Scuba Diving Cancun

Every time I travel somewhere new (near the ocean) I always try to go scuba diving. Nobody I was with was certified, but somehow I was able to convince them all to do discover scuba. I'm so thankful they were all adventurous enough to give scuba diving a try. I don't know how much they all liked it, but I had a blast. I LOVED it.

We had 2 dives. The first dive was at an underwater museum. It was my first time diving at an underwater museum... which was pretty cool. I don't think there are many of those in the world. Maybe 3? So that was fun.

The second dive was at a reef near Isla Mujeres. It was beautiful and I was lucky enough to see a Sea Turtle. I was the only one out of the group that got to see it and get my picture with it because I was one of the first ones down because I was the certified one... so they liked me going first... and because I was the certified one, I didn't have to wait for everyone to get down to the bottom of the ocean in order to explore around a little bit. So... lucky me! It was a beautiful and colorful dive. It was choppy at the surface, but underwater is peaceful and beautiful and relaxing. One of the reasons I love scuba diving so much is because you feel weightless and float while taking in this new world that not many people see and all you hear is your own deep breathing. Scuba diving is a pretty amazing experience. I love it.

Scuba Diving the USS Liberty - Bali, Indonesia

When we got to Bali, I knew that I wanted to go scuba diving. I hadn't researched the diving there, so we just figured we would go to a dive shop and see what our options were. We had the option of scuba diving with Manta Ray's which would have been awesome... OR a ship wreck dive... which would take a bit longer to get to, but it was cheaper than the other one. Plus, I had never done a ship wreck dive before, so we decided to dive at the ship wreck. I am SO glad we did. I had no idea, but the ship wreck was the USS Liberty.

USAT Liberty was a US Army cargo ship torpedoed by Japanese submarine on January 1942 and beached on the island of Bali. She had been built as a Design 1037 ship for the US shipping Board in World War I and had served in the US Navy in that war as animal transport USS Liberty. In 1963 a volcanic eruption moved the ship off the beach and Liberty's wreck is now a popular dive site. Here is what the ship looked like before it sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

This is what it looks like under the ocean to us divers. Although sadly I don't think I saw the gun.

Here are some pictures from our dive exploring the wreck. The pictures don't do it justice. It's so much cooler in person. There is so much life living in this wreck. There was so much to look at while we explored in and around the ship wreck. The biggest tropical fish I have ever seen, beautiful coral all while taking in the experience of swimming through and around a ship wreck. Hands down, this rates #1 on favorite dives.

We saw a Barracuda and these eels, which at first I thought were some kind of seaweed because the way they stick out of the sand.

Also spotted a sting ray.

I found this cute sea turtle and hung out with him for a little bit.

I just loved everything about this dive. I hope this will not be the last ship wreck dive that I do.

Swimming with Whale Sharks

One of the main reasons we went to Oslob in Cebu, Philippines is because we knew that is where we could scuba dive with Whale Sharks. The thought of that scared me at first (even though I badly wanted to do it) because I know how big Whale Sharks are... or can get. I have seen lots of pictures. They are HUGE. I also know they are called the gentle giants of the ocean... so I knew I would be ok. I have just never been scuba diving with anything that big before... what if it accidentally ran into me or opened it's mouth and swallowed me whole. Yes... I know they eat plankton. Your mind just gets carried away.

We found out as soon as we got to Oslob that we could do it and it wasn't that expensive. We were thrilled. Our only instruction before going on the dive was DON'T TOUCH THE WHALE SHARKS. Seriously... they didn't say scuba instructions as you normally would on a dive... just several different ways of telling us not to touch the sharks. I thought to myself... you don't have to tell me, I don't want to get THAT close to them. However... as soon as I saw them, that was all I wanted to do was get right next to it. And I did. I would just move out of the way as soon as they started coming toward me. It was awesome because when we first started our dive, we were the first scuba divers. There were tons of people snorkeling at the top with the Sharks... but Allison, Ian and I (and our dive master) were the only ones under the ocean with them. THAT was awesome. When we were almost done a TON of divers ended up coming and that was kind of annoying because there were always tons of people around each Whale Shark.

We really lucked out. They are huge beautiful animals. I just loved them. We found out these are the young ones... not even full grown! We had 8 or so of them swimming with us that morning. What an AMAZING experience. I am SO glad that we did this. I have really loved being scuba certified. It adds extra opportunities and fun to my travel adventures.

Scuba Diving Santorini, Greece

Since I am scuba certified, I liked to go scuba diving on my trips, if I can. Usually I am traveling with people who are not scuba certified. Last time I had Daniel get certified before we left... which he did and Ellis ended up coming also and did discover scuba.

When we got to Santorini, Greece... and I saw how clear and blue that water was, I knew I had to scuba dive. Allison was supportive of this. Not only was she supportive of me doing it, but she was willing to do discover scuba and go with me since she is not certified. SO happy that she is so much like me. :)

So as soon as we found a scuba shop, we pulled our ATV over and we went in and signed up. We were going to be going with whoever signed up to go at the same time as us the next day in the afternoon. As it turns out, nobody else signed up to go at that time, so it was just Allison and I. Since she was doing discover scuba, she had to have her own dive master. So either I could go with my own dive master and have a more experienced dive, or I could go with Allison and sit through the crash course with her. I chose to go with Allison. Always more fun to experience scuba diving with your friends. I will never know what I missed on my "more experienced" dive... but the dive I went on with Allison was pretty awesome.

The dive master that took us was a middle aged chatty Greek man that was rolling up a joint before we left the shop. He was pretty "relaxed" (aka high) when he was giving Allison her crash course on how to scuba. I wished he was not so chatty because I just wanted to get in the water and go instead of sit through all of his stories of why you do what you do to scuba. We finally get in the water to start our dive. This was my first dive that was from the shore instead of jumping off a boat in who knows where straight into the deep ocean. It was kind of nice. Nice to ease in instead of jumping right in, especially for Allison who had never done it before and had a high dive master taking her for her first time.

It was nice having it just be the 3 of us. The water was not freezing and the water was beautiful and so clear. The dive was so different than anywhere else I have gone diving (not that I have been diving very many places). That is why it is awesome to dive in different parts of the world, because each dive is so different.  The fish were not as tropical... but I have never been surrounded by so many fish my my entire dive before. It was pretty amazing. Although our dive master was high, he also used to be a videographer, so he took some awesome video and pictures of us on our dive with my GoPro... so that was a major plus.

I love scuba diving. I'm so glad that I decided to get certified and I'm glad that I have been able to use it on my last couple of trips. It's AMAZING! So glad that Allison was willing to go with me. Greece in a cool place above and below the sea.

Scuba Diving Racha Yai

One thing I was excited to do in Thailand was go scuba diving! It's not very often that I get to scuba dive and I had heard that Thailand was one of the top places in the world to do it. I told everyone in the group to get certified before our trip so we could all go. Regardless of what any of them did... I was going. Daniel was the only one that ended up getting certified before we left so we were both pumped to go! Ellis ended up coming with us and doing "Discover Scuba" which is a crash course on scuba diving and you stay with your own Dive Master the whole time (which is why he isn't in many of our pictures. It ended up being a little rainy while we were there, but we were still able to go. We were pumped!

The ride to Racha Yai island (where we were going to be scuba diving) was a couple of hours, but it was beautiful. The water is a beautiful teal color and so clear and the islands are so lush and green with jungles that meet the beach. What a beautiful place.

When we got to Racha Yai, all of our stuff was put in a bag, but we had to put all of our equipment together and get our wetsuits on and then we were ready to get into the water.

Despite the rainy and overcast weather, the water was really warm (70's) and very clear. Daniel and I ended up getting our own Dive Master to show us around the waters of Racha Yai. He was also awesome and took pictures of us and things we saw on our dive. I had my GoPro and got awesome video, but the pictures are not as great... so I'm using our Dive Master's pictures.

We did two different dives and ate lunch in between. Both dives were beautiful, my second dive was a little more comfortable, not only because I was more used to scuba after not going in a year and a half... but also because my mask was tighter so it wasn't leaking the second dive. There was so many beautiful fish! I thought of my cousin's Trav and Dave and their salt water tanks and how some of these fish would be awesome in their tanks. They would have loved it. Here are some of the cool things we saw on our dives.

Daniel and I had a blast... and our Dive Master was awesome. I love scuba diving. Not only is it discovering this new world that hardly anyone sees... but it is so peaceful. There is no talking... the only noise you hear is the sound of your breathing. The slow weightless motion through the water is so relaxing. There are so many interesting things to look at. Scuba Diving is awesome.

Post dive smiles. We are so happy that we went! What an experience!