Diving in Cartagena

This past Saturday, Michelle, Christy and I went diving at seven in the morning.  That's right: no sleeping in here!  It was a beautiful, cool day, and we had a friendly, attractive dive instructor, Daniel.  The boat took us out on a thirty-minute ride to the middle of the ocean where the waves were quite choppy.  Unfortunately, Michelle felt the effects as we were gearing up and proceeded to feed the fish her regurgitated breakfast.  Luckily, she was quite the sport and ended up diving anyway.  

Our first dive was over and around a wall about 60 feet below.  The coral was beautiful, and we saw quite a few tropical fish.  It had been a year and a half since my last dive, so I had been a bit nervous about getting in, but there was no need as everything went smoothly.  

Upon surfacing, they gave us water, fruit and chips as we dealt with the rocking of the boat.  Not only was Michelle still seasick, but her leg was burning from a transparent rope she had run into.  The men doused it with water and vinegar, but welts showed up just the same.  The fish continued profiting from her nauseousness.  

For the second dive, we toured around a ship that had sunk 20 years ago.  It used to shine the light for boats coming into harbor but perished during a rough storm.  The current was a bit stronger here, and both Christy and I came up bleeding from scraping against the concrete ship while exiting the interior.  

The black and white fish is the lion fish.  It is beautiful as it hovers over its territory, but it is also an invasive species and kills all the fish that protect reefs.  In the past, I have seen divers bring spears to kill these fish because they're overtaking the Caribbean.  Luckily, we were just able to admire the view this time.  

Although we didn't see any large species of fish, it was good to be in the water again, and I enjoyed being on the boat.  We will probably wait until the windy season is over to go again; the waves should be more bearable at that point.