Day 15 - Valentine's Day feast

Diving turns out be to a very social activity. You'd think it should be the opposite: you are pretty isolated from everybody underwater, you don't really talk (although, surprisingly enough, some people can actually enunciate so well that it becomes no effort to understand them - bad news for that guy who participated in my survey last summer featuring "no talk guarantee" as his number one reason for diving), you are completely in your own world. But all those long boat rides (sometimes pretty eventful due to various engine malfunctions or choppy seas) and surface intervals (we usually do what is called two-tank dives, meaning that your first dive is followed by an hour breakfast / lunch break followed by another dive) create the perfect time window to share remarks on your common passion for the underwater world and, inevitably, your life stories. What bothers me the most, actually, is that the first question after the introductions is "What do you do?" Are we really THAT defined by our job? Of course, now that I don't have any job, I feel amazing to just be able to say, "I do nothing". But the next question is always, "What DID you do then?" Seriously, who cares! I mean, I'd like to know what somebody does, but not if I meet a person for 5 seconds... Some people that I become closer with - of course, I'm very interested in everything they are about, including they occupation, but if I just literally pass by somebody underwater, why is it so important for me to know what profession this person chose at some point in their life? Anyway, regardless of this little nuisance that irritates me, it is absolutely awesome that you meet so many people in such a short time. And since you share a passion, you always have something to discuss, there are never awkward pauses, so in a way, you become somewhat close by default.

Some people come to the island time and again over many-many years, so they become friends with other people who have same vacation schedule, as well as locals (both Mexicans and expats) - dive masters, bar owners and tenders, hotel managers, etc. - and create a pretty neat ever-expanding social circle. Once you meet somebody from within such a cirle and stay on the island for more than 3 days, you automatically become part of it as you get invited to various functions - Super Bowl party, Valentine Day's cook-out, just a Saturday night bar bash, etc. When you become part of several circles, you realize that they overlap. It's a pretty fascinating dynamic, like with any social networking, but here everything happens in record time, probably due to the lack of any other commitments during your vacation, which makes it possible to accept as many invitations as you can (well, until it becomes impossible, of course, but I think the island is too small for that to happen - at least, not any time soon for me:)).

To cut a long story short (which, I guess, I already failed to do), I was invited to this BBQ party by Justin. You may remember him from my trip to cenotes last Thursday: he is the guy I have been diving with for the past couple of weeks, the one who worked on the Twighlight fight scenes as a camera assistant, and the one who I'm stealing underwater pictures from to post here and on FB. He is part of a group of people who rent this awesome 3-bedroom house in-land for a couple of months and just share in for 2-3 weeks each - a pretty neat concept. The house is far from me, so it took me one hour to walk there, but gave me a chance to test my new GPS device, and I'm happy to report - it works!

Just a tiny curious detail: I thought it would be appropriate to wear my Heart Fighter woot t-shirt to the party on February 14th, but no mention of the Valentine's Day was even made. The food was SPECTACULAR! Mexican BBQ is exactly like any other BBQ, plus chorizo sausages, and nothing can top that!!! And some lady made a salad that I had several helpings of (and from a carnivore that I am that is a huge compliment to the salad)!

In addition to some people who I already knew due to the aforementioned overlapping nature of social circles, I met some pretty interesting characters at the party, including but not limited to somebody who reminds me immensely of - brace yourself - JOEL!!! As you can imagine, it was most entertaining. He is Justin's father, he is 60 and a total hippy. It is so wonderful to talk to him! I couldn't stop smiling as he was clueing me in on some of the stories and general life experiences. Made me feel home away from home. An exquisite pleasure!

Speaking of social networking, one of the guys from the party - Alex - is a bar owner here in Cozumel. Now that he knows that I'm planning to go to Argentina in a few months, he wants to introduce me to a Mexican guy who lived in Argentina for a while and knows all the ins and outs. Obviously, I'm going to take him up on this offer.

As I chewed through all the grilled deliciousness piled up on my plate, I kept thinking how cool the simple act of talking to people is - not only it is fun, but actually it is also a crucial tool to ensuring your comfort in life. I know, I know - it's not the most profound thought, but given how full of meat I was, this was the maximum depth my mind could reach...