Turtle, Juvenille Spotted Drum, Jen’s Boobs

So that basically sums up what we saw on our dives today.

To All Those Who…(aka, Adventures In Diving)

This is a “prove you wrong” entry. This particular entry will be To All Those Who think diving is scary, to those who think fish are boring, and to all those who think there are better things to do above water, this entry is to remind you what you’re missing, that you’re an idiot, that diving can be fun.

To All Those Who think fish are boring, let me introduce you to Mr Razor Fish. Despite his name, he does not have sharp teeth or anything. The big males are about 4 inches long, and the rest around 2.5-3 inches. They’re white with a black line down the center of them, and they chill out in sand patches. Katherine (my Advanced instructor) told me to sift up some sand and see what happens. So, I did.

This quickly progressed into one of the most fun dives I’ve ever had.

These little fish are not at all afraid of you, and they’re super curious as to what you’re digging up in the sand. Because these little guys find their own food in the sand  they think that you’re digging up food of some sort, and they want in on that. So it only takes about, oh, I don’t know, 2-3 seconds of sifting sand for about 10-15 of them to literally SWARM your hand. And they’re not shy–they’ll be jabbing and pecking at your hand, (it kind of tickles) to get at the food, and the big ones let you touch them get very close to them. Don’t touch fish, that’s irresponsible. But, hypothetically, you COULD touch the big razor fish because they’re so comfortable around you (either that or they’re too narrow minded focused on getting at whatever you’re digging.) Imagine a litter of puppies, and they all want to lick your hand, so they’re stepping over each other, fighting to get to your hand. It’s like that, only they’re fish.

To All Those Who Think Sharks Are Evil… let me introduce you to Mr Remora. He’s a shark sucker (latches on to sharks and cleans them) and they’re the most f–king fun things you’ll ever swim with. Because these things aren’t scared of you at all. (Under normal circumstances that might be considered a negative trait in a shark, but not these guys.) The one we ran into (the same one Meghan tried to stab with her knife, that horrible person (http://www.therays.ca/meghan/?p=89) Full grown remora’s (as this one was) are about 3 feet long, and they’re super playful. This one found us near the end of our dive and spent a good ten minutes swimming around us, rubbing up against our legs and biting our hair that had floated out from under our masks. It didn’t hurt at all, it was just kind of startling. He paid no heed to us trying to shoo him away, letting us touch him as we steered him away from our masks (he wanted those too.) After a good amount of time playing with him, and he showed no signs of leaving, we decided to get onto the boat. As we were making our way up, the remora made a grab at Raz ’s(our freelancing dive instructor for this dive) hair. However, his hair is very short….and the remora ended up grabbing his ear. There were a few bite marks, but Raz said it didn’t hurt and the remora was completely uninterested in eating his ear–he just wanted his hair. These guys are like little kittens–they just want to play, goof around and knead your hair.

To All Those Who say that fish are too shy to get close to…I’m going to tell you about the Nassau Grouper I ran into on my dive today. It was a shame I didn’t have my camera with me, because this fish just wanted to have his picture taken. He was about 2 feet long; a very substantial fish. And as I floated down to look at him, he just wanted to know what was going on with me, so he swam right up to me and stuck his nose right in my face. He was wary, of course, but I made no move to touch him, so he became comfortable with me, and swam along with me for a minute or so. He was very friendly, and just curious as to what I was doing in his backyard.

And finally, To All Those Who say fish are ugly, you’re obviously never swam with Spotted Eagle Ray’s before. These things are absolutely gorgeous. They have a wing span of around 8ft, and a total length, including the tail, of maximum 16ft. They’re dark gray or black on their backs with white spots all over them. Their bellies are white. And when they go by, I swear you’ve never seen anything quite like it–they’re amazingly beautiful, graceful and just….serene. Go look them up, they’re amazing.

And that’s that. The ocean is an amazing place, where crazy, wonderful, fantastic things happen. Scuba diving is the experience to see things that snorkeling will never let you see. Go get signed up, get your license–I swear you won’t regret it.

Tags: Diving, eagle ray, fish

Bring you all up to speed…

Alright, here’s the deal: some ground rules, and what’s been going on for the last week.

Rules:

• I make up words. Deal with it.
• I speak in sound effects.
• I will post when I feel like it and not a minute sooner.

Uh. I think that’s it. Alright, here we go…

I arrived in Utila last Friday, mid evening-ish. Been diving since. And the diving has been fantastic–the water is clear (you can see 60ft easily) and very warm–I go down in my bathing suit only. The weather has been fine, except for one day of rain, and last night we had a MONSTROUS storm. Lighting, thunder, torrential rain that lasted over an hour. It was fantastic.

Everyone is really nice here, very friendly. There’s a “shop dog” named Cloe, this super cute mutt that can smell food a mile away and track it down. And will stare at you so cutely that you will be FORCED to give it to her. She’s a really sweet dog….except for this one guy. We don’t know why, but there is one guy that Cloe absolutely hates. He walks into the room and she runs him out, barking and growling at him. It’s so funny.

Story time! So Meghan really, really wanted a kitten. But, she didn’t know where to get one. So she went to this one girl in the dive shop (who basically knows everyone on the island) and asked her if she knew anyone who was trying to get rid of a kitten. The girl immediately grabbed her cell phone and this conversation ensued in Spanish…but it was very easy to translate:

Hessa: *someone on the other line picks up* We need a cat. Now. (pause) No. Now. Okay. Good. Yes, break in. (laughs) No, no a girl cat. (covers phone speaker) (to Meghan) Do you care what colour? No? (back to phone) No, any colour. But a girl. Okay. Good.  (hangs up) (To Meghan) He’s coming now. He just has to break into his neighbors house to take a kitten.

…….yes, you read that right. He literally stole a kitten.

So now we have a kitten. She’s mostly white with an orange head and ears and an orange spot on her back and orange striped tail. She’s super super cute and very small (you can hold her in one hand) and she’s basically stole the hearts of everyone in the shop, except for Talia. (Talia’s excuse was a)she’s a dog person, and b) she says that SOMEONE has to hate the cat, because if everyone loves it then it’s head will get big.) Her name is Tila (pronounced TEE-lah) after “Utila”. Some other names were suggested (we wanted it to be dive-related) such as Bubbles, FP (for Fin Pivot) and Starbord. I think we’ve settled on Tila. She’s very needy…wants to be held all the time, or given food. And if you don’t do that, she’ll mew at you, and its so cute. She’s also a parrot cat. She likes to sit on your shoulder.

So thats what’s been up so far…if anything else comes to mind, I’ll let you all know.

Tags: arrival, Diving, Kitten, Utila