July 15, 2015

Up at 5 a.m on vacation, but this was for a good cause, a very good cause.  I woke the kids at 5:18 and after a very quick, light breakfast, we  walked to scuba, making it 2 minutes early.   No one showed.  I called the PADI center's after-hour number.  Finally, 25 minutes late, a Dude shows up and soon after, a couple and our guide arrive at same time.  Off to Playa Uvita we drive.  6 other people were already at teh dive center's other facility: a single lady and older couple and a man with two women.  After getting folks sized with what they needed, we walked to beach, walked through some water and stepped into the boat.  The destination island, Caño Island, is where the first Jurassic Park was shot and is an biological reserve. The boat trip was so, so bumpy, but somehow, I was ok.  Ethan, however, was very quiet.  I kept checking on Maggie, but she was fine.  When we got to island, Ethan was doing badly - and was quite pale.  He got in the boat to dive, but had to go back to the island, where he laid down on the beach and immediately fell asleep.

Maggie and I dove.   The water was the most beautiful water, a color blue I've never seen before, not even in Tahiti.  It was an electric liquid, a rich blue of such depth, I was hypnotized.  We saw sharks, moray eels, 3 species of  rays, snappers and numerous schools of fish.  The 40 minutes went by quickly and by the end, I was at 250 psi of air after starting with 3000.  We went back, ate a bit of fruit before getting on Caño Island (food is not allowed on the island and 4 guards live on the island in shifts, I believe, to ensure it is kept safe).    The best news was Ethan's huddled up little body on the beach was just him lying down - he felt much better.  After playing in the waves a while, Ethan came 2nd dive and  I was happy:  my little ducks were with me. The dive was very good, just like the first.  We had our picture taken underwater with Ethan's camera - again, time ran our too quickly and we soon headed back up (unfortunately, we discovered Wednesday night that none of the pictures/film from Ethan's camera had worked <I had taken his camera on the first dive>.  We were all devastated.  For me, it was a re-living of having lost the MH video I'd shot at Calpine).  Next  dive, I'm buying a Go-Pro.

It was time for lunch, so we ate lunch on the boat, though one man was so ill he stayed on the island and was quite sick. Ethan also wasn't very comfortable with the rocking of the boat and just sat (though he was okay to eat the corn chips made in Costa Rica).    We finally started back - the boat speed beginning to increase (and I was worried as all get-out as the boat rocked) yet Universe listened to my plea: The crew came upon an abandoned, stripped boat of Colombian origin, floating with human remains on-board (ok, ok...I told the kids, that technically, a hoodie and a Tshirt were considered "human remains" since they were worn by humans and remained on the boat).  We looked out on the horizon to see a boat racing towards us and suddenly visions of bricks of cocaine and  machine guns entered my mind.  The other boat was a crew of three who were racing back to claim the boat and were FURIOUS that our boat reached it first (which, through maritime lay, means it belonged to the dive crew.  Finders-keepers is how it works).  The boat was at least a 20K value, if not more.  Our crew tied a rope to the boat and started towing it behind us.  It was very slow getting back - in 2 hours we were just beginning to see the Costa Rican coast.  Picture it :  A man lying on a mattress of life vests due to extreme illness, an older lady having an anxiety attack and in tears, a nauseous boy (that's m'boy!) and 8 other people, all sunburned and in various states of composer (my composer was smiling - I was having a great time!).  After 3 hours, another boat met up with us to transfer us back while the crew proceeded to tow the boat back to shore.  Now THAT is an adventure!!! 


The kids and I were exhausted, but knew if we went back to the house first, we'd never leave for dinner - so we headed to out Coco Restaurant (no 80s rock this time, though).  As we sat, eating and talking about our day - the skies opened and torrential rain fell.  For half an hour it was amazing - a river poured of the roof and onto a lake on the ground.  We called a taxi (which arrived with the same three men in it we had seen at the fish mongers) and headed home - only to find there was no water. I'm not making this shit up.  Neighbors across the way - Tim and Rickee (who is known as DJ Whoop Whoop) had said to come by if we ever needed anything so that's where I went.  Now, luck would have it that they have a deal with Mark, the man who owned the house we were staying in, that if water ran out, he could hook up to Tim and Rickee's well.  So Tim and I worked on attaching hoses and while it took some time, and there were some bumps, eventually a small, anorexic stream of water appeared.  Quick showers and a super fun Farkle game, with Ethan praying to Oprah for a lucky roll.  An incredible day, to be sure.



 Pictures and movie: Our day at Caño Island and a movie of the abandoned boat.