Today was incredible. and when i say incredible i mean absolutely mindblowingly awesomely amazing.
i set sail on our little hu'ul kiin early in the morning to do some coral monitoring, did a successful transect (during which a spotted moray bit my monitoring pole). i thought i was going crazy because i kept hearing dolpin noises all around me, but i looked up and there weren't any dolphins. I figured it was wishful thinking because yesterday i got to snorkel with about 25 dolphins. it was pretty awesome.
but when we surfaced, captain Gen told us that we weren't hearing things, that they had been playing with dolpins on the surface the entire dive and they were still there! so we hopped on, drove a little south and flung ourselves off into the most incredible experience of my entire life.
i hopped in and immediatley saw three dolphins, so i swam over and they were just playing with us! Tristan dove down and i watched him spiral up with dolphins swirling all around him. they swam between us and with us and it was sooo cool. at one point i was swiming and there were about 5 dolphins within 3 feet of me, swimming with me and brushing against me! i felt like i had been accepted into thier pod! they were so curious and interested in us, they kept swimming up and looking at us and swimming alongside us. we petted them and they not only let us but were basically asking us to continue! i had a full 2 minutes of fun with one dolphin who decided i was a good friend. he kept swimming around me in circles, staying about a foot away and i would place a hand on him and when i took it away he would whistle and bob and so i pet him again and swam alongside him and it was just incredible. we dove down and swam like dolphins and watched as they jumped several feet into the air!!
we spent 45 minutes playing with them. and for most of the time i was within 4 feet of a dolphin, if not much closer. there were probably 15 in all, both bottlenose and atlantic spotted.
the most awesome thing ever.
then i spent this afternoon paper macheing turtle fins for the carnival in Mahahual this weekend. so we will be in town friday and saturday evenings doing a parade and participating in the festival. should be a blast. i will definitely ppost pictures.
until then, adios.
i have a pretty spectacular life. i won't be returning to michigan any time soon.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
what a day!
so, today was pretty much the best day in a long time.
to start, we had a great night of love song sing a longs and all the girls found cute hand made valentines left on our pillows which was super adorable. we suspect jamie and andy as they are rumored to have spent quite a while in the office yesterday afternoon... haha
today was beautiful and calm - not a wave crest in sight. i went out on the first wave (i love first wave, it's so early and pretty and quiet) and it was just beautiful. there were flying fish everywhere on the way out and the reef was so alive and interesting. i saw my first mantis shrimp and measured a pretty awesome patch of dendrogyra cylindrus (pillar coral). it was a brilliant day and i was so content getting back on the boat that i almost couldn't believe it when our capitan told us that there were DOLPHINS so i quickly got my mask fins and snorkel back on while we were driving and sure enough, there were 5 dolphins playing a little ways away! so i flung myself off of the boat and had the most awesome 15 minutes or so of dolphin fun. we were pretty much chasing them for most of it becuase they were on their way somewhere or other, but they came really close (about 3 feet away at one point) and it was so cool to hear them all underwater, hearing their clicks and whistles getting louder and then seeing one rocket up from the depths....awesome.
we finally figured it was time to go since we were already late for wave two, so i switched over my gear in record time and we jetted out with Raph to LM, one of my favorite sites where we did several awesome swim throughs, saw a huge green moray and a lionfish and a huge black grouper and a ray. it was an excellent dive, capped off by an epic battle at the safty stop involving our measured pvc "cc poles" and purge buttons. haha.
the rest of the day has been unremarkable, but it has just been a gorgeously chill amazingly beautiful day.
ahhh. i love life.
to start, we had a great night of love song sing a longs and all the girls found cute hand made valentines left on our pillows which was super adorable. we suspect jamie and andy as they are rumored to have spent quite a while in the office yesterday afternoon... haha
today was beautiful and calm - not a wave crest in sight. i went out on the first wave (i love first wave, it's so early and pretty and quiet) and it was just beautiful. there were flying fish everywhere on the way out and the reef was so alive and interesting. i saw my first mantis shrimp and measured a pretty awesome patch of dendrogyra cylindrus (pillar coral). it was a brilliant day and i was so content getting back on the boat that i almost couldn't believe it when our capitan told us that there were DOLPHINS so i quickly got my mask fins and snorkel back on while we were driving and sure enough, there were 5 dolphins playing a little ways away! so i flung myself off of the boat and had the most awesome 15 minutes or so of dolphin fun. we were pretty much chasing them for most of it becuase they were on their way somewhere or other, but they came really close (about 3 feet away at one point) and it was so cool to hear them all underwater, hearing their clicks and whistles getting louder and then seeing one rocket up from the depths....awesome.
we finally figured it was time to go since we were already late for wave two, so i switched over my gear in record time and we jetted out with Raph to LM, one of my favorite sites where we did several awesome swim throughs, saw a huge green moray and a lionfish and a huge black grouper and a ray. it was an excellent dive, capped off by an epic battle at the safty stop involving our measured pvc "cc poles" and purge buttons. haha.
the rest of the day has been unremarkable, but it has just been a gorgeously chill amazingly beautiful day.
ahhh. i love life.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
coming up on the half way mark....whoa.
This past week has been fabulously amazing. first, i had my 50th dive, which was very appropriately my best TURTLE dive to date. an awesome hawksbill turtle came and hung out with us for what felt like 5 minutes. it was in sanely awesome. Jamie (welsh guy/hut mate/dive buddy) even gave me the "fucking intense man" sign underwater (it came from Corwin, an awesome canadian who gets ridiculosly excited about diving stuff). very cool.
then TEFL, which was so much fun. i taught three classes and participated in a fourth. i taught 1st and 2nd graders, after school kids who were about 12, and adult intermediates (which ended upjust being one guy, but it was great).. the kids got a bit chaotic, but it was such a rewarding amazing experience. i really enjoyed it.
THEN, thrusday night dave and i took a taxi up to limones and hopped on a 22:30 bus to Tulum and arrived at about 1:10 in the morning.
Tulum is a great city. i really like it there. Friday morning we got up early and beat the tourists to the Coba ruins which are all hidden away in jungle and you get to rent bikes and ride around to all the different sections. we even climbed the great pyramid temple thing. then we took a taxi to a cenote a few minutes away which was so cool. we got in through a little spiral staircase into this awesome cave with deep, clear blue fresh water. it was soo much fun. although after being so used to salt water we were all feeling oddly sinky and we had to hold on to flotation devicesso we wouldn't drown! haha.
Saturday mortning we got up early again and went on a CENOTE DIVE which is the cooolest thing ever. we went to Dos Ojos which means two eyes because it is two big cenotes connected by caves. the water is so clear and amazing it looks like your swimming thorugh air! incredible. and on the second dive we surfaced breiefly in a bat cave!! haha
that afternoon we went to Akumal beach where we went snorkling and saw 12 different green sea turtles in the span of about 30 minutes, not to mention the rays and fish and corals. sooo amazing.
Saturday night we went out on the town and stayed out quite late, so we had a nice chill sunday. tasha dave, amy and i went to the beach at Sian Ka'an reserve which was beautiful, but much farther away than we anticipated, so we hitched a couple rides there and back.
unfortulately it has been windy on base so we haven't been diving the past two days, but we did a bunch of rescue skills today and we're definitely keeping busy. we also learned monitoring methods today and will be doing our practice monitoring soon. that should be fun.
hope everyone there is keeping warm! i'll be thinking about you while i'm laying next to a palm tree in the sand studying coral species!
love and kisses,
tori
then TEFL, which was so much fun. i taught three classes and participated in a fourth. i taught 1st and 2nd graders, after school kids who were about 12, and adult intermediates (which ended upjust being one guy, but it was great).. the kids got a bit chaotic, but it was such a rewarding amazing experience. i really enjoyed it.
THEN, thrusday night dave and i took a taxi up to limones and hopped on a 22:30 bus to Tulum and arrived at about 1:10 in the morning.
Tulum is a great city. i really like it there. Friday morning we got up early and beat the tourists to the Coba ruins which are all hidden away in jungle and you get to rent bikes and ride around to all the different sections. we even climbed the great pyramid temple thing. then we took a taxi to a cenote a few minutes away which was so cool. we got in through a little spiral staircase into this awesome cave with deep, clear blue fresh water. it was soo much fun. although after being so used to salt water we were all feeling oddly sinky and we had to hold on to flotation devicesso we wouldn't drown! haha.
Saturday mortning we got up early again and went on a CENOTE DIVE which is the cooolest thing ever. we went to Dos Ojos which means two eyes because it is two big cenotes connected by caves. the water is so clear and amazing it looks like your swimming thorugh air! incredible. and on the second dive we surfaced breiefly in a bat cave!! haha
that afternoon we went to Akumal beach where we went snorkling and saw 12 different green sea turtles in the span of about 30 minutes, not to mention the rays and fish and corals. sooo amazing.
Saturday night we went out on the town and stayed out quite late, so we had a nice chill sunday. tasha dave, amy and i went to the beach at Sian Ka'an reserve which was beautiful, but much farther away than we anticipated, so we hitched a couple rides there and back.
unfortulately it has been windy on base so we haven't been diving the past two days, but we did a bunch of rescue skills today and we're definitely keeping busy. we also learned monitoring methods today and will be doing our practice monitoring soon. that should be fun.
hope everyone there is keeping warm! i'll be thinking about you while i'm laying next to a palm tree in the sand studying coral species!
love and kisses,
tori
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