New Digs and New Dives!

We finished or final PADI tests, signed the final papers and set up the internet and the cable for our new house on Tuesday.  Today we get the keys! This afternoon will be the big move consiting of one car load of stuff and one car load of kitties.  We have had intermittent internet this week at the apartment (more off than on) so we cant wait to move in to the new place. The kitties will love all the room and we love that tonight we will be sleeping on a super soft king size bed!  My back rejoices!

Wednesday was a diving day! We went out with Wilberth for another round of dives.  We dove Palancar Caves and San Clamente which are both amazing sites.  The sky was blue and the ocean was calling our name as we idled out of the Caleta harbor.  We started with Palancar Caves which is another of the 4 palancar sites.  It is a wall dive with many caverns and swim throughs.  When we arrived we descended to 95  feet under and where lucky enough to be greeted by a reef shark!  It was amazing to watch it glide through the water searching the reef wall for a tasty fish to eat (Daryl has pictures on his Facebook page).  We spent the rest of our time under swimming through and around the giant  multicolored coral heads and searching for wild life.  The reef was alive with the flashy colors of all the different tropical fish and we even found a sea turtle.

The second dive was a shallower dive ranging from 30-40 feet under.  We all stayed under for over an hour and were able to find some amazing creatures.  This reef was not a big as the last but it did hold much more life.  As we left the boat and headed for the ocean floor a shadowy figure emerged from the distance.  It was a massive barracuda, the biggest we had ever seen!  It checked us out for a while then headed on its way, staying long enough for Nakita to get some good shots of it.  We drifted with the current along the reef while keeping our eyes peeled for anything special.  Along the reef there were southern stingrays, giant grouper as big as person, massive parrot fish almost as big as the grouper, a porcupine fish, all sorts of trigger fish, angle fish, trunk fish, filefish, parrot fish,etc.  Too many to name them all!  Near the end of the dive a huge 6-7 foot long green moray eel emerged from the corals and swam a few feet under us.  We ended the dive by moving off the corals into the nearby sea grass.  We searched for some time and we were finally rewarded with a seahorse!  These are super rare to spot but we were lucky enough to find one hiding in the grass.  People can accumulate dozens of dives before they have the rare opportunity to see a reef shark or a seahorse.  I guess we have been lucky!  I am glad we know people who are experienced divers and know where the good stuff is!  Thanks Nakita, Daryl and Wilberth!  As we floated back into the Caleta harbor we were lucky enough to see giant orange iguanas sunning in the midafternoon heat, sitting on the rocks near the entrance.  A perfect end to a great dive! 

Liz and I rocking out at the bottom!

 

This is a Queen Triggerfish.

 

 

Grey Angelfish.

 

 

Filefish.

 

 

Big schools of Jack and Grunt fish are everywhere.

 

Say hello to my little friend!

 

Were still rocking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boating fun!

 

Liz, Wilberth and I.

 

That is how you drive a boat!

 

 

This rare orange iguana and his harem guard the entrance to Caleta harbor.