by Eddy- Staff Writer
…You are then slowly guided upwards and sideways over the reef to explore more of the colors of the reef and sand patches and on you continue until you get to around 30 feet where you we spend the remainder of our Bottom Time hanging around visiting and gliding over beautiful brain coral, fish and other marine life and occasionally a turtle will cruise on by before he goes deep where he know that you will not follow or a school of snappers will gather around the Divemaster who is feeding them bread that he brought along for the ride and show. At some point you look down at your dive computer on your wrist to check your air, depth and bottom time and you also notice that it is only half past 9 am and a smile breaks out on your face causing you to take in a bit of water into your mask which by instinct causes you to breath in and smoothly place your palm on you top of your mask and then tilt you head back while smoothly breathing out through your nose to expel the water in your mask.
Many scuba divers have had the pleasure seeing dolphins, sharks, octopuses and whale sharks as well and the pleasure to be amongst these cool creatures adds to the fulfillment of scuba diving. Another part of scuba diving involves night dives, which is the single most unique experience that you will ever have as you smoothly glide over very colorful coral reefs as the colors are much brighter as you shine your dive light on them. For those looking to see more colors in general of the reefs a dive light will surely give you a view worth photographing as many have before.
The Divemaster now signals everyone to pair up with their buddy and ascend to 15 feet for a three-minute safety stop where you will hang around while time passes and all you can hear is the exhaled bubbles of air going past your ears tickling them at times. After three minutes you then ascend to the surface in a round about upwards motion one hand stretched out in front. Once at the surface you swiftly inflate your BCD and switch to your snorkel for air while pulling your facemask down to your neck and in one motion spread out your fins before you and lay your head back into the inflated BCD and take in the warm morning sun quickly warming your smiling face happy to be alive and the wonderful realization that its only 8 am and you still have one more tank to take out after your surface interval stop is over. This time of course is spent on the top and front of the cool Dive boats where most of the time you have a cool, warm and funny islander as the boat captain giving tips and funny tales about life on the Caribbean island. You lay back and feel the warm sun and the cool air hitting your body and you smile that smile once again. The boat gently rocks as the boat captain turns up that smooth head rocking reggae tune.
After you have exited the waters you carefully walk over to your tank area and slowly sit down so that the tank can enter its holding dock. Every one on the boat is giddy with pleasure and gathering around the all-knowing Divemaster to ask questions about the different kind of marine life that they have just witnessed. As the dive boat begins to dock into the dive shop dock your stomach suddenly begins to churn for one of those fast Yellow-tail snappers that you saw on an earlier dive. The delicious smell of BBQ hits your nostrils from the restaurant on top of the dive shop and all you can think about now is how good that first cold drink is going to taste followed by a beautifully laid out grilled fish fillet burger with Cole slaw or fries that will satisfy you down to the bone and leave you wanting more.
Its all you can do to break away from the group and grab your friends and head to a beach bar that is said the be the coolest beach bar with the best food and drinks on the island. The all knowing bartender is behind the bar working it and with a large grin happily guides your group over to some empty bar chairs in his bar section and begins the blender show. It appears that its piña colada and margaritas time
as he begins to pour these drinks one after another down everyone’s throats and just before you cant take another brain freeze from the velocity of the cold frozen cocktails that keep mysteriously appearing in front of you, the food arrives at the bar and the bartender who is now your best friend and whom you have declared , and Tweeted to anyone listening after your 5th piña colada that you will kill for him, ceremoniously plops a beautiful shinning plate topped with grilled lobster tails, sautéed large jumbo garlic shrimp and fries, and you stare at the plate not knowing whether to cry or get on your knees and give thanks for this one in a lifetime experience with tears in your eyes, and you take the first large bite…….. and is all you ever wished, imagined and thought it would be all rolled up in a delicious warm and lightly garlic bite and in a flurry you devour the entire platter breaking the speed record for the fastest lobster and shrimp plate ever eaten. The bartender witnesses this awesome record breaking display in wonderment , notes it with his mouth open at and wisely switches everyone to cold island beer and turns the reggae up to the just the right point as you lean back and take a long and refreshing swig of the cold drink that leaves you smoothly bobbing to the beat of the smooth island Caribbean rhythms and the best part is that its only noon. Could life be any better?
Scuba dive vacations are not all about the diving itself but also a fun and rewarding way to enjoy other Caribbean island perks like horseback ridding, beach combing, sailing, wind surfing, canopy tours and kayaking etc. Some islands have caves that you can visit which in itself have water deposits large enough to have a good swim and snorkel. While on the subject of snorkeling the sport in itself is wonderful and also very rewarding for marine life enthusiasts who love to hang around small, cool looking and interesting fish and be at one with nature while splayed out happily in pristine aquamarine waters.
For me some of the best memories of scuba personally come from snorkeling as a dive itself can last no longer that around 1 hour but snorkeling can last hours and hours of enjoyment but some may need a wetsuit to stay warm and keep the sun off, wear a long sleeve shirt and others just dab some ALL NATURAL sunscreen on your back and venture on yonder, even better is when you have been living on an island for quite some time and you go out snorkeling every day to the point that you look like a island native with your dark, bronze and most importantly healthy tan.
Deep-sea sport fishing is also a great way to enjoy the island, as there are many great and large Blue-fin Marlin, also very large tuna, swordfish and other majestic creatures from the deep that smell so good on the grill and taste even better with some lovely Cilantro herbed garlic butter or perhaps some extra virgin olive oil with a squeeze of lime. I believe that the islands inspire and bring out the passion in everyone in some way or another and should be taken advantage of each and every vacation and getaway.
