Saturday 6/23/12

Today was a pretty awesome day for me. Water was very calm and nice which is always good, especially when your assisting with a new diver trying to attain the first basic Open Water certification which lets them dive down to 40 ft or 12 meters. The students name was Enzo and he lived in Guatemala city, spoke two languages and was an all around good guy. The kicker was the Enzo is 12. The major majority of new divers of course are adults so when ever you have a child to certify it always presents a new set of opportunities that you need to adjust to. This was the first child that instructor "Tom" had certified and that I had assisted with so we were not exactly sure what may come up during the confined water portion. (Confined by the way is kind of a misnomer. Confined in Utila is just is a shallower part of the ocean...no pools to work out of here) I'm pleased to say though that Enzo breezed through his first set of skill demonstrations with relative ease. Adults only trust you so far and then survival mode kicks in and they just say "screw you" when something feels very foreign or scary to them. If an adult reaches this "screw you" stage most likely he/she is going to dismiss all teachings and safety measures and try to shoot for the surface like a SeaWorld dolphin after a beach ball. Children on the other hand expect you to be the authority on the subject and to protect them and because of that are much more willing to simply listen and do as you do knowing that you will look out for their wellbeing. After skills we did a little dive and of course he was a little erratic and rushed but for a 12 year old who had never breathed underwater before, he did great. I have seen many adults with less poise and over the next couple of days it will all start to come together for him...to click. Tom led the dive with me behind and he stayed between us as we monitored him for safety or any sign of distress. Enzo pointed out every pretty piece of coral and every tiny fish or shrimp and was truly excited from start to finish. All the things that he was amazed by were things I took for granted a long time ago. The effect was that Enzo...a 12 year old basically reintroduced me to diving and I instantly was laughing under water and it all came back...the excitement, the thrill, the sheer wonder of it all, all the reasons I started diving in the first place. To hear a small child scream in glee, through his regulator, under the water as he sees his first Eagle Ray gliding by, lifted me in a magical way. I was reminded how awesome it was to see my own Sammi, lugging her tanks to the dive site and descending for the first time into a wholly alien world and how much I love sharing that with her and how naturally she took to it. It also reminded me that I have other children who would be just as thrilled to enter that world and how I need to get them diving. Everyone should dive. People have no idea of the actual universe that awaits below, how miraculous and beautiful it all is. In this place YOU get to be the bird, flying lazily by and the fish simply accept you as one of their own, albeit particularly ugly and awkward by their standards but still accepted. The sad truth is that probably 95% of the population will never...ever know. I'm one of the truly lucky ones and if your reading this silly blog of mine then perhaps you have an interest and one day soon you might decide to be one of the lucky ones too. It shouldn't take a young boy to remind us of how lucky we are but it did and he was up to the job..

Thank You Enzo

Bando Beach

Nothing going on to tomorrow so today was lazy and I spent a little time at Bando Beach. Its about two minutes past my apartment. I thought I would share a few beach pics and some random ones as well.

 

Big guy up in a tree by my apartment.

Either I finally snuck up on these damn pelicans after 3 weeks or they finally felt sorry for me.

Search and Recovery dives

Been a slow couple of days in Utila. Taken the last couple days off from diving and just chilled a bit, healing from by bug bites along the way. Most of the other DiveMaster trainees have completed their course and went back to Denmark and one back to San Franciso. Ben from the UK and myself are all that's currently left. We partner well together though, so I don't mind. We did the search and recovery phase over a couple of dives on Saturday. The first was a semi-deep dive to around 110 feet near the "Hailiburton" wreck. The Haliburton was a large cargo trawler ship which is pretty much completely intact and I always like to dive it. After Ben and I finished some compass work on the bottom and Kevin our instructor gaves us the "good job" signal, we all did a little dive tour of the wreck. We glided into the large cargo bay like three ghosts checking out a potential new haunting ground. As I had mentioned on Facebook....over time, so many divers have entered the hold that all of the exhaust bubbles have gathered on the underside of the roof of the area causing trapped air pockets.

Haliburton

Being able to literally place the majority of my head into this air space, pop my Reg out of my mouth and breathe while looking around is a pretty awesome experience! It's something you have seen countless times in adventure type movies but very few people will ever experience. It's moments like those that started my love affair with diving as a little boy and diving in general is full of those moments and never disappoints. After we finished touring the wreck and had some surface interval time we did a shallower dive at Ron's wreck.

Ron's Wreck

This wreck site is home to a much smaller vessel but still wonderful to investigate. The main purpose for our being there though was to continue our search and recovery training and the dive site also is home to a sandy oat bottom about the size of a football field. The field is bordered along its sides by reefs and is the perfect place for Kevin to "lose" and object ....on purpose. The point to the exercise is for Ben and I to locate the object (a weight belt) using a compass to do a specific search pattern along the bottom. After several legs of the search grid we found the weights and connected them to a lift bag. Applying a little air from my second regulator gives the bag enough lift to be neutrally buoyant and easy to ascend with. Of course as you slowly ascend...air expands which makes the lift bag want to race for the surface, so you have to anticipate and release some air as you go up. Sound simple but this particular lift bag only seemed to want to release ALL it's air when prompted. LOL this isn't fun because now your holding on to about a cinderblocks worth of extra weight which of course only knows one direction to go and that's down. So I quickly figured out that by keeping the opening near my regulator I could reinflate the bag by using only the exhaust bubbles from my normal breathing and not have to frantically try to free my second reg which usually just resulted in an overfill anyway. Overall it was an enlightening experience and I believe Ben and I did very well. I love to fun dive and glide about the reefs and canyons it's a peaceful and magical experience. It's truly a completely different world with its own rules and the fish and life is more likely to investigate you as some new strange looking fish rather then swim away. There is something to actually performing tasks on the bottom however that I enjoy. So if you ever lose a fishing pole or a boat anchor on a lake back home...gimme a call!

 

Ramblings

Ahhhh so.......I'm bored. It's 9:53 pm and I'm physically exhausted from the last couple of days. Too tired to go out so after I made a few phone calls to Eva and my parents I came upstairs to my room, flopped down on the bed and almost instantly became bored as hell. Bored and itching like crazy from a new batch of mosquito and sand flea bites that I have no idea how I got with all the deet I use or even when. I do know bout this damn itch though because it's the crazy kind that u want to scratch until u bleed. Nursing training and my mother however sit on my shoulder together and keep telling me not to scratch.....so I don't.....but OMG do I want too. At the moment it would be wonderful to be pressure washed or ran over with a steam roller with a sandpaper wheel.

When I get home I know I'm going to be culture shocked for a while. Even things like fast food make you ill because you have detoxed your body of all the secret sauces and trans fats and preservatives. Mainly though it's four things that are almost unbearable when I get home. The first thing that immediately freaks me out is just how MANY people are everywhere. There are people on top of people on top of people back home. There are people in Utila to be sure but not so many that you can't just feel alone or at least un-sardined. Secondly....all the people back home move so fast. There is a billion people and they are all rushing to do something, somehere. In Utila I can spot the newbie right away, by how fast they walk. No one walks anywhere or for that matter does "anything" fast in Utila. It's too damn hot for one thing but the people realize that when u finally get to where you want to be....it'll be there...it's not running from you. Everything is extremely slow in Utila and I wish we emulated that back at home. Stop the rush, slow down, talk to your neighbor.....enjoy yourself. The third thing that will undoubtedly have me shaking my head is the rules. There are more rules back home then people. No shirt no service, no dogs, don't sit there, be quiet, take a number. Rules exist to help protect us I know. Rules enforce boundaries, are in place for safety or courtesy but here on this little island very few actual rules or laws exist. Courtesy is just how you should act and people here do it without thought. I've yet to see a traffic accident even with scooters and four wheelers and pedestrians all sharing the same narrow road. There are no true building codes that I can see, no stay here's, don't touch that's.....and it works. I think laws were to simplify things for people but over time it has instead just simplified THE people. We have allowed our laws and rules to take the place of common courtesy and decency and people at home walk around all day with scowls or being rude or worse...oblivious ...to anyone around them. How nice to have fewer rules and even fewer needs for them. Lastly, volume will shock me. Not music volume... cause anyone here can attest that the thump of music at night...coming from any club in Utila just about rivals a jet at takeoff. Volume of goods, of choice is what I'm talking about. I will just about bet that I can fit every shop and bar/restaurant in Utila....inside one Wal-mart super center. A store may have 5 boxes of cereal...not even 5 choices but 5 boxes in entirety. At home we have a cereal aisle approximately 2 miles long. Our meats and vegetables, canned and dry goods, even bottled water is lined out with choice after choice. Having so much is nice, though I think it contributes to our very wasteful western ways. The bigger issue ...to me...is that we are all so used to it, that we are supremely spoiled. We don't appreciate much. Especially just how damn good we have it when it comes to choices. We buy big, waste without paying it mind and can restock any time of day or night. Utileans tend to buy smaller portion sizes, waste less.They are much more conscious of what they buy and when they buy it. Don't get me wrong...I like buying pound size Hershey bars at 3am but I wonder if when a Honduran visits the U.S. if they are just a little taken aback and maybe even confused over what has to seem like the most pompous display of food and goods on the planet.

This certainly wasn't intended as a gripe season about our wonderful country. It won't take long and I'll be right back into the swing of things, rushing about, forgetting to be courteous, bitching because they are out ( for the moment) of family gigantic size jars of Jif peanut butter. It would be nice though if I could bring a few of these ways back home so we could remember them, because surely it was that way once for us as well. Before the multi conglomerates and the banks took over, before everyone had to try so hard to simply stay afloat in such a busy, dog eat dog country. I love home but anytime you are fortunate enough to travel to another country and experience it rather then just resort hop, it will stay with you. Every so often pulling you back.

 

On reflection however please let me say... that being able to actually flush toilet paper though is...in itself worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. Viva' USA!!!

Lost track of the days: June 13

Survived my swim for Divemaster class. The 400 yard free swim was horrible. I somehow managed to keep moving in a linear direction while drowning at the same time. It completely went way past all of my reserves and willpower. Immediately after....tread water for 15 minutes with arms out of the water for the last two followed by an 800 yard swim with snorkel and fins. Easier then the 400 yard free swim, it still wasn't a piece of cake by any means. But I did it, so that is a big worry off my mind.

Today I assisted in a Rescue class which is almost as tiring as actually doing the rescue class yourself. I was the victim for the course and panicking all day takes a lot out of you...or at least it does me. After the above water skills we started on the underwater skill scenarios and he did pretty well. LOL he was a little gung ho on arresting my uncontrolled ascent though and jerked one of my purge valve cords completely out of my BCD (a vest that is inflated/deflated to control buoyancy). Afterwards I led him on a little dive around airport caves. Tomorrow he has some more skills to check off on including the 7 point unresponsive diver but I'm sure he'll do just fine.

 

Sorry no pics but I was to busy drowning all day to take any lol. Tonight will probably be a slow night with dinner at RJs then back hone for some reading and bed....I'm still kinda wore out from my swim test and playing the victim today just added to the exhaustion.

Pinnacle and Labrinth... Day....whatever

Up early this morning for morning dives on the North side. Started loading tanks on the boat around 6:30 am and was on the water before 7:30. Was a beautiful hour or so boat ride to our first dive site Pinnacle.Pinnacle has always been one of my favorite dives as it just encompasses a little of everything. We started with a deep descend to about 40 meters or 130 feet.

Checking my computer as we ascend to 118 ft

You then have some nice cave like swim throughs which take you back out on the wall, finally reaching shallower water and loads of activity and life about 45 feet and up...such an amazing and perfect dive. After a long surface interval to off gas due to the depth of the first dive we arrived at our second site, Labrinth.

Little Spotted Eel hiding out.

This is always a fun dive as well. Lots of twisty turns and canals through the coral with plenty of colorful fish and activity. After those two dives I had went from OMG 6am boat times suck! To feeling exhilarated about the rest of the day...Which is good because I had Skill Check-offs with Kevin.

 

Kevin is a friend and a damn good person to have as a mentor and instructor. He is calm and confident in the water and his demeanor is perfectly suited to teaching. He has a very laid back approach that instantly makes you feel comfortable and capable which are excellent traits for an instructor of any sorts. Skill Check offs in the Divemaster program isn't so much to see if you can do a skill. you are already a decently accomplished diver or you wouldn't be in the program to begin with. What they ARE for is to see and teach how well you can demonstrate a skill in a teaching fashion so that it is easily aquaired by a novice diver. Among other things, Divemasters assist with certifying new divers and are called upon for things the instructor may need, to help supervise the students and to help students who may be having trouble with a skill. Skill Check-offs make sure that you can do the skill in an exaggerated fashion that helps the usually already nervous student by both making the skill seem easy and being easily mimicked without confusion. Kevin ran through the 20 or something skills ranging from gear prep to surface and underwater water skills and prepped me for what he expected. He made a few suggestions and tweaks and then at the end of the day gave me the thumbs up and said i did great!...so thats one more load off my mind. LOL but the main load comes tomorrow when start doing some swim tests. Tomorrow i believe its the 400 yard free swim, the 800 yard snorkel/mask and fins swim, 15 minute water tread without hands and the 100 yard diver tow. Im going to try seriously to just not drown..ugh.

 

So much more to go...Ugh I thought school was out for a while.

 

Divemaster:

Knowledge Development:

 

Candidates must read the PADI Dive-master Manual and complete all the Knowledge Reviews

There are eight exams:

Physics.

Physiology and First Aid.

Equipment.

Decompression Theory and the RDP (Recreation Dive Planner)

Dive Skills and the Environment.

Supervising Activities for Certified Divers.

Supervising Student Divers in Training.

PADI Divemaster Conducted Programs.

Each dive master candidate must complete an Emergency Assistance Plan. This is essentially an emergency plan for evacuation and assistance in the unlikely event of a diving accident.

Stamina and Water Skills:

 

Candidates must perform four exercises. Points are awarded from 1-5 based on candidate performance, a minimum of 12 points are required to pass.

 

The candidate must swim 400 meters/yards without stopping using no swimming aids and using any stroke or combination of strokes desired.

Using no aids and wearing only a swimsuit, the candidate will stay afloat by treading water, drown proofing, bobbing or floating for 15 minutes, with hands (not arms) out of the water during the last 2 minutes.

Using a mask, fins, snorkel and swimsuit only (no BCD or flotation aids) and swimming with the face in the water, the candidate must swim nonstop for 800 meters / yards.

Wearing full scuba equipment, the candidate must push or tow an inert diver in full scuba at the surface 100 meters/yards nonstop without assistance.

Rescue Assessment:

 

Candidates must perform a simulated rescue of an unresponsive, non-breathing diver. The exercise is pass/fail, but the candidate's performance must be of demonstration quality. Being a dive master in training you'll be assisting with many rescue diver courses ensuring that your skills are sharp and honed.

 

Skill Demonstration:

 

Candidates must demonstrate the PADI 18 Basic Scuba Skills. Points are awarded from 1 to 5 with a total of 63 points required to pass.

 

Required Training Exercises:

 

Mapping Project.

Dive Skill circuit.

Equipment Exchange. (Exchanging full equipment whilst buddy breathing at about 5 meters in depth - character building)

Divemaster Conducted Program.

Dive Internship Requirements:

 

Divemaster candidates must participate in at least:

 

One PADI Open Water Diver course confined water session.

Four additional confined water training sessions from any PADI course or program.

One PADI Open Water Diver course open water training dive.

One PADI Adventures in Diving, Rescue Diver or PADI Specialty Diver course open water training session.

Three additional open water training dives from any PADI course or program.

One supervisory situation with certified divers not in a formal course.

 

Day 5

Bridge to my apartment.. and the coolest spot in Utila

WHEW! Rescue is over and done. And they have wore me out. Matt is a great instructor from Australia who prepared me well during the course so I never felt like I was floundering about. Maria was in addition to Matt was an awesome victim both above and below water.

We covered the above and below water assists and rescues, underwater search grids for missing divers, exits and more both in theory and in actual practice. Its rigorous and more then once I thought " please Maria/Matt....don't start drowning again...or disappear or go unresponsive in the water, or take off anymore gear due to nitrogen narcosis, or get entrapped, or run out of air, etc...etc...but it changes the way you look at the boat, the conditions, the divers, gear...everything.

RJs...only open a few days a week but the food is good..all fresh catch. Come early so they don't run out.

You become much more aware of everything else rather then "just" that cool Lionfish over there. Matt still hasn't graded my 50 question written exam but it was all things we had practiced so i'm confident in that regard. Its hotter then hades here. its a different kind of heat and you can only imagine the humidity..... on an island!

 

A local helped me tighten up some things on my bike so I no longer have to try and finger tighten a couple trips a day. Riding a bike in Utila in exactly the same as you walk on the island...pick a line and stay on it. scooters, bikes, motorcycles, golfcarts and 4-wheelers buzz past every few seconds...some give you a courteous warning beep, others do not. As long as you keep your line and don't veer without looking, its fine and it sure beats walking in the heat. Gonna head back to Skid Row's tonight as their food is pretty great stuff!

Sunset from outside my door.

PS...does anybody even read this thing or am i wasting my time LOL

 

Day 3

Day 3

 

Today is just a slow day so I have some time to write a bit. Im doing some course readings and knowledge reviews for my Rescue Diver course. Seems like it may be light work but actually the course outline looks like this..ugh:

 

Rescue:

 

- Self Rescue

- Diver stress

- The different forms of stress and their symptoms

- Managing diver stress

- First Aid Equipment

- First aid procedures

- Emergency management

- Rescuer readiness

- Equipment readiness

- Information readiness

- Common equipment problems

- Equipment function

- Release function and problems

- Recognizing rescue situations

- Rescuing the “responsive” diver at the surface

- Rescuing the “responsive” diver underwater

- Rescue exits to the boat or shore with the “responsive” diver

- Missing diver procedures

- Rescuing the “unresponsive” diver at the surface

- Rescuing the “unresponsive” diver underwater

- Equipment removal and exits to the boat or shore with the “unresponsive” diver

 

Live scenarios

 

On the final day of the course you will be given two real life scenarios. Your final accreditation will depend on your sucess on this day. Good luck!

 

1. UNDERWATER SEARCH- In this scenario a diver has gone missing from a group of divers. You must show and enact the leadership skills to organize the search and rescue.

 

2. EGRESS AND MANAGEMENT- An unconscious diver has disappeared from the surface... from this point anything can happen. This is where is gets real interesting as you must adapt your rescue plan to the rapidly changing conditions. This is a serious scenario that is demanding and very rewarding once you have achieved a successful conclusion.

LOL...THAT seems like a bunch to me...I start the course tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

LOL I have a couple of new friends..the owners granddaugher "Sky" and her cat "Princess alleia" Sky talks me up forever as soon as she sees me and Princess Alleia runs in my damn apartment every time i open the door or accompanies me around the grouds when im outside on the dock

 

YES finally after two days of the hardware shop being closed, I got my bike.

Princess Alleia

Sky

 

Getting back and forth just got alot easier...i'll sell it when I leave and already have a couple people telling me to let them know when i want to sell....doubt i'll even get half of what it cost but its all good!

 

to close Day 3...when im home and bitching about my weight everyone says i'm crazy but twice now in 3 days I have been called a pretty big guy....now....since im not 6'5" i can only translate that into meaning Fattamus Assamus...oh well..i can already tell that I'm losing weight! (I suspect its mostly water weight at this point blah)

 

My landlord Lupe and her Monkey..LOL

 

I know this probably looks horrible but it was the best Banana cake ever.... Fresh and hot from Babali... Oldest dock restaurant in Utila...floor feels like it may fall in and there is a huge square cut out in the middle so you can throw your scraps to the waiting fish.

Getting ready to shower and grab a bite to eat and then hit Treetanic.

Day 1 and 2...the quick take.

Day 1 is here and its time to go! The trip to Ohio was uneventful and I was able to spend a little time with my above awesome sister. Said my temporary goodbyes to my family and I will miss them all very much. It's sad to leave them behind but hopefully the plan is for us ALL to take a trip to the Bay Islands next year while I work on my instructor training. Eva meanwhile is going to work on getting her vacation time lined out so she can come and meet me on Utila around the 19th of July until we return home on the 31st. Its not set in stone but shes trying hard and I hope it works out.

 

Airports are crazy little microcosms. You see a little of everything and everyone. From the globe trotting dreadlock backpacker to the family headed to Disney for the week..People hustle by and it reminds me of a giant multi-cultural shopping mall where everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere else. Your terminals are always 5 miles away and your flight is always leaving in 10 minutes. Unless its a layover and then time and space stop functioning in the airport terminal void and 1 hour stretches on and on until 3 hours feels like a decade.

Friends seem to have fun traveling together...I've seen a few and they don't seem stressed or harried at all. Laughing and sipping Starbucks...all Hakuna Matata, no worries and stuff. I wouldn't know cause i've barely traveled with friends and even when I announce a year in advance that I'm going to Utila AND everyone says OMG! It's Awesome and So Cheap!...LMAO, no one actually goes. So while it would be really nice to be sipping Starbucks and chatting up a traveling companion right now, I'll just have to be content with the fact that I can eat or pee when ever I want......and I don't even really like coffee.

 

My arrival in San Pedro Sula went smooth...no real hassles except the baggage people wanting another 30.00 for an additional bag...no biggie and par for the course during any travel in a third world country.

From San Pedro Sula I hopped on board my tiny Sosa flight to La Ceiba, a coastal town in Honduras and awaited my last leg of travel to Utila. Sat beside an american ex-pat who has lived on Utila for 20 years...cant remember his name but we chatted it up about changes both positive and negative to the island over the last few years. Just as we arrived in La Ceiba it started to rain and we thought the flight may get canceled and we thought we may have to overnight in town or at the airport but as luck would have it our flight left after about 40 minutes. We flew out in a tiny 8 seater narrower then a mini-van and were joined by a Utilean couple bringing their brand new baby home to the island. Despite the tiny size of the plane the landing was incredibly smooth on an airstrip known for its rollercoaster like power braking landings.

Grabbing a taxi...(Hanks mini-van which has seen far better days) we dropped everyone off and he deposited me at the door to Cross Creek. I said hello dropped my bags off and met Mike from Utila apartment finders. Mike is another ex-pat who used to own a cafe here, also from the states or perhaps Canada. Mike the ex-pat hippy picked me up on his scooter...preferred method of travel on the island and showed me a couple of places neither of which i liked very well. we made arrangements to meet the next day to look at some other places. No worries as I knew that the dive center would put me up. I packed all my gear to a room on the Cross Creek

dock and made my way back to the office...decrying hippie Mike's attempt at finding me an apartment. One of the staff mentioned a place where she happened to live and made arrangements for me to meet the owner "Lupe". Lupe was very nice and showed me the two and one bedroom apartments. I liked them well enough to agree and moved right in..again lugging my gear a healthy distance from the center to the Tropical Seas. Moved in and headed back to the Dive Shop where i met Kevin and he got me on the morning dive boat...Damn glad he did because after two pretty nice dives we made a stop at Water Cay for a DMT (Divemaster training) event where Kevin had them mapping the reef around Water Cay and included a huge barbecue and we spent the rest of the

evening lounging and laying on the island and in the water while the DMTs griped about what they had to accomplish....oh well..they got chicken and rum for their troubles....Once home, I took a little nap and then headed to Rehab's to eat...called it an early night and went to bed happy as a clam that I could recuperate from my trip and not dive on Sunday.

 

Day 0.2

Major job finished with the help of a good friend. Huge back patio and front walkway was formed, poured and finished today. Excellent work without much help from me. It's a big load off my mind and nice to have it finished before I leave tomorrow to head to Honduras and then Utila. As far as I know

I am packed. Everything seems ready but I'll have to do one more "once over" tomorrow. Its like I have ADHD-Alzheimer's. I'll spend weeks organizing everything to a tee..... then walk off and forget my cameras and my passport.

Get my hair cut tomorrow and then retrieve my anti-malarials from wal-mart.

Having to get a prescription for anti-malarial medicine is silly to me. They are not going hurt you and you can't abuse them and there is absolutely NO reason to take them unless you believe you may become exposed to a source for malaria. Regardless, I have a prescription, so I guess I should pick them up even though I don't worry much about getting malaria in Utila. Noseeums (sand flies) will bite you if the wind dies down but a little deet will keep them away. Mosquitos ...not so much. Maybe in the mangroves but not on the shore. Thanks to Nursing school I have been vaccinated against A, B and C strands of Hepatitis, so no worries in that department.

So tomorrow I'll head to Ohio and then Friday my flight leaves for Atlanta from Columbus at 7:10 am.

Let's hope I don't forget something important.

Day 0.4

Was saddened to hear that Bar in the Bush had closed. I was used to the nightly ringing of the Treetanic bell telling everyone it was time to leave and head to the "Bush". Noise levels were pretty high to extreme and I wouldnt be surprised if sleepy residents had something to do with the closure. A new place on its own dock similar to CocoLoco and Tranquila HAS been opened by some American ex-pats I believe and seems like the new place to be. I'm not sure exactly where "Rehab" is located but....it's a small island.

Nice little map put out by Paradise Divers. I should spend most of my time between Cross Creek and Utila Dive Center. To help you gauge distance, it takes me about 30 minutes to leisurely walk from Cross Creek to Skid Row's. La Pirata and Captain Morgan's effectively mark the center of town

Off to try to find some extra O-rings for my dive computer.

3 more days.

Day 0.5

Went to the airport and checked my bags against weight limits and size restrictions. Amazingly I was well within. Surprising because no matter how I try to "under pack" I always end up "over packing".

"scuba and camera parts not counting a multi-tool, two wrenchs, two pairs of hemostats and two tiny screwdrivers...overkill much".

Anyway... I can relax because I'm not going to get some crazy baggage charge. Also ran to old navy to buy a semi decent hoodie. Sounds ridiculous in the tropics but after diving all day you lose a lot of heat and I have seen people shiver like they were wearing a bathing suit in a snow storm rather then 100° heat. My instructor Kevin said it would be wise to bring something warm so I bow to his expertise. I'm so caught up in the tropical weather that I never would have thought of it. So I just about finished my list...cheap tossable sunglasses: check, new iPad cord: check, batteries for dive computer: check, hoodie for the tropics: check, sliders @ chili's just cause: check.

My carry-on bag is full of just scuba gear!

Now I need to repack a couple of times and try to cull the unnecessary and go OCD about checking for things I may have forgotten. Like making sure I don't forget iPad accessories and new cord or I'll be out of communication

It's getting closer.