How is it almost December?!? When did that happen? Oh my goodness!
I'm sure part of my shock has to do with the fact that it's still fall here in Ontario. The weather has been great & we haven't had any temps below 0c yet, most days have been around 10c. Watch this be the only green winter in the history of Toronto! I'm sure the other piece of the puzzle is that I'm maybe a little bit in denial.... this has been a long time in the planning.
I remember first talking to some friends about this idea on a trip to Toby back in October last year (2008). By the time we all took our trip to Roatan last December I had decided that I wanted to do this and was definitely beginning to seriously explore my options. Originally I was looking into two schools : Mermaid's Dive Centre in Pattaya, Thailand & Neptune's Diving in Manzanillo, Mexico. Thailand quickly dropped off the list and Manzanillo seemed like a really good possibility. (keep in mind that I still hadn't run any of this by work at this point, so in some ways I was really still just dreaming) Lise and I had plans to escape in February for a week to somewhere that fit our four pieces of criteria. 1) Warm sun & a pool to doze off next to 2) Margaritas for Lise 3) Diving for Liz 4) Affordable. It just so happened that the Neptune's Diving Centre was connected with Barcelo Karmina Palace in Manzanillo and Air Transat had a great deal on an all-inclusive package. (Perfect right!) The resort was beautiful, the community around the resort was very accessible & friendly, the school & program looked great and I had even managed just fine at Starbucks with my broken spanish, it was perfect! I all but had my apartment picked out! The only problem was the diving.... Who knew that the pacific side of Mexico wasn't really a great location for diving? It was warm, so it must be better than Ontario diving right?? Well kind of. The temperature was definitely better, but the visibility & marine life didn't really score many extra points.
I remember first talking to some friends about this idea on a trip to Toby back in October last year (2008). By the time we all took our trip to Roatan last December I had decided that I wanted to do this and was definitely beginning to seriously explore my options. Originally I was looking into two schools : Mermaid's Dive Centre in Pattaya, Thailand & Neptune's Diving in Manzanillo, Mexico. Thailand quickly dropped off the list and Manzanillo seemed like a really good possibility. (keep in mind that I still hadn't run any of this by work at this point, so in some ways I was really still just dreaming) Lise and I had plans to escape in February for a week to somewhere that fit our four pieces of criteria. 1) Warm sun & a pool to doze off next to 2) Margaritas for Lise 3) Diving for Liz 4) Affordable. It just so happened that the Neptune's Diving Centre was connected with Barcelo Karmina Palace in Manzanillo and Air Transat had a great deal on an all-inclusive package. (Perfect right!) The resort was beautiful, the community around the resort was very accessible & friendly, the school & program looked great and I had even managed just fine at Starbucks with my broken spanish, it was perfect! I all but had my apartment picked out! The only problem was the diving.... Who knew that the pacific side of Mexico wasn't really a great location for diving? It was warm, so it must be better than Ontario diving right?? Well kind of. The temperature was definitely better, but the visibility & marine life didn't really score many extra points.
Ok, so we may not have sting rays in Tobermory, Ontario... but if you've seen any of my other photos, you'll know that we can (and I say can) have better visibility. Sure, they probably do on occasion in Manzanillo too, but at this point I was thinking that I have zero interest in spending two-three months under water here! Truth be told, I only did one 2 tank dive while I was there for the whole week. I'd been spoiled in Roatan only 2 months prior on my week long diving trip with my S2K buddies at Fantasy Island, which had included an amazing dive with black tipped reef shark and 100+ foot (30+ meters) visibility. Green & mirky just wasn't what I had been dreaming of.
Not long after I returned home from Mexico I provided some shore support for some crazy friends of mine who were getting their Ice Diving Certification. (CRAZY! ~ see photo below) There I got chatting with one of the instructors, Rob who is a commercial diver. Rob had trained on Utila at UDC and quickly said that I should seriously consider that option. (Thank you Rob) It's funny looking back now, but I had no clue where Utila was. Embarrassing considering that I'd spent a week on Roatan, which is the island next to Utila only 2 months prior. How I ever passed geography is beyond me!
It didn't take long after I googled Utila Dive Centre that I'd made up my mind. The school itself looked great. It has a 5-Star PADI Rating & is the only certified PADI Career Development Centre in all of Central America. Sure the island was a tad bit more rustic than what I was used to, or was planning for, but the diving is some of the best in the world & what more can you ask for? I can live with the sand fleas & diesel generated power in exchange for a chance at experiencing sharing the ocean with a whale shark. Who couldn't? and let's face it. unplugging (at least to some extent) for 2-months will do me some good!!! Chances are it will be the trip home that will be the hardest part.
The photos below were taken in Roatan, Honduras last December at a beautiful dive site called "Mary's Place"...... :o)
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