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Mother Nature churned up some wild water yesterday so no diving was possible. We headed in to town and spent the day getting wet on the inside ;-). Needless to say I will not be posting those photos! You may want to ask Wade to see his new poncho and sombrero though ;-). If you run into Dave ask him about his apron...on second thought...you probably don't really want to see that!
Now off to pack before we head to the airport.
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Diving postponed again so for us that is it for diving until the next vacation. Now shopping.
Another awesome night dive just off the dock outside our resort. Lots of octopi, lobsters, hermit crabs and trumpetfish. It is amazing all of the critters that are out there at night. I've loved the night diving here!
Now we're all full after dinner and sharing photos from the day's activities...now it's time for bed and we actually get to sleep in tomorrow. That is a bit bitter sweet as it means no more boat dives for us (Dave and Monica are going to go out to get in the two dives she missed by her late arrival) but we will maybe squeak in a late morning shore dive. We just have to be out of the water by noon to give us enough surface time before we fly out on Monday. I can't be We were up bright and early this morning to get our taxi to the ferry taking us to Playa del Carmen. All went according to plan and we were grateful for the boxed breakfast the kitchen folks had put together for us last night. Once we were dropped off at the terminal with all of our gear it was just a quick stop to buy our tickets and we were boarding the 7AM ferry. We had to place our own baggage onto the back deck of the boat once they figured out we were divers...apparently no one wants to handle dive gear around here...you'd think they could smell us coming...maybe they could LOL. Once our stuff was stowed we headed in to find seats for the 45 minute journey. There was a big table upstairs and we all fit there...so we settled in and soon the rocking of the boat had us snoozing. No lively conversation this early in the morning!
Soon the ferry was docked and we gathered our stuff off the deck and headed into Playa to meet Thomas (our guide) at Senor Frog's. After some introductions we loaded all of our stuff onto a 'bicycle cart' and then followed Thomas to the van that would take us to Chac-Mool. Our luggage was there waiting for us at the van and we were quickly on our way. Thomas gave us a thorough briefing (laid down the law) on our way to the dive site. There are some very important rules to follow when entering any kind of overhead environment when diving. He made it very clear how things would go...specific swimming formations...communication signals...the guide line and its purpose. He would take only four of us in at a time so we would have two groups taking turns (there are 8 of us). Ok...we're all ready to go... Once at the site we broke into our groups of four and decided Dave, Monica, Wade and I would go first. We got our gear put together and then got to see our entry point. Once it was all clear we geared up and headed into the water. HOLY CRAP WAS IT COLD!!!! I had to force myself to put my face under! Because it is fresh water and inland in a cave system it didn't have the sun to warm it up. BRRRRRRR After a few minutes I got used to it...or got numb...either was I was more comfortable. While we waited for Thomas to join us we checked our buoyancy and bobbed around on the surface looking at stuff. Then Thomas got in and double checked our gear before giving the signal to descend. Our job was to follow Thomas while watching our buoyancy carefully to not crash into anything and kick gently to avoid silting the place into darkness. Wade was first, then me, then Monica with Dave bringing up the rear. We all had lights and Wade and I had cameras. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting the dive to be like...but I was certainly expecting more light than there was in there. I was thinking big open caverns with light shining down and illuminating interesting formations in the rock. It was much darker than I thought and even though I had my light on and could see the lights from the others it was very cave-like. There were some places where we swam through that felt quite restricted, Like I could touch the top and bottom at the same time if I had reached up and down with my arms while swimming through. Thomas pointed out fossils and other interesting things as we swam along and I tried to get some pictures. We did come to some stunning 'rooms' where the light was shining in and casting beautiful beams through the water. Then we hit the helo-cline...a place where salt and fresh water meet. It makes everything very blurry so you can't see clearly at all. There was an up side though...it was WARM...so it was a bit of a trade off...see what is around you and be cold...or have blurry vision and be warm. We were in the helo-cline for quite a few minutes before it cleared and we were back in the fresh clear water. We continued to follow Thomas until were were eventually led back to our entry point. YAY we made it back! We had booked a two dive trip to Chac-Mool but I had decided about half way through the first dive that I didn't need to do any more Cenote dives. Once was enough for me :-). So I offered shore support to the teams as they got their second dives in and enjoyed the sun and friendly dogs on dry land. Monica stayed up with me as she has been struggling with her sinuses and ears all week and the up and down nature of these dives were causing her grief. Once the dives were done we loaded back up in the van and back to the Ferry. Soon we were again being rocked into a snooze by the boat as we headed back to Coz. Once again the kitchen staff here saved the day for us. Not only did they box us up breakfast this morning and open early so we could have coffee before we departed but they extended their lunch time to feed us when we got back. The sandwiches that Thomas provided were not quite sufficient for our hungry crew. Now we're back in our room resting and sorting through photos before we get in one more night dive. The squall that was coming our way shifted and went around us! We did a bit of shopping...needed a souvenir from Margaritaville and another bottle of Bailey's then came back for a night dive. The current was very mild so we were able to do lots of exploring and we saw lots of lobsters, a big green starfish and a very cute little octopus. On our way back to the exit point we spotted a big octopus but he was quite shy (or we are really scary) and he inked twice as he made his escape from our lights and cameras! Poor guy...we just wanted a photo!
I've added the new photos to the Day 7 slideshow and now we're off to bed...the taxi is coming to pick us up and take us to the ferry at 6:30 AM! Thankfully the wonderful kitchen staff gave us breakfast to go (fruit and yogurt) to put in our fridges tonight so we can eat in the morning. They are also opening the kitchen early and will have coffee on for us. How is that for service? They've really taken exceptional care of us. Sadly today was our last day of boat dives with Nestor and the crew of the Scuba II. They did a wonderful job over the last 6 days finding us some excellent dive sites. Nestor is amazing at finding us the stuff we wanted to see...it got to be almost like ordering off the menu! We wanted to see turtles...we got turtles...seahorses...we got seahorses...moray eels...we got a show and a half of morays! The only item on the list that we didn't get to see was a shark...so I guess that means we'll just have to come back and try again later :-).
Today we dove two sites that we had done earlier in the week, Paso Del Cedral and Yucab. It's amazing how even the same location can be so different from day to day. We were lucky that our first dive today came near the end of our trip because after this dive I don't know how any others could measure up. We were immediately greeted by a big Barracuda as we started the dive and then a huge turtle! We saw 5 or 6 turtles during the dive and they were all quite calm and casual about having their photos taken! The main reason for choosing this site was to find a Moray Eel for Monica. She had missed the one we saw earlier in the week before she had arrived. Not only did we get to see two Moray's but one came out and was hunting with a big Grouper and entertained us for quite some time! Towards the end of the dive Wade and I looked out across the sand and spotted two HUGE Rainbow Parrotfish. We slowly approached to see if we could get some pics and video. Careful...don't want to scare them away...yeah right...they swam right around me! Not afraid at all...well...I was a little bit! They were so big and their beaks are so big and sharp...you can hear them when the crunch the coral under water! We got a couple of shots and a bit of video then moved on :-). Most boats do this dive site for the second dive of the day so we were the only boat there when we arrived. Maybe that is why we got to see so many cool critters! Way to go Nestor! Home run! The Yucab site today was teeming with fish. Huge schools of them and they weren't skittish at all...they were happy to have us hang out with them. That was pretty neat. I saw my first Toadfish on this dive. Everyone else had seen them but me...so Nestor found one and called me over. He was hiding in his little cave but I managed to squirm down and get a pic...not a great one but proof that I saw him! The current was a nice speed on this dive...relaxing and easy to ride but you could stop if you wanted to take a pic or look at something a bit longer. Now we are back in the room relaxing after lunch...we were all planning on doing a shore dive but it looks like we may get another squall go through so we're waiting to see if it clears off or not. Tomorrow we've booked a trip to the mainland to dive the Cenotes. We'll take the water taxi over with our gear and meet up with our guide. We'll do two dives in the Cenotes and then head back on the taxi to the condo. Is it just my imagination or does time go by faster towards the end of vacation? After the exciting weather we had on Wednesday, Mother Nature granted us a sunny and beautiful day with calm seas for our diving on Thursday. Our first dive site was Punta Sur or more commonly known as the Devil's Throat. There is a 'swim through' section on this dive for those brave enough to enter...Wade was...I wasn't :-). We decided on the boat who would go in and who would stay out so I buddied up with Monica and Micheline while Wade buddied up with Brian. We all descended together and then the three of us watched the others enter the tunnel. Once they were in we swam up and over top of the coral formation they were going through. It was cool to see all of their bubbles coming up through the coral. We could track their progress by the path of the bubbles. It wasn't long before we were all reunited on the far side of the coral head and saw Nestor give the big YAHOO sign that everyone made it through ok. Wade took some video on his way through so I got to see what he saw...it was nice but I don't regret my decision to stay up top with the sunlight and pretty fishes :-).
Our second dive was at Villa Blanca. This site is where divers come to look for Seahorses and thanks to Nestor's sharp eyes we got to see THREE of them! They were bigger than I expected and I'm sure they are still a bit shell shocked after we all got done taking pictures of them. SO cute! Another critter checked off of my photography bucket list :-). After we got back to shore and had some lunch it was time to gear up once again to do more Rescue Diver skills. Navigating search patters was the order of the day. Dave and Brian swam out and hid Monica's weight pouches somewhere between the Buoy lines in front of our resort and we had to buddy up and use our compasses to do a methodical search to find them. Jeff and Benaz found the first one and got to surface while Wade and I looked for the second one. It is surprisingly hard to search for a boring weight pouch when you are distracted by all the pretty fishes! LOL Finally we found the second weight pouch and surfaced. Exercise complete :-). Then we were told to submerge for a minute and wait for instructions...so we did...then Dave signalled us to go up...so we did...Monica was sitting on the dock...we all were looking at her waiting for direction...Dave and Brian had disappeared underwater. Finally Monica told us there were two missing divers out there somewhere and we should find them....so we organized a search and got to work. Wade and I found Dave and Jeff and Benaz found Brian...both were 'not breathing' and 'unresponsive'...so we got them to the surface safely and they miraculously revived! Exercise complete! Yay! By this point we were all pretty pooped...so we headed to shower and dress before heading in to town for a bit of shopping and dinner. We all went shopping this time...no one stayed behind to nap. Some beautiful rings were bought...after much long negotiation (long enough for Wade to go next door and get his tattoo!) then it was on to the tequila store...they were generous with the free samples...who knew tequila came in so many flavours!!! We all decided the chocolate varieties (three of them) were best. Luckily they had a buy 2 get 1 free sale...so we each got a bottle to bring home :-). At long last we found a place for dinner...ate a great meal and caught a cab home...exhausted but happy. 
Afternoon wetsuit drying and time for lunch
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