Scuba--Day Two

Today, our ship stopped in the port of Isla Roatan, a small island off the coast of Honduras.  Although the island is officially "owned" by Honduras, it was originally owned by the British.  As a consequence, most of the natives speak English (more than Spanish), and they are proud of their heritage.

Hannah and I still had one more certification dive to do.  Thankfully, John found a place that would take our referral paperwork and finish everything.  Glo meanwhile wasn't coming on anymore mamby-pamby dives--she wanted a legit dive--and so she left with the boys.

While all the other cruise passengers were meeting up with their drivers (to take them on their excursions), John went looking for ours.  He found our driver from "Sueno del Mar", our diving outfit.  He left Hannah and me with him, and we headed to the parking lot.  Amongst all the Mercedes-Benz vans and such, we spotted our ride:

I'm not even sure that the back of this vehicle belongs on the front of it.  There was no rearview mirror, no door handles on the inside, no seatbelts.  To make matters more interesting, well, the driver made matters more interesting.

The roads are the island are unmarked--no lane lines at all.  Too, there really isn't much to the roads (although they are paved)--not really any street signs, or traffic signs.  The roads go up and down hills and around curves.  Our driver would follow any vehicle in front of him without about 6 inches between their rear bumper and our front one.  Too, he would drive fast.  If the people in front of him weren't driving fast enough, he would start passing as many cars as possible, uphill, around a blind curve, honking his horn while he went.  I just looked out the window and tried to find my happy place :-)  Hannah didn't seem bothered at all.

Check out the logo (enlarge the photo if needs be).
It's a Mayan/Aztec dude in a scuba suit!

The actual diving place, Sueno del Mar, was great.  The people were even better.  Super organized, super nice, super reassuring.  Christine, our diving instructor, was Marlin in girl form.   She taught us even more and really prepared us for finishing off our certification.

Again, the dive was great, although there were a few "problems" this time.  First, rental equipment isn't always the best, and I can see why most divers own all of their own equipment.  When I put the regulator in my mouth, there was only one small piece of rubber left that I could bite down on.  Because I was so busy/nervous getting ready, I didn't think much of it until I was actually in the water.  Five minutes after the dive began, that last piece of rubber broke off, and I had nothing to bite on (to hold the regulator in my mouth).  Consequently, I spent the entire dive holding the regulator with my right hand.  Too, my pressure gauge used empirical data (bars vs. psi, meters vs. feet).  That was a learning experience, trying to figure out when I was actually out of air!  Finally, our boat guy had sprayed some defogging gunk in my mask that wasn't working--I've discovered that I'm definitely a "spit and rinse" kind of mask girl.  Because the waves were strong on the surface, our instructor had us hold onto the boat line (that connected to the buoy) while she reviewed stuff.  Trying to again clear my mask, I put my arm out over the rope to hold on.  Turns out it was covered in green muck.  Anybody remember what I'm severely allergic to?  Yep, that's right--MOLD!  When I got out of the water at the end of the dive, I had a rash like no other on the underside of my arm.  Of course it was nothing that a little hydrocortizone wouldn't take care of!

You know though, despite all this, I kept going.  I kept diving.  No excuses, right?  Honestly, wild horses couldn't have kept me from going down again.  A few inconveniences are a small price to pay for the amazing experience (again!) of being underwater.  And boy was I glad I did keep going.  Near the end of our dive, a Hawksbill turtle swam right by us, and Hannah was able to follow it for a few minutes.

We came up after an hour, and we had done it!  We had passed off everything so that we were officially certified scuba divers!  Woot!  As long of a haul it has been, it's all been totally worth it.  I'm especially glad that we were forced to take the classes on our trip.  We ended up learning so much that John and Mark missed, and I feel comfortable now doing everything.

After our dive, Hannah couldn't resist just jumping in the water and swimming.  I mean honestly, look at this place!