There were two other people with me (Christian and Nikki from Canada) who were so much fun to hang around with. They have been travelling for the same amount of time as me and they were really nice people.
Since the two of them had one another as their buddy (you always dive with a buddy), I got paired up with the cute dive instructor. Oh woe is me, right? Neither of these are my instructor, but they were cute so I snapped a picture anyway.We only spent about 4 hours in the classroom over 2 days and the rest of the time we were doing all the lessons in the most gorgeous, clear water ever! These pictures are of the island that I not only stayed on, but also the place that we got to do our first lessons in the water. It's called Japanese Gardens.
Since I had only snorkeled before, I wasn't sure how I'd fair way under water. I figured the part when we had to take off our masks is when I'd probably freak out.... but strangely enough I only freaked out once... We were on our 2nd dive down about 30 feet and I was fine up until we had to fill our masks half way and then clear the water while were were 30 feet under. I did it before, I knew how to do it... but this day I was having a hard time getting air and started to panic a bit. I looked at my cute instructor and gave him the signal that I needed to go up. He gave me the hand signals to relax and breathe... so I tried.
Wasn't working.
I tried again... and then I started to get teary eyed and more panicky... in turn making it really hard to breathe, so I gave him one last signal and high tailed it for the surface. I changed regulators b/c I was convinced it wasn't me... but a malfunction of the equipment instead. haha. Once I switched to a new breathing device I was fine and went back down to enjoy the dive.
I gotta say, diving with a buddy is kind of a special experience. When we went in for our first dive he told us to stick together until we got to this other area. I was a little bit nervous so I was pretty close to Camillo (my instructor), and then out of nowhere a trigger fish popped up and I was practically in his life jacket hoping to not get attacked by the fish.
The rest of the dive, I was still a little scared so he kept hold of my hand. So I'm holding my dive instructors hand going about my business and thought, hey, this is kind of cool. Unless you're dating or married, you don't ever really hold someone's hand. It was nice. I figured he does it all the time so I just brushed it off. ... until later in the day before our next dive he said, "Holding your hand earlier was really nice." Aww shucks.
Needless to say the rest of the dives we went along holding hands. Out of the water it was strictly instructor/student, but got to experience this new underwater world feeling very secure and confident in my new surroundings. I guess what made it so nice is that I felt very safe. I rarely put myself in situations that i don't feel comfortable or confident in some way. I feel that I always have to be in control... In this situation, I felt very out of control, out of my comfort zone, but knowing that I was 'safe' was really a nice feeling. It was kind of nice to be a follower. To sit back and let someone else take the lead. I really enjoy that. A lot.
Anyhoo, here's me after the dive. Gotta love the mask lined face :)
Also notice that I really don't have a tan... it's been raining almost the entire trip, no chance for sun :(
Here's a few last pictures of the island I was staying:
