Aruba 2021
Day 10: Thursday, August 5
Going deep, green monsters and lots of wilds
Up at 6:30am this morning for some reason. I guess I was craving some of that ice cold cooking pot pop. I had a lot to look forward too this morning. :D
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We hung out most of the morning doing next to nothing. French Toast was on the agenda for breakfast and Sakari's nose knew it and showed up on que as always.
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On today's agenda was....scuba diving! I was excited but yet nervous. After my fiasco in Cozumel last vacation (on the first dive) I wasn't really sure how I would react this time (although I did redeem myself with a second dive that time). I was really hoping it was just a freak reaction and I wouldn't have a repeat this time. I know how much my family loves diving and I didn't want to let them down. I was trying hard not to over think this situation. I think the hubby knew that I was nervous but trying not to show it.
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Sakari went off to create a drawing while we were killing time.
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Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out what to do with myself for the remaining hours before we leave. I wanted something to occupy the space in my brain that was starting to make me nervous. I think I was starting to make myself somewhat sick to my stomach. I laid down on the couch in the living room and I managed to drift off to sleep. Well, I guess that pretty much passed the time away. Thank goodness I had told Sakari what time we were leaving, otherwise...we wouldn't have made it in time.
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She came in and woke me up and we headed out (I had already packed the car with everything we would need for the day) at 1pm.
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Today we were diving MANGEL HALTO with Happy Divers. So I searched before coming here and got pricing and I specifically requested Mangel Halto just for the fact that we did the seabob's here last time and I know this reef is absolutely amazing! That is the reason why I wasn't too upset about not getting to snorkel the big reef when we were here the other day. We were going to get to see it all today...up close and personal. Happy Divers was one of the few that said they dive at Mangel Halto, and the price was good. I had also seen Happy Divers there previously and knew they went there.
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So we get there and there's another family going diving. There were 2 instructors and we really clicked with the girl (Lisa) instructor. We were talking about how many times we have done this and how often we go. Of course we got the "you should get certified" like we always do. I know, I know...I also told her about my injury and showed her and let them know that I wouldn't be able to carry the tank to the water. She said "no worries, we will take it to the water for you".
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They did the briefing, went over the hand signals and skills and we were almost ready to hit the water. I wasn't feeling anxious at this point and I was happy about that.
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As they started passing out the wetsuits, fins and mask the hubby decided his long hair was going to be an issue. We fixed him right up!
Everyone headed down to the water and Lisa geared up on both sides. Yes, she was carrying her tank on her back and carrying my tank on her front. She was a superwoman! How does she carry all that weight??? Geesh!
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After she got it into the water, she still drug it all the way out there before she had me put it on. I mean I could have drug it out there myself but she said she would do it. How nice!
Ok, it was time to put my bcd on and do our skills in the water. I was feeling confident at this point. Nothing was going to go wrong! Please don't let anything go wrong!
We completed our skills with no problems. But, I was having difficulty with staying down. So, they kept having to add more and more weights to my belt. I also couldn't get my bcd to deflate all the way so the instructor put the weights in and deflated me.
The water kept pushing us toward the other family. It was pretty wavy out today. The other family took some time to complete their skills. We had to stand around and wait on them. So of course that meant picture time.
Sakari took a picture too. Hey at least she didn't forget she had a camera in her hand. They hubby was armed with the GoPro. He always managed to get good video's so I figured that's his job on this adventure again.
The other family finally completed their skills and it was time to head out. But...we ended up getting the male instructor instead of Lisa. I was really hoping we would get her. I turned to Sakari and said "Now you know how to change the settings on your camera right?" She gives me this look and I said "Oh, I know you know but I'm just double checking because I know you like to switch between macro and underwater". Then off we went.
There was lots of sand. Where's that reef??? How long does it take to get there??
I ran across the Goby family all standing guard at their station.
Sakari was busy taking her macro/close up shots of everything around her.
Now remember I ask her about the settings on the camera? Well, she assured me that she knew which setting to put everything on. According to the pictures she took...she FORGOT!!! They all turned out so bad. On the newer camera she has, there is a setting within the underwater setting that is macro. Well, she was putting on just macro, which is for land. They turned out so horribly green that they are basically unfixable. I tried to take the green out of the pictures so you could at see them, but they look terrible. I'm going to share them anyhow. She did work hard on them and I know they would have been fabulous had they been on the right setting. :( I corrected them the best I can.
