Tuesday 28th August
I had an early start with the alarm going off at 7:20am (hey, I thought this was a holiday!). My phone had been playing up yesterday so I had decided to use the alarm clock function on my p.c. to wake me. Yesterday I had sent a text to Spare Rib to give him my phone number and received a reply "Great thanks. Sparerib" within a few minutes and then every hour on the hour for the rest of the day. At first I thought it was him pissing around or resending the message by mistake, but I realised that he isn't methodical enough to be able to send the message at exactly 60 minute intervals. Because I had no desire to be kept awake by this SMS glitch I had switched off the phone, so I was very confused when my phone's alarm went off despite it being switched off. A cool bit of functionality that I didn't know it had. Switching off the phone also seemed to clear the SMS problem (though I can't imagine how).
As a result of my trip to the supermarket the previous day I had the makings makings of breakfast I had no way of lighting the gas, so my first job once up and dressed was to pop over to the Oxxo (the Mexican equivalent of a 7-Eleven) just across the road from the hotel and buy a lighter.
After breakfast I carried on with my studying and finished the final chapter and exercises at 9:30am – a quick email check and pack and I walked up and grabbed a taxi from a nearby rank to take me to the Dreams Resort , which turned out to be further out from town in the opposite direction of the downtown area (See the Google Map)
We had gone about a kilometre when I realised I had left my spare set of contact lenses in the bathroom together with the spare contact lens case, so I had to ask the driver to turn round and go back to the hotel so I could pick them up. There was no meter in the cab and we had agreed a price of P$40 for the journey, so I thought an extra P$10 to P$15 should cover the detour. I was surprised and somewhat offended when he asked me for P$80 when we got to Dreams. When I refused to give this to him he called over the doorman and included him in the argument. I eventually gave him P$75 and he was still complaining as I walked away – I said “Get a life, its only P$5” as I went and then reflected that was only 25p and it was perhaps me that should get a life…
Dreams was very swanky and very up-market from my hotel. Down by the pool I saw someone getting some scuba kit ready, so I guessed he must be Jorge. I went over and introduced myself and he introduced me to Victor a young chap who would be assisting Jorge as he was taking his instructors exam next week. Jorge was only about 5 foot tall, around 40 years old and very powerfully built. He seemed like a nice guy. He started off by telling me that I had to do a swimming test. I said "OK", and he then pointed to some rocks about a mile away and said "Off you go" – when my jaw dropped he laughed and told me his was kidding. We were then a little distracted for a while by a huge cricket with amazing red wings – Jorge told everyone it was a hybrid between a butterfly and a cricket. I got a couple of photos of it before it crawled off.
The diving in the pool covered all the Confined Water Diving exercises, so it was pretty intense. I was generally pleased with how much I remembered from the manual and annoyed at how difficult I found some of the tasks in the pool. Breathing with a scuba tank is surprisingly odd, but I did eventually get used to it and relaxed. I had problem with cramp too, but otherwise most things were OK. I kept on getting my left and right confused and acted as if I was using a snorkel (which is wrong) but they were both polite about my mistakes and they took me through all of the four pool based units in one go. We went into the pool about 11am and got out at after 1pm. By the time it was all over I was busting for a pee! After getting out of the pool, peeing (in that order), changing and taking a few photos of a huge butterfly
Victor gave me the paperwork for the two boat trips (for the Open Water Diving) and then Jorge and I took a taxi back into town so I could sit my exam. He took me downtown and showed me a nice restaurant where I had lunch – he said he was busy and as I wanted to revise before the exams he was going to give me after lunch I didn’t invite him to join me. I had steak with guacamole and tortilla and two beers as I did my last minute cramming.
After an hour I went out and found Jorge manning a small tourist stall just round the corner. I joined him behind the counter and we went through the answers I had written at the end of each chapter of the PADI dive book and then he gave me an exam after reviewing my answers . He was very pleased with me and my ability to answer the incredibly easy multiple-choice questions. As I hadn’t got a set dive tables (RDP) with my book (something I should have got) he quickly showed me how to use them and then tested me on their use. After all that I then had a final exam that covered all the chapters. I got 4 out of 50 questions wrong, and 2 were because of simple errors (I ticked the wrong box). He was very impressed with me, not only because of my mental ability (which pleased me), but also because of my age (groan).
It was 4:30pm when I finished; I walked back to the room (about a kilometer) and made myself a cup of coffee and wrote up these notes. It was raining (for a change) when I finished at 7:30pm, so I didn’t go far for supper and ended up just around the block at a very swanky Italian restaurant. I passed this place no matter where I was giing and on one corner it has a timeshare sales booth where, every time I walk past the salesman greets me like an old friend and tries to get me to stop and talk to him – I always tell him I am busy, and this seems to satisfy him. Vallarta has a lot of these guys, but they aren’t as pushy as the ones in the Costa del Sol – at least they don’t chase you down the street. Anyway the pizza was very good but as the wine was a king’s ransom I accompanied it by beer, and then I went straight back to the room as tomorrow is a big day - my first Open Water dive!
Wednesday 29th August 2007
I had to be at the Maritime Pier which is at the other end of the town, and close to the airport for 8:30, so I set the alarm for 7am. After a hasty breakfast and a very careful pack of the rucksack, putting my all important PADI Diving book on the top, I grabbed a cab around the corner from the same taxi rank as yesterday. The ride took about 20 minutes so I arrived at about 8:20am and after paying the government tax of P$15 (75p) I found the Vallarta Adventures Scuba dive booth unmanned, so I had a little time to look around.
A huge Carnival Cruises liner (Carnival Pride) was docked and there were dozens of tours setting off as well including the Pirate Cruise, so there was a Capt. Jack Sparrow impersonator jumping out at everyone who entered. I also spotted what at first I assumed to be someone in a seal costume greeting the visitors to the port; to my surprise, on a second look I realised it was the real thing!
Once the booth opened I was quickly checked in, though I did once again have to sign my life away with waivers, and was labelled with a wristband to show that I was a diver and was told to go and wait on the jetty for the boat to Las Caletas, a small cove at the south end of the bay. In the line I identified a group of Hashers checking in to go to Callatas too – I started chatting to them in the queue and found that they were from the ‘Music City Hash’ – Memphis Tennessee. I stopped and posed with the seal and received a very whiskey kiss from it after my photo had been taken.
Boat IV, our imaginatively named boat arrived dead on time (9am) and we were under way very quickly. My fellow hashers chose to sit in the sun on the upper deck. I decided to sit in the shade downstairs and to do a bit of last minute revision. Before long the boat’s crew put on a show for everyone on board and a scratch breakfast was handed out. I had a banana, but there was coffee and croissants too. I then was called over by the Dive Master to the back of the boat. He was a muscular young Mexican with improbably blond long hair in a ponytail. He introduced himself as Roger and my dive buddy as Carissa. She turned out to be a Spanish speaking 18-year old student New York.
Roger said the first test was for us to prepare our equipment so we attached the BCD to the tank, the regulator to the tank and then I couldn’t get the low pressure line attached to the BCD – a problem I had had the day before – my fingers aren’t strong enough, so I switched regulators with Carissa who had no problems with mine and vice versa. We both passed the test, though there was a moment of panic when Carissa couldn’t blow here BCD up. It turn out that a valve on the back was stuck open – once closed the vest inflated and we were allowed to take the equipment off and to return to our seats. As we approached our destination I was stunned to see a large parrot flying around – only when it started to circle the boat as we docked did I realise it was part of the act. The divers were told to stay on the jetty as the rest of the passengers made for the beach based entertainment.
There were about 6 experienced divers who quickly set off in a boat somewhere, Carissa and myself as qualifying divers and about a dozen first timers as well as 4 dive masters and a guy with an underwater video camera. We were briefed (at length, all I wanted to do was get in) and then kitted up. We entered the water just by the boat down a simple flight of steps. Almost immediately everyone started saying ‘Ouch’ – the water was full of microscopic jellyfish that gave a little sting like a nettle. Fortunately these little ‘Pica’ only occupied the top metre or so of the water.
Roger took Carissa and me away from the others and we went through the 5-point descent routine and then Roger and I descended down the rope – about 2 metres down I suddenly felt a touch of panic as I was breathing underwater and I felt rather claustrophobic. My rational side cut in and I decided not to panic and pressed on down the rope. The visibility wasn’t very good but nevertheless there was of fish plenty to watch as I knelt on the bottom of the sea while Roger escorted Carissa down. Roger then signalled to us that we were to wait while he helped the total novices down.
It was a little scary down there and there was quite a current so we linked arms and waited. After about 5 minutes everyone was down and Roger signalled us to follow him – not as easy as it sounds as the novices were all over the place and I got kicked in the head quite a few times. On top of that I was finding despite my initial worries during the buoyancy check on the surface that I didn’t have enough weight and had a lot of problems staying down having to blow out a lot of air to keep myself from drifting upwards. We were taken down to 60ft and shown around. It was annoying to have the ‘virgins’ there as they kept on getting in the way but there was a lot to see including puffer fish, stone fish, sergeant fish, loads of morays, some things that looked like seasnakes, but turned out to be a form of eel as well as starfish, and coral. We were down for 45 minutes. Towards the end of the dive I was worried to find my air was getting low – I was really tearing my way through it, and only had 600psi left by the end Roger took me up (the minimum should be 1000psi).
Back on the dock the novices were let go to play on the beach as Roger briefed Carissa and me on our next dive that was to include putting our kit on in the water, regulator removal and retrieval underwater, mask filling and emptying underwater, and a buddy breathing ascent. Roger agreed that I needed more weight and added another 3lbs to the 9lbs already on my weight belt (Carissa only needed 6lbs to keep down). The second dive went very quickly and the exercises were a breeze. The extra weight meant that I sank like a stone but I was now feeling very confident with the odd sensation of breathing through a regulator at the bottom of the sea.
We fulfilled all the required PADI manoeuvres without any problems and then had a very pleasant swim around. I noticed Roger collecting something off the bottom of the sea as we went along. When we got back to the surface I asked him about it and he told me he was rubbish collecting to keep the place clean. After filling in our logbooks we were told we had both passed Open Water Dives 1 and 2 and were told to go and get something to eat from the excellent buffet being served on the beach as we had finished diving for the day.
Here is a little movie of the boat trip and a bit of the dive staring amongst others, me!
I raced over and grabbed a celebratory beer and found my fellow hashers and joined them for a much needed lunch and a lot of beer and cocktails. I had a shower and then small explore after lunch before finding the Hashers on the beach. Las Calletas is very pretty with a series of sandy coves backed by jungle. As well as a bar and restaurant there was also a small aviary with a collection of parrots.
It was all very pretty with a small stream running through the middle of it all. Aparently it all used to belong to John Houston
Almost as soon as I joined my new friends on the beach it was time to head back for the boat. I chatted to the hashers on the amazingly short trip back and agreed to buy the DVD of the dive from the underwater photographer. Worryingly he recommended I picked it up at the airport on the day of departure (a week away) – I was sure I would forget it.
Once we berthed back at PV I picked up and paid for my photo with the sea lion and then I walked with my fellow hashers back to the Krystal Hotel, the venue for the IAH07, which was only a couple of blocks away. I went through to the registration room, and as there was only a short queue registered and picked up my goodie bag and tee-shirt. EZ Over and Spare Rib were there but both were too busy to talk much so I explored the hotel for a while.
The place was already filling up with Hashers – a circle was being conducted in the pool, but I didn’t find anyone else I knew, though I heard that Satan’s ‘Lill Helper was around. I decided to head back to my hotel. I walked down the road to Starbucks rather than picking up a cab at the hotel as my paranoia (incorrectly as it turned out later) that I would be charged a premium there. On the way back I got the cab to slow down as we passed Jorge’s stall and said a quick hello to him as I passed, promising to drop by soon. Back at the room I relaxed taking a few photos and read my diving manual until it was time for dinner.
I was pretty tired after the day’s exertions and as a good sunset was in the offing I decided on dinner on beach at the posh restaurant next door. The service was splendid as was the view over the ocean. The food was good too, if expensive and in rather small ‘nouvelle cuisine’ portions, the crème brûlée was the size of credit card, but the sunset was magnificent!
Afterwards I walked to the other side of my hotel to a much more modest bar-restaurant for a coffee and a huge brandy and listened to the live band for a while. Still not ready for bed I then walked to the end of the short pier that my room overlooks and watched the night fishermen. It was a real family event. Mothers, children, and fathers all fishing away with nets, rods and hand held lines. I didn’t see any big fishes caught but all the tiddlers were used as bait. It was really nice to be the only non-Mexican and to see something so different from my everyday life.
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