Our
diving course began in the morning with a 3 hour video about scuba
diving. The video was narrated by a perfectly grating American and
had atrocious “comic” segments which really tested the patience.
At every opportunity the video reminded you to meet people, go places
and do things (all diving related of course). You'd be mistaken
falling under the impression that divers are all adverse to travel,
incredibly lazy and socially underdeveloped and thus needed a
motivational pep talk and cringe-worthy motto to get them going.
Somehow the 3 hours passed and finally we were ready to hit the open
water. Well the other people in the group were anyway – my first
diving adventure would be in a swimming pool (I hadn't booked the
course in advance and it looked like they wouldn't have space but the
receptionist said they could accommodate me if I spent the first day
getting taught in a swimming pool and would join the rest of the
group after today). So after lunch (of fish) me and my French
instructor headed to a nearby hostel which had a swimming pool and
got started. Donning the equipment and extra weights (necessary to
make you actually sink) and getting into the pool I felt about as
agile as I would guess I fish feels out of water. Breathing only
through your mouth took some getting used to as well and for a while
I really wondered if I was up to this diving malarkey. Still, I
seemed to get on ok with all the exercises the instructor taught me
and even if at times I would find myself floating uncontrollably to
the surface or sinking like a stone to the bottom he seemed
relatively pleased at the end of our session. We had dived to an
unprecedented depth of 2 meters so I wasn't certain how much this
experience prepared me for tomorrow when I would be diving to 8
meters in the Caribbean. I did not mull over this thought for long.
Besides, while me and Ben enjoyed delicious fresh fruit juices (I
went for mango, he for starfish) from one of the many street side
vendors, he told me the main group hadn't got through as many
exercises as I had which was a little reassuring.
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| Our daily fish plate |
We spent the next morning studying (we have to
get through a pretty hefty book on diving and sit an exam at the end
of the course to get our qualification) and although most of it was
dull, common sense stuff (albeit with a few physics concepts about
pressure and density thrown in haha) it was, dare I say, almost
enjoyable to do a bit of studying again. Will I be looking back on a
scuba diving course in Taganga as the experience that convinced me to
do a PhD? Probably not, but it gave me pause for thought nonetheless.
In the afternoon I got my first experience of
real open water diving. As I had anticipated there was a host of
challenges associated with diving outside of a swimming pool, the
most noticeable being the pain you feels in your ears and sinuses due
to the pressure increasing as you descend. To avoid this you need to
“equalize” the pressure (basically block your nose and blow to
pop your ears) but I hadn't really had much practice of this in the
swimming pool so my first descent wasn't a particularly pleasant one.
However after a while underwater I began to get the hang of it and
once we'd done a bunch more exercises I started feeling a bit more
confident. The novelty of being underwater and doing the exercises
was great but I wasn't convinced if I would enjoy myself once that
novelty wore off. In the evening I shared these thoughts with Ben who
said he felt more of less the same. However, we had another session
of diving to complete (and an exam to sit!) before the course was
over so I decided to reserve my judgement until later.
The last day of diving completely changed my
mind. Despite an early morning start the sun was already blazing and
as soon as the boat stopped at our dive site and we started kitting
up the heat was ferocious. Plunging over backwards from the boat into
the water was a blissful relief and much to my surprise the equipment
no longer felt as cumbersome as it had on the first day. We descended
to 12 meters and after a couple more exercises we finally got some
reward for our hard work and I realised why people get such a kick
out of diving. Our instructor beckoned us to follow him and as I
drifted along behind him and was finally able to concentrate on
something other than how I should be breathing, fiddling with my
buoyancy or swapping air channels with my “buddy”, I began to
appreciate just how beautiful our surroundings were. Schools of
bright yellow and blue fish swim past, eels peak out of rocky
outcroppings and the sea bottom is a maze of mini-volcano shaped
rocks, coral and vegetation I'd never seen before – it was a little
bit like being on the top of Roraima again.
As we finished our last dive, which was just
for fun (we'd done all the exercises to death) and was definitely the
most enjoyable, I craved more. Maybe I'll have a go at searching for
coral reefs off the coast of Scotland once I get back.
In
the evening we celebrated our success by heading to the first night
of, bizarrely, a techno festival on a beach a stone's throw away from
Taganga. Despite its proximity to Taganga it was a real challenge to
find out where it was (Ben only knew about it because of a friend)
but eventually we made it. Although it wasn't exactly my kind of
music (although they did throw in some occasional drum and bass which
I appreciated) everyone there was friendly and I managed to chat to a
bunch of the dj's and get some recommendations of places to check out
in Bogota, Colombia's capital.
Feeling
somewhat exhausted after the last 3 days, me and Ben spent the next 2
days finishing off the bookwork for our diving qualification, sitting
the exam (which we thankfully both passed), eating fish and getting
some well earned rest. My body actually slightly complained after the
diving – the result of travelling for a month on a Venezuelan diet
and not doing any exercise. One of my resolutions is definitely to
exercise some self control around the street food of Colombia which
tempts me at every corner with fatty yet delicious treats. I don't
have much faith in myself to be honest.
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