Study Time!

Hey guys, sorry I've been lacking on the update front. I've been super busy with work, class and general having fun-ness with all these people leaving. There has been BBQ after BBQ, dinner after dinner and party after party with all my friends leaving the island.

I've been studying my brain out for the last week and a half for my Assistant Instructor course. I have my exams today!

What can I report...oh yea! I got to swim with a pod of spinner dolphins for an afternoon! That was so awesome! I've spent lots of time helping out with the Whale Shark Centre and just relaxing and diving as much as I can. I was sick this past week which had me out of the water and because of my course, I haven't been diving for almost two weeks. I should be able to resume diving tomorrow or Saturday! Yay!

I Went Swimming With Whale Sharks!

So Monday, I woke up early to jump on the boat and help out James and some of his fun divers because of the varying certification levels. It was an amazing dive. We went to one of my favourite sites here, Black Hills, a sea mound off the east side of the island. We saw tons (TONS!!) of fish including a couple of trunk fish, two scrawled cow fish having a little fight, a green moray and a scorpion fish! Scorpion fish are really hard to find because they camouflage on rocks so well. After we all go out of the water, our captain spotted a bunch of birds to the north. Immediately, we took off in that direction, much to the surprise of our divers who thought we were going to airport caves.

After a few minutes of them looking confused and all the staff being excited, we finally told them that birds may indicate a boil and that a boil means there is a whale shark somewhere under there. After an hour and a half of searching, he finally surfaced and we all got in the water to watch this creature swim back into the blue.

Later that afternoon, I jumped on the whale shark boat (our shop is affiliated with the Whale Shark and Oceanic Research Centre [WSORC]) to go back to the same spot to look for more. We found two! I spent the entire afternoon in snorkel gear just swimming with these beautiful mammals. I got some amazing pictures as well. I'll try and get them up as soon as I can.