Today is my Dad’s birthday! Happy 65^th, Dad =). Cool fact: he has lived through 12 presidents, 7 wars, and 3 children. A notable accomplishment.

We wake up bright and early to head over to the dive shop to begin our certification dives. Brief mix up over registration information leads to an increased price, but at last it is all sorted out. It also turns out that now the class will take 3 days instead of 2, but c’est la vie. John Alex, since he already has his certification, enrolls in an Advanced Diver certification course.

Patrick and I have a dive instructor named Alfonso, who is about 35-40 years old and bubbly. Alfonso is a fantastic instructor and he takes us out and puts us through all the paces of underwater mask removal, out of air situations, and a few buoyancy tests. Also, scuba diving really is an extraordinary method of learning panic suppression, because panicking can be quite deadly in such an unfamiliar element.

Hmmm, Alfonso also was shocked to discover I was 19 years old, assuming I was 15. Really guys? Really?! First Adem, the Turkish taxi driver and now Alfonso, my dive instructor? Do I really look that immature? Sighhh, WELL. At least I’ll appreciate this later in life.

Cool sites on today's dive:

·         Barracuda (though a small one at only 3 feet or so)

·         Seahorse (these are really rare in the wild! My mom has been looking for one for years)

·         Underwater plane wreck

As you may have guessed, the animal life pictures in this blog are not mine. I have no underwater camera. But just wanted to give you guys a glimpse of what we’re seeing.

Speaking of seeing, this is what I came home to:

Haha, just thought I’d rub it in your face a little more. The afternoon was spent relaxing, working on some of my projects, and napping.

Speaking of napping, my family decided that documenting me doing this would be one of the themes for the trip:

Since it is my dad’s birthday, we went out on the town. Along the way, we passed the Mexican military getting scuba lessons, guarded of course by soldiers with machine guns. Interesting. Mom was creeped out, but I thought it was really cool.

We get about halfway to the restaurant when it begins pouring. Like torrential downpours. Like shouldn’t –have-worn-a-thin-potentially-see-through-dress type downpours. Never to fear, we make it safely to the nearest minimart and examine their impressive knife display.

Deciding to taxi ourselves over the rest of the way, we make it to the restaurant where we board an elevator at street level (where the doorman gives us free bread!), and arrive at the top floor of a large building where the restaurant is located.

It’s be-you-tee-ful. Food is also super delicious and a Mexican band is playing music. Ahhh, this is the life. And the weather even clears up for a bit so we can enjoy the beautiful sunset! We have a nice long dinner where the waiter tries to take my plate on 3 separate occasions (but I insisted on licking the plate clean), but overall a great meal.

Afterwards, John Alex and I enjoy a nice long walk home as the rest of the fam stops and gets groceries for the rest of us. That’s all I’m gunna post today, guys. That margarita tonight was a little strong so typing this is taking a tad bit more effort than normal.