Cabo Pulmo

Today my uncle Garth and I went up to Cabo Pulmo to go scuba diving. We were up nice bright and early to catch our ride (7:10am) however our driver failed to show up until about 8:20am, after much phoning around by the front desk. I was fairly oblivous to the whole situation, however later this afternoon I realized that he was incredibly hungover -thus his lateness. We convinced him to make a quick stop at Starbucks and then we were on our way (after backing up blindly and almost taking out 2 people) Now having been up to Cabo Pulmo twice in the past month, I was fully aware of what the road was like out to there - 15 km of washboard. One would also think that given I knew what the road was like, that I might have second guessed the venti mocha at Starbucks. Let's put it this way, I have a very strong bladder and it was given a good workout this morning!

My diving experiences have been fairly limited to date and have all been in warmer water (Great Barrier Reef and Maui), so when the dive master put me in a 7mm suit today and said that the water was cold, I started to wonder. But honestly. once I was in the water, I didn't notice it at all and was rather quite comfortable. The other thing that I have not experienced while diving is a small dive boat. The boat we were in today held about 8 passengers (cramped) and 6 comfortably. It was completely open air as well. They also had a very unique way of getting the boat in the water (in absence of a dock) - the pick up truck essentially gunned it through the sand and pushed the boat into the water. Our first dive was at a place called El Bajo. The water was a balmy 66 F and we got to depths of about 58 feet and were down for 39 minutes. Not bad for my first dive in 2 years. The visability was not bad but also not great - about 40 feet or so. This princess is used to 70 - 100 ft. visability. While under, I saw not one but two schools of manta rays swimming by which was really, really cool. They are so beautiful when they swim. Also saw 4 guitar sharks - always hiding under the edge of the coral - not wanting to be disturbed. Some huge groupers, parrot fish and all of the standard warm water (although it was chilly) type of fish. Overall, not a bad dive. Coming to the surface though, well that is when the fun began.

While we were under, the wind decided to pick up - you don't notice this when you are 50 ft down. So needless to say, when we emerged the sea was rolling pretty good and that is about the same time that my stomach started to roll and I started to turn green. Upon getting back into the boat, I realized that I wasn't exactly feeling healthy and since I only had a mocha for breakfast, there was not a whole lot for me to hurl up, so I just had to accept that I was going to feel yucky.

Our 2nd dive was at a spot called El Cantel. Unfortunately this time I could not get down no matter how hard I tried. After a couple of attempts, including having more weight put into my weight belt (I was at 20 lbs), emptying both my BCD and lungs, I finally admitted defeat and crawled back into the boat, which was a good thing b/c visibility was about 10 ft while they were under and the rest of the group came up after 28 minutes. All anyone was seeing were the fins of the person in front of them. When I got back into the boat, I just sprawled out on the bench b/c I knew that my eyes watching a bobbing horizon was not going to help my green stomach. However by the time we got back to shore and out of the boat, I was okay. Not sure what was up with all of that but guess the big Guy upstairs figured that I shouldn't be doing my 2nd dive.

Included in our dive was a nice lunch - we had 3 really nice sea bass tacos - sauteed with a little veg -very tasty and some excellent candied grapefruit scones. Considering that my uncle and I are on the fish taco mission, this was a nice addition.

Oh, I was introduced to a little taste of heaven last night - pecan cream tequila. Let's put it this way, we bought out the guy it is that good! We went for tasters last night and tonight and tonight I managed to get the last bottle (after buying a couple last night). It is so, so yummy!

Tomorrow my aunt, uncle & cousins are heading back to Vancouver :-( and this part of my holiday is coming to an end. I have had a really great time with them and hope to be able to join them again in the future on a holiday. Tomorrow I am going to head into Cabo San Lucas for 2-3 days before heading up to Los Barrilles. When we were there the other day, I realized that it has changed A LOT since I was there 10 years ago, so wouldn't mind to hang out for a bit and check it out. Plus, I want to just lay on the beach and veg. :-)