Good afternoon! It has been a lovely Valentine's Day today. You'll be relieved to know that I told Howie I'd be happy with Caymans for Valentine's any and every year! 💓
We went diving again this morning. After being picked up bright and early (7:15 is the middle of the night when on vacay! but worth every minute of missed sleep!) by Reef Divers, we headed to the boat and got ready to head out. Our first dive was to Bus Stop - what?! - and it was absolutely amazing. So many fish in so many colors and variety, as well as purple sea fans and red barrel coral and sponges and other exotic things that I don't know the name of. My mask was actually seeable through today which I think made a huge difference over yesterday. I don't know if it was just foggy or what but it was hard to be too impressed when I felt like I had macular degeneration. Now my heart goes out extra strong to Joanne and Grandmom Thelma!
Our second dive was to Barracuda Bight - haha fun play on words We did see barracuda was well as a turtle and a monster hog fish that was orange - was it a hog fish? I'll find out and get back to you on that one. I wish I could download some of Howie's pics from his go-pro but no can do. Apparently he doesn't have the right cord... might have to go ask our neighbors who seem to have all the gear you could ever imagine and then some. Anyway, again it was amazing to see so many fish. Proof again that the diving here is some of the best around the world.
Emily, one of our dive masters went to Cuba last fall and said that Little Cayman was more pristine than the diving there - and one can only imagine Cuba! Her opinion, true, but works for me. Doesn't mean I don't want to go to Cuba some day anyway :)
After diving, we did a little shopping (not saying girls ;)) and then had a nice lunch. We shared a turkey club sandwich and salad, I even shared a little lettuce a cute iguana... then Howie said I couldn't anymore. After a debate on whether it was okay to feed the natives but not the aliens, I conceded defeat. Especially after I saw a sign on a fence that said, "Please don't feed the iguanas"
Yup, even here I'm breaking the rules. Hope he enjoyed the lettuce anyway!
On our way from the dive hotel that I can't remember the name of, we heard about a night dive. Now normally I would say no way! Scary! Not into that! But today, I caved and now I'm really excited to go out into the dark water and see eels and octopus and lobsters - its a full moon so it shouldn't be tooooooooo dark. Ya right. We'll see. Hard to believe but I am actually looking forward to a new adventure.
This trip has been great for my SCUBA experience. I think going for 5 days, two dives each, has made getting used to things and feeling more comfortable out there for me. I'm not scarfing down air and I find myself getting lost in just looking at each community of fish as we pass over, or get close up to see their babies and juveniles.
So Howie and I have a hot date planned for Valentine's Night - eels included!
This is Howie sitting on the boat with all the tanks behind him. There were probably about 15 people on the boat today - most of whom are really competent divers. We have met a few nice couples and families - even got my baby fix this morning!
In the red shirt is Emily. She is from UK and has been here for about three years. She was here when we came before and is, of course, our favorite. She can be seen here sporting her full face sun protection! To her left, in the blue shirt, is the boat captain and another dive master named Doug. He's hilarious and makes the dives pretty entertaining. Don't know who that is posing in the white top though... oh well.
Hit it!
our little island and the big blue all around it. paradise. I know I keep saying that but it's true.
more blue. i think blue might be my new favorite color. i'll always love yellow but the blues here? innumerable.
at the northeastern part of the island - just a few homes dot the land
this little bunch of bungalows or cottages is where we call home for now. The big building to the left is The Hungry Iguana Restaurant, under / behind the trees is a small pool and deck and a few cottages. We are staying in #4 so count left from the far right and you'll see ours. Just remember, there are two rooms? / bungalows? / duplexes? per each house looking thing. Wow now I've confused you as well as myself! Anyway, a water view is one I haven't taken before - fun to see this angle.
between dives, trying to warm up and dry off a bit, we are headed to the next spot - Barracuda Bight
This guy is a teenager who came to welcome us to his digs
and this is my lunch buddy, let's call him Lettuce Head. I promise I didn't make his tummy that fat! I think he is really good at his job - looking cute so people will share their lettuce with him.
and this guy lives under our cottage. There are other funny lizards here called "curly tailed lizards" so its easy to tell which are iguanas (straight tail) and which are lizards (you guessed it, curly tail.) Whew!
a panoramic view of our view from our front porch. Quiet. Peaceful. Waves crashing. Breezes blowing. Puffy clouds swinging by. paradise.
finally, just a quick shot of what we see when we wake up in the morning and before we head in to sleep. Sand. Water. White railings. ahhhhh
Well that's it for now. Time to go get ready for our dive - this afternoon as we were diving i got a bit of a headache and chuckled to myself thinking, "If this is it, my time to move to the next life, at least my last view of this world is pretty darn beautiful! But then... oh. That would be bad for Howie." my thoughts ran from there - into a prayer of gratitude. The Lord has created so many beautiful places on His earth and I feel blessed to be in this place at this time. So blessed.
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