Day 9 - Tamarindo

Just got back from passing my Diving Exam! Only got 2 of 50 wrong, which apparently makes me the best student of the past few months (avg. 5 wrong). After studying most of yesterday and today the questions were pretty easy, but some of them were written to confuse.

Went out on the boat yesterday (no diving today because of the wind == waves) for my first ocean dive. It was awesome! It was like swimming inside my fishtank only much much better. I saw at least 4 kinds of HUGE (like football sized) Puffers, Lots of Moray Eels, some Triggers, lots of medium and small sized schooling fish, Sea Urchins, and Octopus, and I swear I saw some kind of Stonefish. I was only able to see the stonefish* (of some variety) because I noticed that this rock had evenly spaced fin-like ridges. I didn't approach it because if a fish is either very bright or very concealed, it has a reason to be, and we don't touch things we don't know!

I go out again tomorrow to finish off the course. I only hope I don't have to do any of the mask-off exercises because salt-water stings the eyes and it would be tough. Hopefully I'll get to see some sharks, the manta rays aren't around yet. After that I'll be a fully-certified open water diver. Yahoo!

I've also made my decision about where to go next: La Fortuna. I've booked my ride via Greyline, probably not as nice as Interbus but the Interbus was full and it still beats the regular buses. I will be staying at Luigi's Lodge, which also has one of the better Italian restaurants in town apparently. Italian restaurants are to Costa Rica as Chinese restaurants are to Canada == every town, even the smallest, has one :)

After some days there lounging around the Volcano (Note: It's not that active right now), I will somehow find my way to Tortuguero for a few days. Other then that I may try to get down to Quepos and see Manuel Antonio National Park, or re-base myself in San Jose and do some more excursions from there. I know everyone else who comes here has told me to leave SJ as quickly as possible, but I'm a city-boy, and lots of people make me feel less homesick.

I guess that's about it for this installment. Buenos Tardes!

ENTRY RECOVERED FROM ARCHIVE.ORG

Posted at 06:17 PM to Vacation By: John Fairley