most beautiful beaches in colombia..should be interesting!! Hopefully the weather holds up, it always does..yew
