Under the Sea

I am officially a PADI-certified Open Water Diver.

During this past 4-day weekend, I traveled to Taganga, Colombia on the Caribbean coast to take the practical portion of my scuba diving course...and check a few items off my bucket list.  Life-changing.

For the past few months I've worked to complete the theoretical portion of the course through e-learning.  If you are interested, check it out here.  It's super easy and very informative - I felt prepared for the practical portions and it allows you to get the certification in a shorter vacation. 

On Friday night I flew to Santa Marta, Colombia and from there took a 30-minute taxi to a less populated, more low-key town: Taganga.  It is a small fishing community that also has a large diving community and a lot of expats - traveling through or living there I wasn't really sure - but it was beautiful and provided a nice break from the craziness that is Bogotá.

The course was three days long - two dives on Saturday afternoon, two on Sunday morning, and two on Monday morning.  Each day included one dive with many drills and tests (required in order to obtain the certification).  I need to point out that the course was in Spanish - for a few reasons:  1) This allows me to check an item off my bucket list (take a course in Spanish).   2) This made everything a tad bit more difficult and scary.  When someone is talking about turning your oxygen off 12 meters (40 feet) under water but the details are a bit fuzzy about what you should do your blood pressure definitely creeps up.

Anyhow there were many tests - 200 meters swim in open water, floatability drills, skin diving, changing air at the surface and under water, etc. - but the best part was actually seeing this amazing underworld.  We saw turtles, seahorses, blowfish, eels, tons of fish I don't know the names of of hundreds of different colors.  It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Not sure what else to say.  AWESOME.  Here are some pics of the town and my diving.  I can officially check getting certified in diving off my bucket list.  I still haven't swum with a shark, however, which just means I need to go on another dive in a new place.  On my wish list: San Andres and Providencia.  Anyone interested in joining me?