Our trip to Cancun!

Ok, as promised, here are all the details from our trip to Cancun. Bill and I went south for a nice relaxing, child free vacation. Let me first say that when we left for Mexico, the swine flu was something that was going on in Mexico city, but had not reached other areas, so while we saw it briefly just before we left, we really didn't think too much of it. We now find ourselves watching ourselves very carefully for the faintest sign of being sick, as we will head STRAIGHT for the doctor! We are also limiting how much we go outside the house and having the girls wash their hands constantly and spraying everything with Lysol! We've reminded the girls not to drink after us or each other, etc. So hopefully we will not get sick, and if we do, hopefully we are limiting it to just us! Keep us in your prayers on that one! Now, on to the vacay details! We were supposed to do a night dive the day we got there, but the port was closed due to very high winds, so no boats could leave the lagoon to go into the ocean. So we spent the first day hanging out by the pool and relaxing. Our resort was beautiful! And our room had a fantastic view overlooking the pools and the ocean. It was an all inclusive resort, which was nice b/c we are all about food when we go on vacation! I will say, as non-drinkers, some of that all inclusive aspect was lost for us. The little beer that they put in our fridge sat there the entire time...the soda and water got drank, but the lone little beer just sat there! So anyway, there are some pics to see, but for the most part, the early part of our vacation was pretty uneventful, we relaxed by the pool or ocean, we played in the surf (thought we didn't go too deep because it was SUPER windy the whole time), we ate, we napped, we shopped, we just relaxed.

Then on Monday, it got interesting! The port finally opened to allow boats out. We were on a boat that, by our estimation, and mentally comparing it to our own boat was about 28 feet long and 8 feet wide. I have some pix of the captain and first mate, so you can get an idea of the boat. It was just one level, very small for an ocean craft. We learned pretty quickly after clearing the port and heading out into the harbor and then into the open sea that the reason the port got opened was because the port authorities were receiving alot of pressure to open them, not necessarily b/c it was actually safe! We did not even get to take any pics once we reached the open sea, b/c the dive master made us stow everything. We had to get into our gear early too b/c he said there would be no way to do all of that once we hit the waves. He was SOOOOOO right. The swells were easily 6 feet high, maybe more. That little boat was ROCKING. We would climb a wave and then come crashing down from it while the back end of the boat was still up on it. We had to hold on very tight so as not to get thrown around. Me being incredibly stupid thought this was quite a thrill! So we got out to the reef and rolled back off the boat into the crazy waves. We started our descent immediately b/c the waves were throwing us around pretty good. As it turns out Bill did not have enough weight on his weight belt (all of the scuba gear is very bouyant, so you have to use weights to counteract this) and his sinus pressure was causing him to have trouble clearing his ear space, which is something you MUST do every few feet to prevent your eardrums from severe pain and possibly rupturing. I could have used a few extra pounds of weight myself. So we had a hard time getting down and had to use alot of energy to get down, and therefore alot of our air. (For my diving friends I am writing this so that non-divers can understand, so please bear with all the explainations!) So, what was supposed to be a 40 minute dive, turned out to be just shy of 30 minutes, because we were running out of air and so had to surface early. This was a drift dive, which means that you go down to a reef or something that is located in a current and that current pulls you along. Often a current is fairly mild, but the same current can vary depending on the weather. Remember that I just mentioned that it had been and still was VERY windy. But the dive master underestimated how bad the current would be that day. We felt like Dori and Marlin when they jumped into the current with Crush in Finding Nemo! The stuff we saw was amazing, but it went by very quickly. In order to see anything for more than a second, we had to swim against the current to slow ourselves down. This also contributed to our very quick air consumption. And this didn't stop us, it merely slowed us down so we could take a picture or see something for a moment. The dive was AMAZING. We saw some great things. In the pics you will see the same fish OVER and OVER again. It looks a bit like a small shark at first glance, but it was in fact a Remora, aka, a sucker fish. They attach themselves to the underside of large animals like sharks and whales and eat their leftovers and feces (gross, huh?). Our dive master chose to wait until we were safely back on the boat to tell us that his presence meant that somewhere in the vicinity (meaning within a few miles of where we were) there was likely such a large animal that this fish had been feeding on, and that it would have to be particularly large b/c this was a pretty big sucker fish. I for one am glad he did not tell us this while we were still in the water! That fish found us pretty early on in the dive and jumped right into the current with us and stayed with us for the rest of the dive and after we surfaced for a while. We also saw some AMAZING coral, a puffer fish, and loads of other kinds of fish that I have not yet had the time to go online to try to identify. We LOVED the dive., even though we went very quickly. So, then we surfaced. Because the current had been much stronger than anticipated, the boat was at least a mile or so behind us, thinking that this would be about where we would come up. Now, stay with me here, I know I'm getting a little technical. Currents are stronger on the surface than they are at depth, so b/c we sufaced a little less than 15 minutes earlier than the boat was planning for us to, and because we had gone WAY past where the boat thought we would be, we ended up on the surface for a while and it just kept getting worse b/c the topside current was just dragging us farther and farther away from whre we were supposed to be. One of the things they teach you when you learn to dive is to NEVER try to swim against a current. You won't be able to do it and you'll just wear yourself out quicker. And that was especially the case in this strong of a current. So, we waited. When we first surfaced and the boat wasn't there, we didn't panic because we knew we had surfaced a bit early. So five minutes went by and we could not see the boat anywhere, then10 minutes went by, then 15. Remember, we were in 6+ foot swells. Occasionally when we were at the top of a crest of a wave and the boat was at the top of a crest, our dive master would say he could see the boat. I never did see it, at least not for a long while. But he said it was just a speck and was likely a couple of miles away. We had a 4 foot long inflatable , orange signal tube. But with the waves being 6 feet high, it was pretty useless! Especially from that distance. At 20 minutes in, our divemaster told us to drop our weights. This is an emergency protocol that divers use to conserve energy when on the surface if they are in the water for a long time. So, at this point Bill and I are both getting a bit scared, neither one wanting to let on to the other one how bad we thought this could be b/c we were both trying to hold it together for the other. I kept putting my head in the water to see what was below us, and I realized the reef was gone...we had drifted well past the end of the reef. By the way, I have always hated having to dive with a snorkel attached to my mask. I will NEVER complain about that again! That snorkel was a life saver! Since we had no air left, we used to snorkel to keep from swallowing so much water. Special thanks to the salesman who convinced us to buy the more expensive snorkel that had a cover at the top to prevent water from coming in that way in choppy water!! I was concerned that they would only be looking for us at the reef. After about 30 minutes the dive master could see the panic on our faces. He told us that by now they had called in to the harbor to tell them that they had divers missing and that they would have radioed out to all the other boats in the area to help find us. (Which we later found out was exactly what had happened.) He also told us that WORST case senario, we would drift into the boat traffic for Isla Mujeres in a couple of hours, and someone would find us. That island was thankfully between us and the truly open sea. But I really didn't like the idea of being out there for several hours. In the meantime our boat was following standard rescue procedure and starting near the drop off point and doing a zig zag pattern back and forth along the current to try to find us. After about 40 minutes, I could see the boat on the horizon as it and we crested the large waves. I have never been so relieved, but they still had not seen us. It was still a couple of minutes before they saw our orange signal tube. We knew exactly when they saw us b/c they made a beeline for us. We got to the boat and climbed on as the captain called the port to report that we had been found. We ended up bobbing around in the 6+ foot waves for 45 minutes. It was an extremely terrifying experience. While neither of us was willing to mention it at the time, we were both having vivid memories of recent news stories of divers getting left behind, and the recent movie about the same. Needless to say, there were MANY prayers being offered in the water that day! And many prayers of thanks have been offered since. We feel extraordinarily grateful to have been found. We were grateful to God for answers to our prayers and the safety we recieved. We were grateful to our dive master, Octavio, for helping to keep us calm...had we been out there alone, we would have surely panicked. He knew the lay of the land (sea) and he knew the proper rescue protocol so we knew that we were being looked for. His calming presence was something I, for one, will NEVER forget! We are also grateful to George and Akmal, the captain and first mate of the boat for their diligence in looking for us. After this experience, we decided to bag the other 2 dives we were planning on doing that day. We most certainly will dive again, we really do enjoy it. I hope anyone reading this who has considered diving will not let this sway them. It really is an amazing experience.

So, with a little time on our hands that we had planned to use diving, we set out for another adventure. We decided to give parasailing a try. It was really fun, but we went in the lagoon, not the ocean b/c this company was not taking boats out into the ocean side in that crazy wind. After what we had been through, that was OK with us! :) We actually found it to be less adventurous and more relaxing. We just floated up high above the boat in the harbor and enjoyed the view, which was amazing. We could see the entire lagoon and across the strip of hotels all the way to see a great view of the ocean on the other side. Then we went back to the resort and chilled for a while, had dinner and went to bed! It was an exhausting day physically and emotionally. Then on the last day we set out to try to go wind surfing, but were told that without prior experience they would not let us do it because of the intense wind (which was considerably less than it had been the day before) so, oh well, that will have to wait for our next adventure! So instead,we spent that time playing in the waves since they were finally a bit less intense than they had been on the previous days. Unfortunately, Bill forgot to remove his blackberry from his hip before we got in, so one of the first things we had to do when we got back was purchase a new blackberry for him! On the up side, we got upgraded to first class on the way from Cancun to Houston, so that was nice. Having a hubby who flys ALL THE TIME pays off!

All in all it was a great vacation. I think a little adventure makes it memorable! And let me assure you all, I will NEVER forget this experience!!!