Today, I'm in San Pedro Sula for the day
Aug. 12th, 2010 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wispfoxYesterday, there were two more dives, and an exam, and certification happened. A card will arrive at home in a few weeks.
Y'know, one of the major reasons that I wanted to learn to scuba is because I imagined that it is as close as I can get to flying under my own power. I don't think I was mistaken in this, although I certainly didn't understand _how_ one moves under water. I suspect that I may start having my flying dreams involve going up by inhaling, and going down by exhaling (deeper and shallower having different effects, and a slight delay meaning that it's fairly control-able even for someone with four dives to their name).
I do, of course, also want to be able to see sea creatures in their natural environment, which is just plain neat. And I'm more able to look around, although I don't yet have enough control to go in close to things to look at them (trying to do so when the instructor was pointing something out in one instance involved me inhaling myself into a fire coral. Yes, it does feel like you've been burned, but it's not dangerous and you can't even see where it happened).
People were talking about some of the extremely stupid things people sometimes do around animals under water. For example, while it's true that Nurse Sharks are very docile (pet-able, sometimes, docile), don't grab one by the tail! They apparently can bite their one tail if necessary. Don't feed any animal, in or out of the water, something which looks _anything_ like fingers or thumbs. Just don't. Especially if they have poor eyesight. Don't step on things (if you're walking along the bottom, shuffle your feet; this allows things to know you are there and get out of the way). Don't touch things (if you need balance and you know something is a rock, move water around the rock _before_ you touch it. Many creatures are very good at camouflage, but they don't want to be near you any more than you want to be touching them).
People are absurd sometimes. I mean, ok, many of these things might not be immediately obvious. But grabbing the tail of something that can bite (even if it can't puncture the skin)? Seriously?
This morning, I flew into San Pedro Sula from Utila, at 6am. A bit tired, me. Am at the B&B I booked from home, which sent someone to come get me from the airport, and will be bringing me back tomorrow at 4:30am for my 7a flight to the states. Going to go check out the local market for interesting handcrafts and maybe a hat which isn't disintegrating. La!
Y'know, one of the major reasons that I wanted to learn to scuba is because I imagined that it is as close as I can get to flying under my own power. I don't think I was mistaken in this, although I certainly didn't understand _how_ one moves under water. I suspect that I may start having my flying dreams involve going up by inhaling, and going down by exhaling (deeper and shallower having different effects, and a slight delay meaning that it's fairly control-able even for someone with four dives to their name).
I do, of course, also want to be able to see sea creatures in their natural environment, which is just plain neat. And I'm more able to look around, although I don't yet have enough control to go in close to things to look at them (trying to do so when the instructor was pointing something out in one instance involved me inhaling myself into a fire coral. Yes, it does feel like you've been burned, but it's not dangerous and you can't even see where it happened).
People were talking about some of the extremely stupid things people sometimes do around animals under water. For example, while it's true that Nurse Sharks are very docile (pet-able, sometimes, docile), don't grab one by the tail! They apparently can bite their one tail if necessary. Don't feed any animal, in or out of the water, something which looks _anything_ like fingers or thumbs. Just don't. Especially if they have poor eyesight. Don't step on things (if you're walking along the bottom, shuffle your feet; this allows things to know you are there and get out of the way). Don't touch things (if you need balance and you know something is a rock, move water around the rock _before_ you touch it. Many creatures are very good at camouflage, but they don't want to be near you any more than you want to be touching them).
People are absurd sometimes. I mean, ok, many of these things might not be immediately obvious. But grabbing the tail of something that can bite (even if it can't puncture the skin)? Seriously?
This morning, I flew into San Pedro Sula from Utila, at 6am. A bit tired, me. Am at the B&B I booked from home, which sent someone to come get me from the airport, and will be bringing me back tomorrow at 4:30am for my 7a flight to the states. Going to go check out the local market for interesting handcrafts and maybe a hat which isn't disintegrating. La!
