I've still Got It!!

Today was my first full day of my dive vacation.  It started off with seeing a beautiful wild parrot on the way to the perfect breakfast!  Not only were there the typical heavy breakfast foods; omelets, pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, etc., but this being a Dutch island, they also had deli meat for making sandwiches.  My day started out with yogurt, fruit, and a ham, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  And of course there was coffee.  Amusingly, the person clearing dishes knocked my coffee over while busing (luckily the coffee spilled away from me) he then loudly exclaimed so the whole restaurant could hear, "Look what you did!!! I can't believe it!"  It was extremely amusing to me and we had some fun banter between us for several minutes after that - a fun way to start the day.

After that I attended the orientation meeting as instructed (in theory you can't dive in Bonaire without the orientation.)  At the start of the meeting I was singled out in front of the whole crowd because I wasn't where I was supposed to be.  It turns out I was supposed to be at my refresher diving course instead, though I was told differently.   (It's too bad I hate being the center of attention ;-)  After being called out, I said something amusing which made everyone laugh and proceeded to where I was supposed to be.  It was a great course which covered all of the things you should know but have forgotten along the way.  After the basics we did a short dive which was gorgeous.  I was extremely happy to find that I was still EXTREMELY comfortable in the water, my neutral buoyancy was better than ever before, and everything I used to know about diving came back naturally.

I then went out on my first boat dive.  It was o.k. but not great.  The problem with boat dives is that everybody gets off the boat and dives at the same time and there are just way too many people for my taste.  I much prefer shore dives with 2 to 4 people maximum.  I later found a fun couple who are planning on taking me with them on a shore dive tomorrow in the afternoon.  I am looking forward to that.  I will write back with a full report.

As suspected, I am once again not as coherent as usual due to drinking too many Frozen Cactus Coolers.  I do have pictures of the resort and my room to upload but I'm not quite up to the task right now.  I am going to go to bed early so I can read a bit more of my Nitrox homework and get a lot of sleep so I can be ready for my 8:30am dive.  I'll upload pictures tomorrow after the dive.