In order to travel all the way around the world, we are on a bit of a tight budget. For the first time though we've decided to spend a little bit of money for some activities, which I think has been well worth it.
First off, a few days ago we went scuba diving! I got my Open Water Diver certification when I was in Sydney, 6 years ago. So I took a little refresher course and Nico did a “try dive”. Turns out the two are quite similar to each other. It was us two and a Norwegian couple to one instructor, Greg. About an hour before we got on the boat, we all sat down and Greg talked us through the basics and the gear. Then he got everything set up, made sure our gear was on correctly and we all jumped into the water. We started off right near the beach so that we could practice a couple skills – like taking out the regulator and clearing some water out of our mask. Then basically the only difference for me was then Greg and I went back under and ran through a couple more skills. For most of the skills we talked about them on the surface, and then went under and practiced them. But for my extra ones, he just said “we'll go through a couple more, I'm sure you'll remember them”. I had no idea what we were doing, but I just followed his lead to perform the extra skills. I guess I fudged it well enough that he was convinced I knew what I was doing. Then we went for a dive from the beach. There is so much life down there! It was really neat to just be able to stay under for so long and just look at all the fish and coral without worrying about coming back up in a few seconds like with snorkeling. Nico really wanted to rent a camera, which I think was a bit of a mixed blessing. I think I was spending a bit more time taking pictures than actually looking around, but it was still sweet.
Then for the second dive I did at least change my gear over to another tank (and also hand the camera over to Nico this time). This second dive was in a different site, with more coral and fish and even a stingray! The refresher was a bit on the simple side, but since scuba diving is really quite simple, it did give me the confidence to once again go diving. And doing it with guides, I don't have to worry about how deep I go and how long I stay under before I get nitrogen narcosis or anything like that. Although I did look up how to read the dive tables, which are also really quite simple.
Yesterday I went out for another couple dives. This time cheaper since I am a certified diver. We went to a couple different dive sites and saw lots more cool stuff. This whole diving thing is really neat and well worth the money for the few dives that I did. I cannot see myself ever living in such a tropical climate that I would ever really get into diving though. The ocean here is like a hot tub, and even I would not get cold after being underwater for an hour. And it is amazingly clear with so few “scary” things down there that it really was such a comfortable diving experience.
Rock climbing. Not only does this beautiful island have some of the best diving in the world, but its got rock climbing too. It certainly is not some of the best rock climbing in the world, but its outdoor rock climbing which is sweet. Since it gets “melt your face off” hot here during the day (especially in the sun) we rented the gear and a motorbike and got everything ready the night before. Then by 7am (after the morning mosquito attack) we were on our way. Somehow here it is way cheaper to rent a motorbike than it is to get a taxi, so we rented one to get both of us and all the gear there. Only a couple times did Nico have to get off the bike and walk cause the hills were so steep.
It was all top rope off of installed bolts, and lots of slabby climbs. Even as an experienced climber I was amazed how well I would stick to the rock standing on wee tiny pebbles. It is kinda cool that people have only started rock climbing here in the past 5 years or so, so the granite is not at all worn smooth yet. Most of the day we had the entire place to ourselves, and then later in the afternoon a guided group found their way up there. I have now gotten to climb twice in the past 8 months – so it was well worth it for the day.
Coming up soon is that meditation retreat that I was talking about. So don't expect to hear from me or have any way to contact me from now until about Sept 11.
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