roatan, honduras

i’ve died and been spirited off to some tropical paradise where i dive all day and all night and the beer is only 1 buck a pop. if i didn’t constantly need change, or have this need to do something meaningful with my life, i’d marry a dive instructor and live a glorious impoverished life.

i know i haven’t written in days (or taken a single photo) – i landed on roatan, an island off honduras’ carribean coast, at 9 on Saturday. By 12:30 I was in the water at 15 meters checking out schools of blue tank, fairy basslets, and stoplight parrotfish (in their initial phase – these mosaic’ed fish start as females and turn into males later in life!) i’ve done 8 dives so far and each has been more mind-blowing than the last. i love the sensation of weightlessness and controlling my buoyancy and movement with my breath, filling my lungs with air to rise and blowing bubbles out to float down effortlessly.

there are three other people in my advanced diving course, hannah and debs, 2 expatriate brits now living in the Bahamas and a mexican guy galo who couldn’t dive today because a bug flew into his eye when he was on his bike, and it swelled closed. ever since my underwater naturalist class, marc, my instructor at coconut tree divers, has been pointing out not only the giant fish you can’t miss, but also all types of tunicates (which are so funny), corals, crustaceans, and plant-life. i still find it true that if you can name it, you suddenly realize it’s all around you. there are these ubiquitous plants called halimeda that i didn’t even see until i found out what they were called. the plant produces limestone which it covers with a green algae. when they die, they disintegrate and are responsible for producing 70% of all sand in the carribean.

on the down side, i have got sand fly and mosquito bites all over, mainly from walking up and down the beach between snorkels. one of the girls in the dorm, when she saw my be-measeled back and arms, gave me a prescription antihistamine, which has reduced some of the swelling. but it’s all good and I don’t feel right complaining. i love it here all the same.

almost forgot to mention -- i swam with a huge pod of wild dolphins!! i got about 5-10 meters from them. i swear i am not making this up. between dives, we were cruising along and spotted them. fred, our boat driver, overtook them, we all jumped in the water, and as i sped toward them, i thought, this is why i have been swimming my whole life.