Dominican Republic~ day 6

During our snorkel trip, we were on the boat with several scuba divers.  We talked to them about diving and they insisted that if we had never been, we needed to go, what a different experience it was!  Matt was concerned about his ear pressure issues but I was gung-ho and ready to try it!  When we got to shore, we booked a scuba trip for the next morning.

Thursday morning we got up and headed back to ScubaFun to prepare for our scuba diving adventure.  We got our gear and had a simple training on how everything works, what to do in different scenarios, then we were headed out!  It got real when the boat anchored and we started putting on our masks, inflatable vests (BCD), weight belts, tanks and fins!  Holy heck was all that equipment was heavy!

Remember how I was the "gung-ho" one about scuba diving?  Wellllllllll, that all changed once I deflated my vest and starting sinking down into the water.  As soon as my mouth and nose were under the water, I panicked, big time. Our instructor, Sam, helped me get back to the surface where she made sure I was ok.  Just had myself a little freak out, but I knew I could do this.  Sam waited until I was ready, then we went down together, she made me keep my eyes locked on hers and helped me stay calm and BREATHE.  Boy, is that the most counterintuitive thing, to breathe under the water!  I love this picture that Matt took~

Yay!  I made it!

We practiced a few exercises in a shallow-ish area, such as clearing our mask, recovering our regulators (the thing that goes in your mouth) and two ways to clear your regulator, then we were off to explore!  We did what is classified as a "discovery dive," which is for people who aren't certified divers.  We hung out about 30-40 ft below the surface, which is the max depth for discovery divers.

Our first dive was to a reef with some artifacts from a shipwreck.  We saw rays, urchins, a flounder, a MASSIVE hermit crab, eels and a little squid.  There were a few old cannon balls and a cannon resting on the sea floor.

If you look closely ^^^ here you can see a flounder

^^^^      an eel

Second dive was to an actual sunken ship, the Atlantic Princess.  Again, this was literally right out in front of our resort!!   The descent was much quicker and easier this time, although I had to keep reminding myself to BREATHE.  I swear, with every breath, I was filling my lungs to capacity and then blowing everything out!  Bubbles bubbles everywhere!!

the ship behind us here

The instructors filled plastic water bottles with torn pieces of bread.  When you get under the water, you let the water into the bottle then squeeze it out and fish SWARM!!  Can you see Matt in the crowd of fish below??  No thanks.  I'd probably have a heart attack if a fish touched me!

Give the camera to Sam to take a pic of us and of course she takes a selfie!

Flattering, I know

It was like a whole other world down there!  It's so quiet under the water and it's amazing to just glide through the water and see all the life below the surface.  And time flies when you're under the sea!  It was hard to believe we had been diving for 45 minutes!  I'm SO glad that we went scuba diving even though it was waaaaay out of our comfort zone!  I'm afraid that *just* snorkeling will never satisfy again!

When we got back to the resort, we spent some time on the beach with an endless supply of fruity drinks, then took out this little catamaran.  It got zooming pretty good when the sail caught the wind just right!

along the beach at our resort

One of the things I loved was that during the day, everyone is in beach attire but once the sun sets, everyone cleans up, dresses up a bit and heads out to dinner.  We tried several of the restaurants at the resort but this night was our favorite. (foggy lens due to the humidity)

And my hair, OOOOOOHHHHH my hair.  Once I stepped outside into the humid air, it's like it had a mind of it's own!  Fuzzy!