Utila, Monday
Aug. 9th, 2010 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wispfoxBurns = still painful. No new ones, though, I've succeeded in that. And according to my female roommate, the back looks slightly less red (could have fooled me, but it's harder to look at one's own back). I do aloe it at least 3-5 times a day, which is hopefully helping (more often is difficult, since it requires entirely stripping to do. Also, the bathrooms are _HOT_ when it's not night or very very early morning).
I'm way better with the breathing through my mouth with my nose open to the water, to the point of being able to do the mask clearing (repeatedly, as my mask was a little loose until I fixed it) without much trouble. It still requires significant concentration, and it's really really unpleasant to do the transition from air to water with my mouth (repeatedly mis-typed as 'mouse') used for breathing and my nose not. Breathing out through my nose at that transition helps.
My ability to pop my ears (equalize pressure) is not good enough to do just by swallowing, necessarily. It is enough for planes, but for diving I do apparently need to do the blow gently out my ears trick, at least near the surface. Oddly enough. Also, one starts to need to do that _IMMEDIATELY_ after going below the surface, which is weird to me. I suspect the fact that I always came up before, for reasons of breathing, made that not as apparent as it is now.
Various diver safety & rescue practice accomplished, with a fair bit of book learning (there's a test, y'know). Did a bit of semi-neutral boyancy swimming in the area nearby. 'Semi' because I was still learning the skill, so had some trouble staying at approximately the same depth. :) Saw a fair number of fish of various sizes, as well as what I'm pretty sure was a sea snake. I don't remember if I mentioned, but yesterday we looked at a young lobster which was hiding in a rock. That was neat. Haven't yet seen seahorses, although I'm sure they are around. Ditto for rays.
I was totally under the water on scuba gear for lots of today! Hee. Yay!
Tomorrow, more classwork, and more time under water. Not entirely clear on what specifically is involved with tomorrow, although I bet it involves more boyancy control, among other things.
Saw some crabs in the high tide water near the deck I'm currently sitting on (most of this place is actually deck). Funny side-ways scuttling things!
Pretty sure I saw a non-puffed pufferfish, but I didn't have my camera at the time, for reason of being on my way toward being in the water. I also don't expect to get to use my underwater camera housing, due to no time here after I'm certified. (and trying to use it beforehand seems unwise, and probably not permitted)
And yes, as those who commented last post noted, I am totally having a fabulous time. :)
I would like to come back here again, both to do more diving (and at least the advanced course), and to visit the iguana research center which is sadly not going to be open when I have available time, most likely. I'll ask, but most likely not.
Also, the stars are _AMAZING_ here, and that's even just from the dock. I bet they are even better farther from shore.
I'm way better with the breathing through my mouth with my nose open to the water, to the point of being able to do the mask clearing (repeatedly, as my mask was a little loose until I fixed it) without much trouble. It still requires significant concentration, and it's really really unpleasant to do the transition from air to water with my mouth (repeatedly mis-typed as 'mouse') used for breathing and my nose not. Breathing out through my nose at that transition helps.
My ability to pop my ears (equalize pressure) is not good enough to do just by swallowing, necessarily. It is enough for planes, but for diving I do apparently need to do the blow gently out my ears trick, at least near the surface. Oddly enough. Also, one starts to need to do that _IMMEDIATELY_ after going below the surface, which is weird to me. I suspect the fact that I always came up before, for reasons of breathing, made that not as apparent as it is now.
Various diver safety & rescue practice accomplished, with a fair bit of book learning (there's a test, y'know). Did a bit of semi-neutral boyancy swimming in the area nearby. 'Semi' because I was still learning the skill, so had some trouble staying at approximately the same depth. :) Saw a fair number of fish of various sizes, as well as what I'm pretty sure was a sea snake. I don't remember if I mentioned, but yesterday we looked at a young lobster which was hiding in a rock. That was neat. Haven't yet seen seahorses, although I'm sure they are around. Ditto for rays.
I was totally under the water on scuba gear for lots of today! Hee. Yay!
Tomorrow, more classwork, and more time under water. Not entirely clear on what specifically is involved with tomorrow, although I bet it involves more boyancy control, among other things.
Saw some crabs in the high tide water near the deck I'm currently sitting on (most of this place is actually deck). Funny side-ways scuttling things!
Pretty sure I saw a non-puffed pufferfish, but I didn't have my camera at the time, for reason of being on my way toward being in the water. I also don't expect to get to use my underwater camera housing, due to no time here after I'm certified. (and trying to use it beforehand seems unwise, and probably not permitted)
And yes, as those who commented last post noted, I am totally having a fabulous time. :)
I would like to come back here again, both to do more diving (and at least the advanced course), and to visit the iguana research center which is sadly not going to be open when I have available time, most likely. I'll ask, but most likely not.
Also, the stars are _AMAZING_ here, and that's even just from the dock. I bet they are even better farther from shore.
