PADI, 1ST DAY

Walked down to the Royal Hideaway Hotel in Playacar, in order to initiate my PADI!

My diving instructor was Hugo, an Argentinean dude. He handed me the Open Water Diver Manual and after quickly changing into a black wetsuit, fins, mask & snorkel, air tank, regulator, compensator, etc, we walked to the swimming pool for our first training session.

We went through so many things, like how to check the equipment, to breathe underwater, how to do remove the kit underwater and put it back on, what to do in case of emergency, hand signs used, etc, etc.

Happy with the results, Hugo finished the 1^st session and instructed me to return at 2:30pm for real test: swimming 10 meters /33 feet under the Caribbean Sea.

Relaxed and slept for a couple hours then went back to the Hotel for my afternoon session. Got all the kit on and hopped on the boat.

The boat came to a halt just on top of Jardines Reef and after a short briefing we started our dive. We started submerging slowly holding onto a rope and soon we were at the bottom of the sea.

When you first try to breathe with the diving kit you really think that it will fail somehow so you’re kinda tense and on the verge of panic, but once you relax you start to enjoy and what a ride it is.

WOW.

What a feeling! I can’t still put it in words. If you never tried diving I strongly recommend it. Do it. You will not regret it.

Back to the dive: The visibility was incredible; Hugo took us around the coral reef pointing at several beautiful kinds of fish and corals that made me felt that I was inside of a tropical fish tank during 40 minutes.

After this dive I got a ride back into the Playa del Carmen’s 5^th avenue and decided to have a stroll down the beach. I had this dizzy feeling as if I’d spent a week on a boat: I felt that my body was rocking sideways. But I kept on walking…or…rocking…

Walked so much that when I got back to the house it was already night. Later Claudio and I were watching a 50 cent’s movie, we noticed that Jaime was asleep and snoring so I said: “Look at that dude. He’s doing his meditation session” We just burst on laughter.

Ciao 4 now

~ Paulo ~