Well...
I'm back on UK soil at home, I think...
Short summary: Pog on!
Longer summary:
I really enjoyed this holiday! Many thanks to Adam and Rich for putting all the organisation in behind the scenes to get us all there.
It was a little bit of a mission to get down to the island (and was looking like a somewhat harder venture to leave ) but well worth every second and penny.
The journey out started off well, I sweet talked the check-in desk girl into upgrading 2/3 flights for free + provide awesome seats. After visiting Amsterdam to see if it was still there (it is), and picking up some nice duty free, I doubled back on myself a few hours later to Atlanta; where I remained for what felt like three decades. This place was deserted, I mean completely void of all life. Even the gate-to-gate trains were 100% computer operated; I rode them all. Twice.
Around 04:00AM a floor buffing machine accidentally burst into life for a fleeting second; and then it quickly silenced for another four hours of jam-packed nothing.
Security then decided it would be fun to remove my newly purchased duty free JD and any tools that took their fancy in my case. Nice one TSA.
I have not spent enough time in the USA to fully appreciate it; however the glimpse I've had of it from behind the airport walls is: it's all guns and toilet seat covers.
Just before boarding, I met up with Cody + his girlfriend, and we dodged, ducked, dipped, dove and dodged the hoards of missionaries to the plane. (They later caught up with me 10 days later while I was taking refuge in a "Wendy's" at San Pedro... )
We all stayed in a local hotel on the mainland, which was pleasant, but had very strict rules with stove location and "burning courtings" which obviously proved a little problematic.
Then we met up with Adam and his wife Marie for a ~3hr ride to the port. For me, the ferry did not go down well; it did however come up very well. Several times.
Then we met up with Rich and the resort owner, and WOW... what a beautiful place. The dive shop, resort and "monkey tail pier bar" are micron away from each other.
Mario then arrived the next day, and we roughly spent the following days diving in the day, laser tinkering bits in the late afternoon, followed by set of great evening meals as per Rich's restaurant recommendations, and then back to rum 'n' lasers into the night.
I had a crack at diving for the first time, and, after what felt like being thrown in at the deep end poddling around with the fish under the coral, decided I loved it and transferred to do my Basic Open Water certification (thanks for sorting that Rich!)
Everyone else worked on their Advanced Open Water diving courses, but there was some overlap on the boat dives which was great. We also snuck in a few fun dives, and I managed to decipher the GoPro and took a few photos, attached at the end.
Thursday evening was little show on the local beach, in which Rich took his newly fettled RGB his blue and red/blue projectors. While building + tinkering, a few diodes did bite the dust for both known an unknown reasons, which was a little frustrating. But Cody managed to patch up the green in the new RGB with a trade.
The show went well as Rich and the locals had got strategically placed fires going to kick out some more smoke.
Lots of photons, lots of rum... (probably too much rum if I'm honest).
The return journey was "different" as they had closed the port due to a "battern-down-the-hatches" storm.
So Rich stepped in and managed to organise us flights off the island on a little aircraft (cheer doooode!).
Now for a few underwater photos. I have a lot of video I need to sort through a piece together sometime this week.
Thanks to everyone who made it a great trip.
So... would I go again?
Absolutely! Let's get a bucket load more people going should/when there be a 2nd!
Cheers,
Dan
- There is no such word as "can't" -
- 60% of the time it works every time -