Day of Rest

This is our final day in Cozumel. We fly home tomorrow, so this is my final blog regarding our trip. We started the day with a special breakfast at Park Royal Hotel and toured their facilities. Very nice. Rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. Lots of different activities for guests to do. They also have a dive shop, boats and a nice shore line. Might be a great place for a dive trip in the future.

After that we took a tour of the island in a taxi. There is one main road that runs around the coast line of the island, but only the bottom half of the island. It takes about two hours for the whole trip. We stopped at a couple of places to see the beautiful shore and to let Karen shop. Our driver was Victor and he spoke very little English and we spoke a little Spanish. But we managed quite well together. I have attached a picture of one place where we stopped.

After a brief nap and lunch, we walked one more time to the downtown area to finalize our souvenir shopping. It rained, so we had a long time in one shop. The city was very quiet because there were no cruise ships in the ports and the Coast Guard ship had left. So most tourists were SCUBA divers just picking up some things after a day of diving.

We ate our last dinner in the resort, reflecting on the fact that now Karen will be doing the cooking and washing the dishes and shopping for food once again. It was a great week, but we are ready to head home and get back to early mornings, later nights, the routine of exercise at the YMCA, going to the office, wearing a tie, and putting on coats because it is cold and snowing. We are excited about our getting back and seeing all of you dear friends again.

The other picture is Karen and I on the dive boat after completing two dives. Hope that you have enjoyed our reports..

From Karen: Yes, I agree. All play and no work is not good. But it is nice for a week or so once in a while! I just finished writing in a notebook all the things I learned while diving...things I will need to remember the next time.

Do you remember the blog that talked about the cruise ship backing up after we were into our dive and it made swimming difficult? We were not in any danger, but let me share the "lesson" I learned from that experience that I wrote in my dive log: "When the strong current came from that cruise ship, we stayed close to our Dive Master, with him (Martin) holding my hand the whole way and Walt sharing his air. Lesson: When difficulties come in our lives, we need to cling to the Sovereign Dive Master. He will take us through the difficult times. To combine two verses from Jeremiah and the Psalms,

"As a waistband CLINGS to the waist of a man, so my soul CLINGS to you, O God."

See you soon!

Last Day of Diving

All good things (except heaven) must come to an end. We made our last of five days of boat diving. We hired Martin again as our personal guide. We had two wonderful dives and saw some great things: sea turtles, lobster, Lion Fish, and at the last minutes of our last dive a big Spotted Eagle Ray swam along side of us for several minutes before we had to ascend. God is so good to give us such a finale to our trip. In the afternoon we went shopping and enjoyed the men who hustle you to come into their shops. It is also fun to see the crazy American tourists that come in on the cruise ships. I am sure we do not look a whole lot better, but at least we are not walking about town with balloon hats.
Some have asked about pictures. We do not have underwater capabilities. But we have taken some on the boat and in town, etc. I need to download them before I can get them into the blog space. Maybe with a more relaxed day tomorrow as we "off-air" for twenty-four hours before we can fly in an airplane we will have a chance to get them on to the blog space. We will take a tour of the island tomorrow for a couple of hours. Then we will just lay back, veg, sooth our sunburned body parts, and start packing for the trip home. We arrive into Springfield after 8 pm on Monday.
We are praying for a great worship service and message at First Pres and for an enriching time of Bible study with the 90-day groups. Until tomorrow night, adios! Amigos!
From Karen: Yes, this has been a wonderful vacation. The first days I needed to take tums to calm my nervous stomach. The last day, (today) I felt teary eyed as I thanked God for such a wonderful week. Thank you to each one who prayed for us. Not only wonderful experiences diving and learning so much, but also the resort...the friendly people...the delicious meals served so elegantly...having our own balcony looking out on the ocean...fun shopping...and time to keep up with our 90 Day Bible Reading. Today we invited a couple to join us for lunch that we had just "seen around". They were a lovely Christian couple from North Carolina. Good spiritual conversation. We will miss our Bible Study group tomorrow night, but will be thinking about you and praying for a meaningful time together, along with the group that meets at the Garretts and the dear folks taking on this challenge in your own homes.

Until tomorrow...love and prayers

Great Time with Martin

Our dive guide all week was a fellow named Martin, grandfather of two children. Today there were too few divers so we were regrouping. Our dive "shepherd" from Springfield could not dive with us today since his five days were done. So we decided to hire Martin as our personal dive master, which was wonderful. We wanted him to teach us our skills better and show us things on a more personal basis. Our first dive was a wall with swim throughs. Very rugged looking, like mountain passes in the alps underwater. We saw a huge crab and a regular size lobster (Caribbean lobsters do not have the large claws). We also saw a Lion Fish, which is a real ecology disaster in the Caribbean. They eat so many of the smaller fish and are destroying the reefs. They are not native here. Possibly someone dumped their fish from their aquarium. The locals kill them any time they see one. This one got away.
Our second dive was a bit of a thrill for us. A smaller cruise ship was illegally anchored in the dive area where we were. It had to back out and turned on its engines (after we had begun our dive). The turbulance created a current that we had to swim against. Walt really sucked air and Martin wanted to find a sea horse or two for us, so Walt conserved his remaining air and shared air from Martin and Karen so that we could all stay below longer. It was a shallow area, so no problems. We liked having him along, we asked him to do it again Saturday for our last two dives (boo, hoo). Even though it was his day off, he agreed to go out with us. This coming week is supposed to be slow for the dive resort, so Martin told us he can take a different day off. He didn't think we needed him, since it would be easy dives, but Karen will feel better having him with us. Which I agree.
The afternoon was spent shopping and Karen managed to find a few small things to buy.
Our group we are down here with from Aqua Sports leaves tomorrow morning while we will be down here two more days, flying back on Monday. We are looking forward to the cooler weather, it was just so hot today. Hear you have had some precipitation in the area.
We will be praying for Dr. Karl Young as he brings this message on Sunday. He is just a great man of God, he will bless you richly and you will be glad to be in church.

Almost Perfect Day

We are starting to get the hang of it. The first dive was to below 80 feet on a reef wall that was just rugged and beautiful. We got through large holes in the coral, kind of like driving down a narrow road in a deep canyon. It was really different. We saw another sea turtle, though much smaller. Again Walt was the first one to run out of air in the group. Problem is too much hot air to replace underwater!!
Second boat dive was in shallower water, reaching around 65 feet. The current was really swift, so just tucked in your arms and positioned your legs and floated along in the flow. Felt to Walt like a Disney World ride where you move along seeing a lot of interesting materials at a rate almost too fast to absorb. The fish were absolutely beautiful and plentiful.
We had the afternoon off from diving, so after lunch we did Karen's thing and went shopping without buying. Walt likes the money he saves. Because this area sees around five cruise ships every day, many of the shops are those little tourist joints that have jewelry or craft items to take home and give to relatives. We visited about five t-shirt shops with shirts selling at five for $20. One Walt liked best said, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he sits in a boat drinking beer all day."
Walt went on a night dive after we got back from shopping. There were about seven people that took their underwater flashlights and dove in the dark. You really get to see a few creatures that do not adventure out in the daylight. Walt saw a baby sting ray, an adolescent sting ray, a crab, couple eels, and a few other strange creatures he could not identify. It was so different and beautiful.
Tonight's dinner was a Mexican buffet and party on the beach. They had so many wonderful foods to eat and the plates were so small. But they did stack up well. They also had a pinata that would be broken probably after we are in bed and the guests are more relaxed. Hope you all are doing well.
Hi everyone. This is Karen. This has been a good trip. Each day I'm a little more relaxed as our skills gradually improve. Our latest skill we hope to have mastered (one never knows what the next dive will be like) is our safety stop. When you're low on air and it's time to go to the boat, you first ascend slowly until you get to 15 - 20 feet from the surface. Then you have to stay there (between 15 and 20 feet) for three minutes, while you are watching your guage that gives the time and depth. That will take more practice to get good at it, but our last dive today it worked like a charm!
I found a verse in the Bible today appropriate for SCUBA divers and the SCUBA diving business. It's Psalm 107:23-24 "Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters; They have seen the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep." God's undersea world is simply AWESOME!
Love to each one taking the time to read our blog.

A Great Day away from the snow...

Well, once again in shorts and t-shirt I am sitting outside on our balcony. No breeze tonight and the ocean is almost silent. We had a wonderful day of diving. Our first dive was on a wall reef that went down to 70 feet. We got to see a large sea turtle just relaxing on the reef with some French Angel Fish playing about it. There was just a lot of a wide variety of tropical fish in the whole area. Walt sucks air fast, always the first one in our group to run out of air. We managed to stay under for 30 minutes.
Our second dive was a whole lot shallower at 50 feet. The current was strong so when we had to swim across it, it took a lot of energy. We saw a seahorse, a lobster, and some unusual fish. A lot of white coral sand between small coral reefs, so not as beautiful as the first dive.
Our dives were in the afternoon because the surf was really strong and they did not want to take very many out. I think they provided dive boats for the people on the cruise ships this morning.
We are meeting some really nice folks and it reminds us that we have a lot of good friends back home that we miss already. We have heard that a storm is coming into the Monett area. Hope it is not too bad.
Well, our day was really relaxing and uneventful, so will bring this to a close. God bless all of you and keep you in the palm of his hand.

First Day of Diving

Wow! This was really a full day. We left to dive at 8:30 in the morning. Beautiful day with the sun shining and not behind clouds. Little wind, so the sea was smooth. Our first dive was the Columbia Reef, which would take us to 90 feet deep off a wall. Beautiful location. Walt did not have enough weight so it was hard for him to get down, comsuming quite a bit of air. So he decided to stay at 70 feet and conserve his air. But he had a hard time communicating that to Karen who was fixed on the dive master and did not comprehend what she was being signaled. So Walt had to explain to her the importance of paying attention to one's buddy. Anyway it ended well. The wall was beautiful with thick coral growth, but not a whole lot of fish.

Our second dive went a lot better. It was a Yucab reef and was only 55 feet deep. So we got a long time under water. Saw a lot of nice fish, some very big compared to similar species seen elsewhere. We did see a nice size nurse shark taking a nap under a rock ledge and a huge green morey eel. The coral here was beautiful along with other animal life. It was a really fun dive.

We were going to take a dive in the afternoon out front of the resort, but went shopping instead. Visited a SCUBA shop and Walt bought a suvenior wind breaker to wear on the boat as does get cold in the wind (cold, but not like Iowa is today). Then we signed up our day off from diving on Sunday to do a tour of the island and hear a sales pitch for a resort near the area where the cruise ships come in. Today we had six huge ships from Carnival and Royal Caribbean, plus two other lines we did not recognize. Carnival had three ships tied up here today.

Then we went to a Mega Mart, much like a super Walmart. Got some cheese and Coke Light (not nearly as good as plain diet Coke or Coke Zero). Then we hit a couple of jewelry stores for Karen to look at. While waiting for Karen to shop without buying, Walt got the chance to witness to a Jehovah Witness. The guy just started jumping on Roman Catholics and said they had false teachings. When asked which ones, he started in on the Trinity. Walt got a good chance to try and explain the greatest mystery in the universe. The guy invited Walt to come speak at his church while in town, but decided not to go because (1) he would be outnumbered, and (2) he is on vacation. Just did not think it would be a good time or place, especially since Walt's Spanish is limited to items of food and bathrooms.

After a nice dinner of beef we are relaxing on our balcony with a slight breeze and wonderful peaceful waves on the shore. God is so good. Sorry all you Iowa folk are getting hit with the blizzard. Until Wednesday have a blessed sleep and a great day in God's world.

Safe in Cozumel

Greetings from warm and beautiful Cozumel. We are sitting on the balcony of our second story room at 7:30 p.m. There is a nice wind blowing in from the ocean. The waves lap against the shore in soothing rhythm, almost singing a lulluby that is about putting us to sleep. It may also be that we are very tired from our trip, having to arise at 3:45 a.m. to get to the airport by six o'clock. We arrived early enough that we caught an earlier flight to Dallas, which gave us nearly two hours to rest in the Dallas airport. We arrived in Cozumel about 1:00 and arrived at the restort around 2:00. The system for customs in Mexico is really smooth and we all got through quickly.
We arrived to find our dive group out in a boat because of two events. One is that the group must do one afternoon dive to help accomodate all the divers at this resort. The second is that there was a big storm from the north that passed through here on Sunday night. Because of the prevailing winds, the channel here was closed to boat traffic until 11:00 a.m. So almost all morning dives ended up being noon or later dives. Our group did not return until nearly five oclock, which gave Karen and I a lot of time to get settled in, pay all of our dive fees, sign all the documents. We also just sat on the shore and watched the water.
The restaurant here is nice, serving good and filling meals. Tonight Karen had chicken and I had seafood kabobs. All very tasty. But we did not get any diving in today. So our first dive will be tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. all things being in order.
We really want to thank you for praying for us today and thank God for answering those prayers because this trip down was just nearly perfect. Even security went smoothly for me as I just seem to get upset facing all that undressing and unloading the computers, etc. But we got through it without a hitch. They did search Karen's carryon bag because her gear looked like a toy helocopter. Well that is enough. More tomorrow evening.

Cozumel Here We Come

On Monday we will be leaving out of Springfield for a week of SCUBA diving in Cozumel, Mexico. We will get in six days of diving with two boat dives every day. Watch my blogspot every evening for updates as to our experiences and maybe a picture or two. We are joining a group of divers from Aquasports who will be going down on Saturday. Karen and I had to wait until Monday to go because of the church's annual meeting on Sunday. We will stay until Monday, Jan 31, which means that we will be diving after the rest of the group leaves. Hopefully we will feel confident enough to go with strangers after the group leaves. Cozumel is drift diving, which means we jump off the boat into the ocean, submerge to appropriate depth, float along in the current until we reach our air limit, surface, and (God willing) the boat is there to pick us up. They say it is a very relaxing experience and you get more time underwater because you are not sucking up air swimming. We will see. You can see a webcam at the resort web site and see us leaving on the boat at about 9:00 am and returning about 1:00 pm. The website is www.scubaclubcozumel.com. Otherwise, just read this blog and keep up with my reports.