Upon awakening, I was greeted by a mini hurricane. If I were the Wicked Witch of the West, I would’ve melted before leaving our doorstep. Good news: Mom called the dive shop and got our lesson pushed back an hour. Bad news: I had already woken up and gotten ready. Sighhh. Well, only one thing to do! Cue half hour nap.

Arriving at the dive shop for our final lessons, we don our gear to complete our last two dives. I was having slight buoyancy issues, but other than that, a great dive!  Not only did we see two more sea horses, but we also saw four lionfish!

And yepp, that’s me in the picture. Just kinda floating there like a log. Cute. Moving on. Using one of the foremost fish experts in the world (*cough* Wikipedia), I discovered that lionfish are actually one of the most venomous fish on the ocean floor. …which is why I totally understood when Alfonso decided to start poking them with a stick… hmmm….

Though I will say my muted horror at the apparently blatant disregard for marine life was somewhat mollified when I heard that they were an invasive species destroying the local ecosystem. Rally your men! Kill the lionfish!!!

So after a successful completion of the required dives and the Everest of paperwork, Patrick and I became certified scuba divers!!! SUCCESS! My victory dance was unfortunately postponed until a later date, when my limbs weren’t exhausted and my belly rumbling…

With our certification course, Patrick and I received a “free” boat dive out at one of the deeper reefs. But since we still had three hours to kill, the fam and I head over to the Mexican Walmart (cleverly disguised as a store named Mega, but we all know…) where we indulge in the fine dining of the store’s fastish food restaurant. Plus side, I successfully ordered our entire family’s meal AND we got to watch Mexican soap operas. What more could a girl want?

Haha check out their hamburgers. Burgers topped with ham! Love it. The rest of the time was spent chilling at the dock, helpfully documenting an older gentleman’s attempt to relive his childhood dream of joining the Mexican dive team.

The boat pulls up and Patrick and I board, ready to begin our first dive as certified scuba-teers (totally made up that term, btdubs). At first we are the only ones on the boat, so we indulged in some awkward small talk with the crew. I am exaggerating slightly, since Ernesto was actually really easy to talk to. Patrick was just no help at all, though, on the conversation front. Ohhh, middle schoolers.

Fortunately, not long after, we were joined by ten other divers, ranging from maybe 30 to 70? Just guess-timating on these ages. The point being, we were the youngest and most inexperienced by far. Though one would assume we would be, as we just got our certification 3 hours prior.

We boat our way past 4 cruise ships out to one of the underwater cliff faces. Very cool. Not super colorful, but it was fascinating how deeply it dropped off into pitch blueness. And we easily hit 60 feet (the max we’re allowed as Open Water certified divers) before we knew it. (And Patrick technically wasn’t supposed to go deeper than 40 ft. Whoops.)

Cool sights (in order of appearance):

·         Angel fish that were about 2 feet long

·         Flounder! Sooo hard to spot

·         A couple barracuda stalking the seas

·         A sea turtle!!! And a large one, too

·         A large stingray swimming straight at me. However, I won the epic stare down, so he moved.

·         Huge groupers – like the size of Patrick

All in all, a rather successful dive, as members on board congratulated us on superior performances. Don’t worry, I won’t let it go to my head.

After the dive, Patrick and I decided to forgo our taxi ride home in favor of ice cream. However, this turned out to be quite an epic quest, as we weaved in and out of random side streets in search of delicious frozen-ness.  Cool thing: shopkeepers are less likely to harass you when you are soaking wet and tiredly dragging your feet. So yes, we might’ve carried on that charade long after we dried and recuperated.

We decided to grab ice cream at the mini-mart on the edge of town, once again allowing me to demonstrate my amazing Spanish abilities as I apologized profusely for the inconvenience caused by paying with foreign money.

However, it was successful as Patrick and I left, happily holding Magnum bars in our grubby little fingers. Which were delicious, by the way. So delicious that when I dropped a large piece of chocolate on the sidewalk, rather than bemoan its loss, I simply picked it up and ate it. To the shock and disgust of a large military vehicle filled with armymen that just happened to be driving by at that very moment. Hey, chocolate is chocolate.

Once home, we took time as a family to enjoy the beautiful sunset:

Tehe, one beautiful picture a day. But just one, I promise. After dinner, we all decided to watch Cool Hand Luke. Gahhh, one of my most favorite movies ever. Paul Newman, you are my hero. And totally caught the minor Christ allegory that I missed the first time I watched it.

But yepp, that’s all for today folks. The rain is falling, and so are my eyelids. The following picture is added, because I like it. Nos vemos!

Oh and feel free to check out more pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/115787829715255758995/CozumelSummer2010#