Diving
Life on Utila seems destined to frustrate any attempt to update this blog frequently, theres too many things going on, not enough time to get proper entries down. But its been long enough that there does really need to be one, so lest focus in with this on the reason im here: to go Diving.
To somone whos never done it diving seems like just another activity, something equivalent to going for a trek, riding a bike and other such things. Its not until youre down there that you really appreciate how different it is, how much more it gives you. When youve got your Scuba gear on and youre underwater, youve put yourself into a completely different environment, opened up a whole new world to explore. Youre no longer confined to horizontal movement, but can also go up and down at will- or you can hang in midwater, neutrally buoyant and feeling like gravity is no longer a consideration. One of my favourite things to do is to descend by a sea wall, a piece of underwater topography which plunges almost vertically hundreds of meters down. If you do this headfirst, looking outwards all you can see is blue, a bright rich colour filling your vision, nothing else there and no sensations reaching you beyond the water flowing past and over you. Or there's looking up, seeing the waves moving over the surface and the bubbles rising. These are beautiful, reflecting the light in such a way that they take a silver colour, the larger ones shaped like upside down plates- if you sit above one of these and look at it you can see your reflection gradually getting larger, until eventually the bubble hits your mask and shatters.
These are great things to see, but it gets even better when you start to look at the underwater life. The coral makes strange shapes, little mounds rising up and falling back down to the sandy seafloor, fish hiding behind it and also swimming around in large groups. Ive seen some interesting creatures so far; turtles, rays, lobsters, but by far the most interesting are the squid. Theyre small animals, maybe 20cm long, but they look like nothing else on this world- their eyes are large, popped out of the sides of their head, and along the side of their body is a waving sheet of thin material they use to propel themselves with. Its a strange environment down there, a place i feel privileged to see.
To somone whos never done it diving seems like just another activity, something equivalent to going for a trek, riding a bike and other such things. Its not until youre down there that you really appreciate how different it is, how much more it gives you. When youve got your Scuba gear on and youre underwater, youve put yourself into a completely different environment, opened up a whole new world to explore. Youre no longer confined to horizontal movement, but can also go up and down at will- or you can hang in midwater, neutrally buoyant and feeling like gravity is no longer a consideration. One of my favourite things to do is to descend by a sea wall, a piece of underwater topography which plunges almost vertically hundreds of meters down. If you do this headfirst, looking outwards all you can see is blue, a bright rich colour filling your vision, nothing else there and no sensations reaching you beyond the water flowing past and over you. Or there's looking up, seeing the waves moving over the surface and the bubbles rising. These are beautiful, reflecting the light in such a way that they take a silver colour, the larger ones shaped like upside down plates- if you sit above one of these and look at it you can see your reflection gradually getting larger, until eventually the bubble hits your mask and shatters.
These are great things to see, but it gets even better when you start to look at the underwater life. The coral makes strange shapes, little mounds rising up and falling back down to the sandy seafloor, fish hiding behind it and also swimming around in large groups. Ive seen some interesting creatures so far; turtles, rays, lobsters, but by far the most interesting are the squid. Theyre small animals, maybe 20cm long, but they look like nothing else on this world- their eyes are large, popped out of the sides of their head, and along the side of their body is a waving sheet of thin material they use to propel themselves with. Its a strange environment down there, a place i feel privileged to see.
posted by Viajero Nuevo at 12:50 PM
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