WOOT!

You are reading the blog of an official PADI Divemaster! Yay me!

More details when I have time but...

WOOT!

Thank god for the sushi place with wireless access. I can catch up while my sushi is being made.

January 8th was the Neptunes anniversary and Jorge (the owner) decided to do a trip up to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate. Only Jules, Melissa, Kiel, Treasure, Loren and I decided to go along with Mariano, Jorge and a couple of the office girls. Mariano took all the interns in the scuba limo and after the requisite stop at Kiosko for some New Mix and beer, we all set off for the five hour trip to PV.

The ride through the hills of Mexico was beautiful. There are so many little towns along the way (with accompanying speed bumps -- the "topes" inspired a drinking game). We were playing music in the van and we had a grand old time all the way to PV.

Puerto Vallarta is a much larger city than Manzanillo is and it is much more of a tourist destination. I was so surprised (and a little dismayed) that there were SO MANY WHITE PEOPLE. Everyone spoke English and it was such a departure from our sleepy little town that it was a bit of a culture shock. I wonder how I will react to going back to the States...

Once settled into our hotel, Jorge treated us out to lunch and then we all went to this nice bar on the beach. There are SO many vendors that peddle their wares to the tourists. We got sucked in with all the rest of them and ended up with ponchos (Loren bought me the cutest pink one!) and a blanket. We went back to the hotel and all got ready to go out for a nice night out.

Manzanillo is not really a dress up place so it was a good change to get all prettied up and go out to a good club. We started out at a place called Zoo, where Kiel and Thunder got rejected so much that we started calling them Crash and Burn. Then we went over to Senor Frogs, where Kiel put on a very, very entertaining display of drunken dancing. Loren and I stumbled back to our room at 4 in the morning.

The next day, we went shopping (yay!) and I got a great silver scuba diver pendant and necklace and I bought Loren a silver wave ring, which he loves. It was fun bartering with the salespeople, especially when they asked where we are from and we answered "Manzanillo." We "convinced" them that we were Mexican and they were a little more open with us. We had a lot of fun with them.

We met the boys and Mariano at a beach bar called Burros. I almost peed my pants when we found out that they were at a "donkey" bar. They weren't really but they were at this great beach bar where they were having a two for one happy hour. It was AWESOME! We did get the bad news that we were stuck in Vallarta because the van was having problems. I was bummed that we wouldn't be getting back because my schedule was so tight with Divemaster but it was also another night to have fun in PV.

We went out again to the Zoo and a place called Hilo. The Tequila Girls loved me at Hilo, especially after this stranger bought me four shots of tequila on the floor. The girl just kept feeding me shots and shaking my head all around. Jules and I danced on the bar and we had a really great time.

The van was fixed by Thursday so we got to go home but the ride home was much different than the energy filled ride up...we all slept on the way home.

Last week, I officially declared myself for the February IDC. With that declaration, everything changed. I need 40 more dives to take the Instructor Exam and I am still completing all of my Divemaster requirements. I finished my DM classes on Friday and next week is all graded skills, dives and my stamina test. I will do my written exams on Friday. Neptunes has their own Divemaster exam that we have to take to make sure we are ready for the PADI exam. I hear that it is tougher than the PADI exam AND we have to get an 85% on it, as opposed to the 75% required for the PADI exam. Neptunes expects their divemasters and instructors to be better than the norm. That's great because I like being the best of the best but it is intimidating all at the same time.

We had a crazy night last night, taking our homemade beer bong (aptly named Billy Bongski) to Bora's. I was barmaster last night, couriering the bong around to any table that wanted to use it -- fun that needs no translation. I met some American guys from Minnesota that were happy to talk football with me. They disappeared very suddenly when Loren came out to make sure I was okay. He tells me they weren't interested in talking football. Boys are funny that way...

We all chilled on the beach today, dodging in and out of the waves that SMASH on the beach by the girls house. These things are thick and heavy and they break fiercely on the shore. I time my entries and exits very carefully but the boys just mash their way through. I was sitting on the beach, reading when Loren pointed out the humpbacks that were breaching in the bay. They were a ways off but it was awesome watching them...

Sushi just showed up and then back home to study....

Mexican Diet

It`s never a bad thing when someone who hasn´t seen you in a couple of weeks runs into you on the street and says "You`ve lost a lot of weight!!" I guess all of this walking, swimming and hauling of tanks is finally starting to pay off. I have noticed my clothes getting looser but it was nice to hear someone else say it.


Stress may have something to do with it also. I officially declared myself for the Instructor Development Course that starts on Feb 11. I haven´t completed my divemaster course yet so I am simultaneously working on that and prepping for IDC. It is kind of crazy but I thrive best under pressure so I think I am handling it pretty good. Loren is being really supportive of me and is helping me get through it. He is really being a trooper because I can be grumpy when I am stressed. He is waiting to do IDC in March so he can get more experience and this way, we`ll be able to take care of each other as we do our respective IDC`s. It`ll be nice to have someone to cook for the other and do their laundry!


Decompression theory class starts soon, so I will have to write more later...especially about our whirlwind trip to Puerto Vallarta and our new housing arrangements!

We have had a ton of time off over the last two weeks, three days for Christmas and three days for New Years. Peter´s dad passed away the day after Christmas so he and Eric left the day after that and our class went from four to three.

We were only three for a day before Melissa and Juliana, two American girls that met while studying abroad in Australia, decided to get away from Chicago and Pittsburgh respectively and joined us in Manzanillo. These girls are a BLAST. We were instant friends and now are inseparable. We have been having so much fun, partying it up on the beach for New Years. There was a crazy ass Mexican lighting BIG fireworks (with his cigarette!!) off right next to us on the beach. This was also the night that Jo Treasure (his real name!) joined us from Australia. I immediately dubbed him Thunder (as in Thunder from Down Under) and we proceeded to get hammered together. It was awesome.

We started classes up again on Thursday, with Thursday morning being my first dive acting as a Divemaster. It was a little unnerving being in charge of getting the boat loaded and doing the briefing for our five clients but I think that I managed it. We dove Elefante and I assisted Kalen with skills for our Open Water referral and our one Advanced Student. Matt, the OW diver, and I played catch with one of my golf balls while we waited to Kalen to teach Matt`s older brother, Eddie, how to tie knots. They were really great guys and we had a lot of fun diving.

We did our second dive at the the wreck. Viz was pretty bad but we still managed to see a couple of eels and rays. The guys had fun and that was all that mattered.

Oh and did I forget to mention that...

WE SAW WHALES!!!!

Oh yes, not underwater, it was on the way out and on the way back but the humpbacks are migrating through our bay and they were coming up for air and flipping their tales all around us. When we were diving at Elefante, you could hear them singing. It was SOOOOOOOOO awesome.

We had class later on where we reviewed the areas we could improve on as DM`s (like we didn´t carry enough weight) but overall, I think everything went well.

This morning, we went out to Horses Ear, where Kiel and Kalen saw an eagle ray (lucky ducks) and we went to Huapan, where Kiel and Nathan saw a couple of sharks. The whales were singing again, closer than they were yesterday. It is so peaceful to swim around, checking out the scenery while the whales sing in the background. Jules and Melissa are so much fun, making jokes on the surface and we have some pretty creative signs underwater that crack all of us up.


Well, it`s time for class again so I better sign off. Hasta luego...