I'm not really a "vacation" kind of guy. I rarely take them and when I do, it's usually a long weekend. Call me a slave to the grind. Call me a pathetic homebody who misses his kitchen and his kitty after only a few days away. Whatever. If my latest vacation is any indication, however, things are going to change.
I just spent a glorious week in Roatan, Hoduras scubadiving my ass off. Seventeen dives in 6 days; usually three dives a day, although one day we went all aggro and did four. I can't overstate how much fun this all was.
We did two night dives, which were spectacular. During both, the dive master took us to the bottom and had us turn out our lights. After a few moments, we were surrounded by bio-luminescence, like a swarm of fireflies underwater. It was like sitting in a planetary, only the stars were microscopic organisms; absolutely beautiful.
We also did several deep dives, including one into a spot called "Hole In The Wall" that descends to some 300 feet. We stopped right around 140 feet, some of us staying shallower (i.e., me at 134), others going deeper (Susan and Marti at 139 and 150ish respectively). Always warm, always safe, always beautiful. One of these deep dives was the wreck of the Odyssey, which was sunk about 5 years ago. The ship was in great shaped, lying on its side at about 110 feet. We actually did a swim-thru of it, which was awesome.
Most of the shallower dives involved playing in and amongst the coral: canyons, swim-thrus, and overhangs; quite the adventure. We also did some drift diving, although it was more like "surge diving", as the current would pick us up, move us a few feet and then swing back the other way; like being rocked in your mother's arms.
It did rain quite a bit while we were there, but we were underwater most of the time anyway. It was also warm the entire time, so I didn't mind too much. Our cabin was right on the ocean, so we got to see some of the wonderful effects of the weather, as you can see here:
wavey and
rainy (taken right outside our house).
Susan also continues to come into her own as a diver. She's logged damned near an entire day's bottom time and is getting more and more comfortable all the time. She even followed my lead on the second night dive and turned out her dive light, content to follow those of our companions. Her buoyancy is awesome and she can go an hour on a single tank (something I couldn't do for a LONG time; much longer than it's taken her). I envision bunches of dive trips for us, both with company and without.
I did not take any pictures except for the above videos. Both Marti and Wouk, however, were quite the shutterbugs, so once I get their photos, I'll post a link to them here.
I want to go again right away, though.
Undersea sonic systems:
Armin Van Buuren -
Shivers(in da club!)
Mark Pistel -
Pistel(Consolidated honcho rips off Jack)
KMD -
Black Bastards(the nascent MF Doom)
The Red Chord -
Fused Together In Revolving Doors(take your head off faster than Barzan Hassan's)
Bong-Ra -
Soldaat Van Oranje(breakcore on the floor)
