We jumped in and did our 5 point descent ... WOW!!! Water filters out certain colors, so everything looks a bit dull, but even with that, it was amazing. It feels like flying, only very slowly. Hovering over huge coral reefs with thousands of fish is breath-taking ... Good thing I had a regulator to breathe.
There were schools of hundreds of fish circling overhead, multicolored fish like the intro to Saved By The Bell, sea slugs again, etc. Mazlan let me take some pictures, which were pretty difficult. I'd see a bunch of Nemos in an anemone and get up close to take a photo. Then before I could take it, I'd breath in and start floating away ... but I think I got a few good shots. What do you guys think?
We spent about 50 minutes on the first dive and then had lunch on a lagoon that would put Gilligan's island to shame.
Our second dive was just as amazing. It was a place called Fan Canyon. This place had such beautiful coral formations. Walls of coral with enormous drop offs and rises. When you take a flash photo of the dull colors underwater, the vibrant, brilliant, spectacularness comes out.
At one point, the instructors got everone's attention (they tap a metal pointer against their tank) to show us something. We all gathered around, but all I saw was sand and rocks. Even when they got up close and started taking pictures in a space no bigger than two feet, I still didn't know what they were looking at. Even when I saw the pictures on the camera after we got on the boat, I still couldn't see anything. Only after we got back to the dove shop and Mazlan showed us a book of fish, did I sorta make out the fish. It was called a scorpionfish and it looks just like a rock.
(Can you make out the scorpion fish?)
It was one of the most amazing things I've ever done and would definitely do it again. Everyone, go and get your PADI open water scuba diving certification because I need some dive buddies.
You're like Jacques Cousteau. But less French.
ReplyDelete