Man It's Hot!

You'd think in a tropical paradise in a slightly rainy season that has been receiving rain every few days, humidity would be lacking. You'd be thinking wrong about Utila. This past week has been a scorcher, with the exception of one day where it was actually a bit cooler (don't hit me for saying 27 C). Most of this week has been in the low to mid 30's before the humidity. Most days I drink 5 litres of water just to stay hydrated.

And the bugs. Oh boy are those sand flies vicious and there is nothing you can do to prevent them from getting you unless you want to walk around this island wearing pants and shoes.

The tropical depression coming up from the south has made the water very unpredictable and it's even difficult to gauge what the conditions are like once out of the harbour. The other day, we could only get one dive in because it was just so choppy. Only two days before the water was almost like glass.

Tonight marks the last day of Carnaval Utila 2008. The festivities include a parade and a ton of loud music going all night. Some people from the shop are all getting together at one guy's place where we shall BBQ, drink and watch from above as Miss Playa and other parade rfom one end of the island to the other.

In other news, this week I've been the only DM at the shop. One guy was helping out at the Lodge, one guy is out sick and the other girl was working at her other job. So that left me. I didn't actually have much to do, which is nice on the one hand. Last night I had a fun diver for a night dive to a site I thought I had been to before. The vis was horrible and I was really worried about finding my way back. I somehow manage to lead a kick ass dive including finding the wreck at the site and getting us back to the boat without a problem. Go me!

Carnaval, Miss Playa and Work

Last night kicked off the beginning of Carnaval Utila 2008, a week long celebration of loud music, food, fireworks and antics. It began just outside the doors of BICD (my dive shop) with a parade consisting of the varying levels of Miss ______ of this year and last. The ladies, accompanied by the Naval Academy Cadets, looked stunning. I felt like I was watching a prom. They were followed by the schools marching band, who are pretty fantastic! It seemed like the whole island turned out for the festivities as it was nearly impossible to walk down the street. As I know two of the people involved, I was slightly obligated to attend and further obligated to take pictures. My room mate was voted Miss Playa 2008, the first gringo in island history to take the title. As well, our shops receptionists' daughter was one of the Junior Miss something or other.

I made my way through the crowd to try and get a good spot at the stage so I could get in a few good shots. While waiting for them all to walk down to the stage, there were two little boys playing with one of the sticky things on a rope that you throw at a wall. I got an amazing picture of them. As the ladies paraded down the "red carpet" and up the stairs, I grabbed a couple shots of all of them and a few extra of Miss Playa. After she was crowned I headed to the bar for L15 drinks (L is limpera, the currency here). Shortly after, I headed home to bed.

Today is my first actual shift working as a Dive Master and there are actually people for me to lead. I'm really nervous. I hope I don't lose the boat!

"For Some Silly Reason..."

"... Lindsay here wants to become a Dive Master. She has finished all her training and passed all her tests, except one. Lindsay will demonstrate how to clear her mask and snorkel. Lindsay, when you are ready, give us the OK."

And that is how my snorkel test began, with my instructor Scott introducing the event as all instructors do. As I sat perched on the top of the picnic bench in the pool room with the mask and snorkel on, I wondered what in the hell I was doing. Here I was, sitting in a bikini, about to consume a ridiculous concoction of rum, coke, beer, pina colada and red bull, staring out at all these people who had shown up to witness this rite of passage. Did I really want to chug back that foul mix and clear beer out of a mask? Did I really want to be a Dive Master?

With those thoughts in my head I said "Let's get 'er done!", put the snorkel in my mouth and signaled the OK. It seemed like an eternity had passed by the time the sickly sweet brew finally came rushing down the snorkel. I tried to take it like a champ and not waste anything. The problem was, I was running out of air. So I did what I have seen no other snorkel test victim did. I plugged the snorkel with my thumb as to not waste what was put in my snorkel. After taking a few gasps of air, I put the snorkel back in to be greeted by two gulps of liquid followed by what seemed like ten seconds of foam. After I sucked in air, I whipped off the mask and snorkel, took the snorkel off and waited for the mask filling.

I sat on that bench with anticipation, the top of my mask lifted off my forehead. All of a sudden, this icy cold beverage hit my face, filling my nose and burning my eyes. I counted to three. I signaled for everyone to watch me. I looked down, held the top of my mask and slowly exhaling through my nose, I looked up, cleared my mask and whipped it off. I was handed the rest of my beer, was toasted and I slammed back that beer like it was the last beer on earth. After two months of nothing but reading, tests, exams, and diving until I couldn't even wake up in the morning, I was finally a Dive Master.

Fires and Snorkel Tests

How long does it take a backpacker to pack up all their belongings?

When there is a blazing inferno next door- less than two minutes.

Monday night, I wandered down the island to a nice little spot for Quiz Night. I had promised some people that I would go, so I did, despite having been up since 5:40am and on the boat all day. My roomie and I had gone for a lovely falafel and enjoyed a brief rain storm as we ran to the bar where we began to get liquored up in preparation for the pain our minds would feel while answering the most random of questions.

As the evening wore on, I grew tired and began the walk home. As I exited the bar, I started to smell smoke and just figured people were burning things as they often do on this island. As I wandered further down the street, I saw a red glow in the dark night sky and noticed it was in the direction of my apartment. My slow meandering quickly turned into a run as I got closer and closer to the intersection near where I live. From there, I could tell that the fire was definitely right where I lived. I ran past groups of people, apologizing in both english and spanish as I bumped into them. With ash and embers raining from the sky, I rounded the corner to see the house next door to me engulfed in flames. At this point, the wind was beginning to change and blow in the direction of the apartment.

I sprinted back to the bar where several of my neighbours were finishing up after the quiz and on the way, ran into my roommate and one of my neighbours. Gasping for air, I told them the situation. My roommate and friend started running in the direction of the house and one of them was smart enough to pull out their phone and call our landlord. I continued on to the bar to tell Sean what was going on before running full speed back to the house. I found my friends and we tried to figure out how we were going to get through the crowd of people, the fire truck and get to our place to get out anything we could.

We ran around an entire "block", going down dirt paths, through backyards and the like. We finally got around to our house where we were greeted by electrical wires hanging down and on our lovely chain link fence. My roommate got her keys out, opened the gate and the three of us sprinted to our apartments to grab our passports, some money and whatever else we could grab. She and I managed to grab almost everything of ours in under two minutes and sat on our lawn watching the flames take over the two houses next door to us. There was nothing we could do until the major flames were out.

After about an hour, most of the flames were extinguished and we started the bucket line, putting out embers and smaller fires. There must have been fifty of us passing buckets back and forth just trying to do our part to help. It was a crazy night.

In other maybe not so exciting news, I am almost finished my Dive Master Training! I need:

-3 dives
-to finish my mapping project
-to type up my Emergency Assistance Plan
-to complete my equipment exchange aka "The Stress Test"

After all that is said and done, I have one final exam that I must pass to become a Dive Master. It's called the Snorkel Test. It consists of a mask (with the lens covered in duct tape) and a snorkel (with an upside down, cut up 2L pop bottle attached to the top). The candidate sits on a bench, chair, stool or counter and puts on the mask and snorkel. The candidates' instructor then shows the crowd the lovely concoction that will be poured down the funnel and snorkel. It usually consists of beer, rum, coke and a few shots of the instructors course. There are also known instances of: raw egg, wasabi, wasabi powder and vodka, hot sauce, chocolate sauce, milk, orange juice and just about anything else that will make it absolutely disgusting. Luckily for me, they want to keep things old school.

The candidate is then asked if they are ready to perform their final exam. Signaling that they are "OK", the instructor then begins to pour the lovely mix into the funnel and snorkel. A good sport will try and drink it all down, while others will signal for them to stop. After effectively clearing this alcoholic nightmare out of the snorkel, the candidate must do one more thing. Demonstrate the proper clearing of a mask. For the purpose of the snorkel test, the mask is filled with beer. The candidate then signals the following:

"Everybody. Watch me." The candidate will then tilt their head down, show that they are breathing in through their mouth and that they should have their fingers holding the top of their mask down. The candidate will then make a point of taking in one last breath while showing that they are to exhale through their nose as the look up, clearing the beer from their mask. Once this is completed, the candidate is finally a Dive Master.

My Snorkel Test is Friday night. I start work Monday. Wish me luck!

Exams

So as most of you who receive my emails know, I have been working on my Dive Master exams. Yesterday, I completed my final one, ending the theory portion of my course. The Breakdown

3- 85%'s
2- 90%'s
1- 95%
2- 100%'s

Now all I have left to do is all the water portion which should be Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a stomach bug so it's delaying that.

It's been an interesting week here in Utila, what with Canada Day and Fourth of July celebrations taking place. Canada Day was spent making poutine, wishing we had Canadian beer and watching Deadliest catch most of the evening. Fourth of July was accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol, fire works and hot dogs. And passing out early because we were super tired.

I should be finished my course in 2-3 weeks which means that I will once again be traveling around, exploring the world, and maybe picking up a job somewhere since diving has definitely left a bit of a whole in my pocket.