AZ Girly: Glover's Reef

Showing posts with label Glover's Reef. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Passing notes. Underwater.

I did not realize that it was possible to revert to the 6th grade without speaking, but that's why they made dive slates, I guess. Spent quite a bit of my diving time passing notes back & forth with the ever-so-charming divemaster, who also enjoyed practical jokes such as swimming up above me, then suddenly waving his hands in front of my mask, followed by much (mimed) pointing and laughing. Then there was the empty lobster shell utilized as a finger puppet, which he reached into a giant barrel sponge one day and then SURPRISE popped right in my face. That was amusing, but I had steeled myself for another such attack a few minutes later. I was taken aback when the barrel sponge revealed not another lobster head peering at me, but instead the middle finger. I laughed so hard I spit out my regulator, swallowed about a lungful of seawater, and had half the group approaching me to see why I was attempting to avoid choking to death. I had a hard time collecting my wits for the rest of the dive. As soon as we surfaced and made it into the boat, I started cracking up and promptly punched Mr. Funny Guy.

He managed to redeem himself during my last dive at Glover's, though. Despite the fact that the fishermen's nightly cleaning ritual at the end of the dock attracted nurse sharks & stingrays by the dozen, I had been whining for two weeks that I had yet to see a shark while underwater. The guys badgered me to try out the shark cage attached to the dock, but the sun was so low in the sky at that point in the day that the underwater lighting was rather dismal, even with the flash on my camera.

So on the penultimate day of my atoll adventure, I scoffed when the divemaster waved excitedly at me and showed the hand signal for shark. I nodded at him, shrugging it off as more good-natured teasing. He continued to wave me over in a very perturbed fashion. I shuddered at what surprise lay in store, but dutifully swam in his direction. All of a sudden, in a flash of sand and a flip of grey, a nurse shark flounced off, clearly annoyed at having his afternoon nap disturbed. If it's possible to smile through your reg, I certainly did that day. Sadly, I wasn't quick enough for photos.

The other remarkable diving event of this week was a big loggerhead turtle swimming near our group who headed up to the surface for air at the same time we did - very cool to watch.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Restraining order, stat!!!

There was some high quality entertainment one afternoon during my stay at Off The Wall when a pair of remoras were stalking me like they were paparazzi! At the end of my very first dive in Belize, a small remora followed us up to the boat and tried to nibble on a fellow diver's toes, so I was already understandably wary of these unusual fish.

In case you're not familiar with them, remoras have a large flat head with a sucker disc which they use to attach themselves to sharks, turtles, boats, divers...you name it. Basically, they're lazy bastards looking for a free ride. They feed off the larger animal's leftovers. I've heard conflicting accounts as to how painful it can be to remove a remora that has attached to your skin. I was not particularly interested in finding out firsthand!

I noticed that a pair of remoras seemed to be circling me. I tried to swim in a different direction - they followed. I tried ignoring them - they came closer. I tried kicking water at them with my fins. Evidently they interpret this as aggressive behavior and want to investigate even more closely. Needless to say, I was on the verge of a minor (underwater!!!) panic attack at this point, when my divemaster swam up behind me & grabbed the back of my tank. He motioned that I should calm down. I frantically pointed at the mean scary fish that were chasing me and got a nice glare in return. Somehow he managed to convey "just ignore them" with no words, and I tried to focus on keeping my eyes forward for the rest of the dive and just breathe.

The damn things still ended up trailing me all the way to the boat, which I was promptly teased and laughed at by every single member of our group for the rest of the day. Even my parents joined in on the mocking - my father suggested that 'it might be the tattoos,' and my mother concurred with 'watch out, they might try to eat them off you.' Wishful thinking, Mom - I made it to the next island in one piece!!!

Friday, April 15, 2011

On to the gorgeous world of Glover’s Reef!

After arriving at Off The Wall on Long Key* and getting settled, I had a quick tour of the island and my charming home for the week. OTW was an amazing experience – as one of three (!) guests for the week, I certainly received plenty of personal attention, and the native Belizean cook, Eileen, was kind enough to cater to my exceedingly picky palate. There was some type of home-baked bread at every meal, and I couldn’t get enough. We averaged two dives per day, with one night dive added in. The island itself was beautiful, tranquil, and oh so relaxing. The diving was just…WOW. I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

A complete list of all the amazing creatures I saw during this first week:
On land – hermit crabs & iguanas galore!!!