The two dives yesterday were really good. This morning, there were only five of us on the boat (plus Pepe and Ricardo and the pilot, who I'm sure has no name, or voice. We finally got him to wave at us as we got off the boat this afternoon).
I didn't get a picture of the two guys sitting across from us. They were two brothers who I would guess to be about 72 and 75. They were both attorneys. On Tuesday, we did "where are you from" introductions and they said they were from Fargo, ND. The young lady on the boat that day was from Minneapolis and was a niece of theirs. Steve said he was from Denver and I said Laramie. The social brother asked if I was with the university and I said yes, I was a professor in Civil Engineering for 34 years. "Oh, do you know a guy named Norbert Svaboda-Colburg?" "I know him a little, but I know his wife Patricia very well, she was in my department and we worked together a lot." "Patty is our cousin!" "I don't know a Patty, but I do know a Patricia! She wouldn't respond to Patty now." We got some good laughs and stories about that!
That was as good as an incident in the late 1980's. I had been trying to get in touch with an state engineer in Cheyenne for a week, but his secretary kept putting me off. When I got on the dive boat the next Monday, Frank Trelease was sitting across from me! We talked shop for about 10 minutes and then dove together the rest of the week.
Again, lots of pictures!
Our first dive was to Palancar Caves. In fact, the first pictures are Pepe and Steve entering a cave.
Looking up at 80'
Tube Coral Crab under a ledge
Hermit Crab
Crab Trail
Ahhhhh.....String Ray and Companion
The companion is a mixed blessing. Companion fish often help clean and protect its associate. However, it looks like this one is hanging around to look for food that the ray may kick up. And it doesn't look like the ray is happy to have it there.
The second (and last 😞) dive was at Palancar Gardens. This was a somewhat shallower dive and the colors are a little better.
Four Lobsters
First sighting of the Eagle Ray
Pepe working on his regulator at 50 feet.
Pepe took my camera and took some pictures of Steve and I swimming through two coral heads.
More diving and corals
But the high point of the dive for me was a swim-by of an eagle ray. I happened to see it as it approached and had my camera in hand.
Right at the very end, Pepe is clapping for the good showing of the ray!
The last two days of diving has sparked the interest again. It's been wonderful. (Just what I need, another hobby......again!) 😅
Steve, Patty and I had dinner that night at Guido's. Always good and a good choice for the last night.
Patty had made a mistake with her flight reservation and had to catch the 6:00 am ferry to Playa del Carmen on the main land, and then a bus to the Cancun airport. Uffda...
Steve, Ralph, Claudia and I flew out of Cozumel at 1:20. There was the normal waiting in a Very packed airport but the flight itself went smooth......until we landed. A lady in the back had some kind of incident so we had to wait about 30 minutes on the ground for emergency services to come and take her out on a wheelchair. We had another 12 mile march back to Customs which really went fairly smoothly, and then waited, and waited, and waited for the luggage to come through. I think the lady's incident caused the ground crew to have to work on another plane or two before they could get back to ours. (My guess but it makes more sense than the ground crew having a 40 minute coffee break, I think.)
Anyway, we drove to Steve's, got his stuff unloaded, and then I got to drive to Windsor, CO to visit with Jay and Kathy Puckett in their new (three year old?) house. New as in closing on it the day I left for Cozumel, so 8 days ago. It is a beautiful place, of course, with an elevated view of the front range. Of course, I didn't get any pictures of them or the house. Oh well.....
And the drive home went smoothly the next morning.
A great trip!
I am so happy you had such a great time and were able to take all these pix and videos. Loraine
ReplyDeleteThom, it was my pleasure to share this trip with you. I will say that scuba is not exactly a new hobby for you. Just one that a grateful student (me) has shared back after a few decades... Fall trip?
ReplyDeleteSteve