Roatan: Numero Dos

As of lunchtime today Sarah and I are both PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified divers. We have completed four dives and a couple hours of bad instructional videos and now can dive unsupervised to 60 feet (actually don't tell PADI but we accidentally dipped to 68 feet when we were checking out a shipwreck). The more we dive with PADI the more certifications we earn and beyond recreational diving there are opportunities to be a rescue diver or diving instructor. So far we are just thinking about the enjoyment of it and Roatan has been perfect for that. Every time we surface from a dive we are babbling like fools, talking about all the things that you can't communicate underwater. The "okay" hand signal and wide eyes behind a scuba mask is about all you can do to get across your excitement while diving. The reef here is lovely and healthy, the water is as clear as I've seen and the aquatic life is abundant. We've seen turtles having lunch, puffer fish, huge groupers and snappers as interested in us as we are in them, and thousands upon thousands of tropical fish of varying sizes all doing their thing. The PADI course is very well designed, by our final dive I felt totally comfortable and natural with our scuba equipment. At first I felt very alien-like, in and out of the water. A full wetsuit, BCD vest, various hoses and valves, a heavy air tank, giant flippers and scuba mask make for awkward movement and a feeling of being removed from the environment. Once you get under the water most of the awkward feeling leaves you but the alien sensation takes over as you are traveling in an environment that all reason tells you you shouldn't be surviving in. Once the nervousness leaves you diving is a real treat. Being able to move in three dimensions is constantly a thrill for me and the graceful, easy movement underwater is great. For our last dive our instructor took us to a little sand patch and we took off our fins and enjoyed a little under water kung-fu. How often can you leap up and do two consecutive backflips? Unfortunately a full tank only lasts so long (even less time if you are doing strenuous things like flying dragon kicks) and once you surface reality sets in with 40 lbs of equipment and all the saliva and mucus you missed out on underwater. Now that we've got our PADI diploma we're going to get our fill of the sea and head back to the mainland. Our travel fund and traveling energy are starting to run low and we are thinking about heading home (wherever that is) soon. We are definitely on the downhill side of the trip and are slowly forming a return plan in our minds. Our original plan was to head north to Belize and spend a bit of time in San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico. Cancun and the cheap spring break flights are a quick bus ride from there. It would be nice to hop over to Cuba if we have the time and money to do it justice. We've many option but no real deciding factors at the moment. We've been sending out the e-mails to see if anybody wants to take an end of winter vacation and meet up to escort us back to the states. If anybody out there has been thinking, "Gosh, I want to get my name on DailyDirkandSarah." now's your chance. Drop us a line and we'll keep a beach chair free for you 'til you arrive.
-Dirk