Kristen goes diving

Dateline – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Hola! And that’s about if for my Spanish memories. So much for 3 years of high school Spanish, eh?

As most of you know, the sleep tapes I have been playing for Kristen after she falls asleep that say “you want to try diving…diving is cool….you will have fun diving…etc” finally took hold and Kristen got SCUBA certified. The bribe paid was as soon as she got certified, we had to take a trip…and here we are!

Kristen got certified last week up in Puget Sound, Wa (just north of Tacoma) and the water was 45 degrees or so at best. Super thick wet suit and Kristen admits diving in cold water sucks. Maybe…maybe…we might…perhaps…try a dry suit and do some more cold water diving because British Columbia is supposed to be a top 10 area for diving, but its still super cold. Anyway, warmth after the cold!

So down to Cabo we came. Staying at the RIU Palace down here. Looks pretty much exactly like the one we stayed at in the Dominican Republic except its twice as wide (and has 2 main pools instead of one…a “activ” pool and a “relaxy” pool. We are on the activ side…so it’s a bit noisy, but not too bad. I have been tempted a few times as we walk back from breakfast at 7am to yell “Rumspringaaaaa!” at the top of my lungs (please see the movie Sex Drive for that reference…it will make it funnier) but have restrained myself.

Anyway, we have now completed day 3 of diving and overall it wasn’t too bad….and there are pictures! First, I dunno if its just a bit off season or what, but the water was colder than I thought it would be and we had to wear full 5 mil wetsuits…that I have decided suck getting into. Visibility was also lower than I guess what I was expecting. Much better than Puget Sound and/or Monterey Bay where I was certified, but nowhere near the Caribbean or Thailand or Hawaii. I would guess it was 30ish feet maybe…not too bad, but you also couldn’t see for days either. On the other hand, the sea life down here is much better than I thought it would be. Tons of stuff and, for the most part, we have seen something new every day.

Kristen has been a trooper on the dives. The first day was not a great experience for her. The first dive wasn’t bad, but she was worrying about all the things you worry about when its your first post certification dive: keep up with everyone, don’t look like a spaz, don’t run out of air, where am I, etc. The second dive sort of sucked for her (and me a little) because there was a pretty strong current we had to fight against. She basically got to the point of “this sucks” and surfaced only to be told by our dive master (Piers, Canadian guy…super patient and nice and a great start to her diving career IMO) that we were about to turn around and head back…which we did. Fun thing about swimming against a current to start: you get to stop paddling and ride it back to your boat…easy japaneesy. The second day was much better. No currents and although we did the same 2 dives from the day before, we actually saw new stuff too (pics to follow on all this). Just a really good time such that Kristen changed her pre-dive thinking of “I am a land woman” to “maybe this doesn’t suck after all”.

Today we did our final dives and again dive 1 was current central. Plus both she and I had equipment issues where our BCDs filled up uncontrollably…which is not pretty. Fairly crazy dive and I was uncomfortable too. We made it back to the boat okay and headed for the last dive which turned out to be a nice, easy, relaxing dive where we both had a nice experience.

So it seems like I have a convert! Boom pow! And now, the pictures. (click on them to embiggen) - really updating in San Diego layover cause the connection in Cabo sucked. Kept dropping and that isn't good for loading pictures :-(

Actually now, we are in the air to Portland. Alaska Air has wifi on its flights and its free through July. After that its $10 per flght...a little steep in my opinion...

Final final update: gogoinflight wifi sucks! It kept dropping me while I was trying to upload pictures so it got the boot and I am doing this at home before heading to sleep. So we made it safely back to the land of rain.

And really now, without further ado:

Us the first night in Cabo. Relaxing...having a good time. To be fair, Kristen wanted to do the serious, better looking version of this picture, but I am mean and also am the one putting this together


Crazy surf break outside the hotel. You really cant swim there...on the other hand, we dove over by the cool rock structures in the background. Made for a cool backdrop.

Cool blue fish out there. It swam using the top and bottom fins rather than the tail. I am sure it has some cool name I totally forget

Another cool fish that...wait...that's KRISTEN! Dive woman!

Hows about a little starfish action. Had them all over the place.

Tons of sealife everywhere you look. There was a lot more here than I thought there would be.

Look a the pretty flowers....I mean...nice color down there and I am happy this came out so well. The yellow really jumps out.

I think this is a parrot fish. Huge jaw...it was pretty cool lookin'

Shark!!! White tipped reef shark. Probably 4-5 feet...but as far as YOU know, it was a 10 footer!

Mudshark! At least that's what our dive master said it was. Also known as a guitar shark. Ha a head like a ray but a tail like a shark. Pretty neat...and there is a stone fish there in the lower left corner right next to it. Cousin of the scorpion fish and is poisonous. Dont tell Kristen ;-)

Nice green moray eel. Saw quite a few of them. They were all over the place.

This is a nudibranch (pronounced noodiebranch). Supposed to be rare so it has inherent cool factor even though it looks pretty awesome too. It has its gills on the outside (the red dots). It was my first foray into "macro" setting on my camera and I was trying to zoom in too. That makes me an idiot cause with macro, you zoom out and hold it really cloe and let the camera do the work (with my camera anyway). This thing was maybe the size of a 50 cent piece. Its an okay picture I guess...coulda been better...and will be next time.

Finally, here is the non-goofy version of the first night there picture. Don't we look sweet?

Made it home safely and are dreading having to work tomorrow. Love to all and remember: it's our time...the peoples time!!