Day 11 - My wish factory

Today was an amazing day! It seems like every little thing I wish for, comes true.

I really wanted to be on the big boat - and voila - I was. There are several boats here at Aldora dive shop - one "big boat" (el barco) and 3-4 speed boats (las lanchas). I love all of them, but the big boat is my favorite: it's a lot of fun to sit on the top level next to the captain listening to the lively Latin music while gazing in the blue of the sea on the way to and from dives; it has a toilet on board (which is a real blessing for me, as I'm not very well water-broken so to speak, and for some unknown physiological or psychological reason, it seems that my bladder would much rather prefer to explode than to let me pee in the ocean); when the waves are very rough, you don't really get splashed as much; usually it accommodates 2 groups of divers which is always fun as your paths cross underwater (and sometimes it comes very handy, as you'll see below).

Yesterday, I was thinking that I had not been to one dive site - called Maracaibo - forever. And boom - today we go! In my opinion, it's one of the most beautiful dive locations here. It is totally different from the regular reefs of Cozumel. It reminds me of the Persian carpet - I guess it's the colors and fairly flat yet textured terrain. This place is usually for deep dives as the drop-off starts at 90 feet. Also, there's a gorgeous coral arch that you can swim through at 120 feet. Usually, the current is pretty strong in this area, which makes drift diving even more enjoyable. You know those beautiful dreams of flying? It is exactly the same feeling, except you know you are not sleeping. I just looked up the interpretation of such dreams, and apparently they mean that something is going very RIGHT in our lives. I can only imagine what free flying in real life should mean. What? Wow!:)

On this trip, I still didn't see an Eagle Ray - my favorite underwater creature. Correction - I didn't see one until... today! I was just thinking to myself, "Everything is going so perfectly today, maybe I'll finally see an eagle ray". And bam - here it was in all its pre-historic glory.

And last but not least, another important wish was granted to me today. Remember at the beginning of this post I mentioned that the big boat can usually accommodate 2 groups of divers? Normally, they separate at the entrance point - the first group jumps in a little earlier - and rarely meet underwater. At minute 30 of our second dive, I started my regular shivering routine, and prayed that we somehow bump into the other divers, although I knew pretty well that it was next to impossible given their original jumping point. But - oh, miracle - around minute 55, when I was about to freeze to death but didn't want to let my group know not to spoil this gorgeous dive for them, I see my savior Javier (a dive master) leading his bunch up-up-up-up-up. So I jump ship and join them, thus saving my butt from freezing and leaving my buddies in the deep to enjoy another half-hour of their dive without my useless shivering presence.

I don't really know what to make of all the "coincidences" of today. So I choose to believe that I have somehow turned into a wish factory, and all I need to do now is streamline my wishful thinking into some sort of conveyor belt:).

P.S. Fortunately, no black-eye from my yesterday's accident. A little sad though - I really wanted to explore how people would react to the cantina story:).