Entries this day: Acapulco! Acapulco_dive_photos After_Acapulco

Acapulco!

Acapulco!

Of all the ports we have visited, Acapulco seems to most closely match the image I
had in my mind before we arrived.  Ironically, I have not seen the famous cliff
divers of Acapulco, but everything else basically matches: a long strip of hotels
and restaurants wrapped around the bay, with taxis zooming back and forth among the
buses. The happily crowded beach with food and souvenir vendors offers ample sand,
surf, and fun in the sun for everyone.

A large Mexican flag marks the center of the semicircular beach.  At this point we
met Jimmy, of Jimmy's Diving Center, with whom we went scuba diving!  Angie, and
her boyfriend Ryan (who drove down from Minnesota to see her) plus Katt and I
had met a woman named Rosie who basically offered locator services: answering where
we could find the best hotels and restaurants and, in our case, scuba diving.  She
called her friend Jimmy, who quoted us $45 each, to which we readily agreed, given
Ryan had been quoted $80 the previous day.  Katt chose not to dive (because
diving involves swimming) but went around town with Rosie.

Angie and Ryan had never been diving before, but Jimmy offered a verbal guarantee
they would be able to dive, and we headed out to an island on the north (?) end of
Acapulco bay.

We dove to about 3 meters in a relatively calm area with large rocks offering
places for fish to hang out.  I can't name any except for what I'd call black and
white angel fish.  I'm thankful that I brought two things along for the dive:
Francois, my stuffed rabbit, and my underwater camera case (and camera).  I got
some great pictures (and many not so great); the underwater camera case has been a
great toy on this trip!

Here's a link to all the pictures!

http://robnugen.com/images/travel/Pb/49th_May-Aug_2005/diving_in_acapulco/index.shtml

Also, I just uploaded four rough versions of some lectures by Erik Leaver, a man
who is doing education and outreach on issues surrounding Iraq and multilateral
institutions.

http://robnugen.com/writing/Erik_Leaver_Iraq/

  I hope everyone is well!
  Love Love Love
    - Rob! 

Acapulco dive photos

11:14pm JST Tuesday 04 October 2005

It's been a while, and I thought I already wrote about these, but I can't find them. I want to get these done before I forget!

It was my first time to dive, so my mind was on Chris Goodman, my diving instructor in Tokyo. I wanted to show him the equipment we used, so I took pictures of Francois using the equipment as a guise.

Angie and Ryan chatted about whatever they chatted about. I could just imagine how cool a trip Ryan had just taken, driving down from Minnesota (or one of those northern M states) just to hang out with the lovely Miss Angie.

Our instructor, Jimmy, on the left, and our driver / diver (forgot his name) on right.

On the way to the diving spot, we saw many many many neat houses and hotels. This was one of my favorites.

We finally arrived at the spot, an island in Acapulco Bay. After a quick training session, we were ready to go. I felt a bit nervous that I wouldn't be able to equalize my ears, but using the line to go down, I found it was no problem whatsoever. I think the warmth of the water helped a lot. (During my training, I was wearing a 7mm wetsuit, and was still cold.)

The water wasn't crystal clear, but it was fine for a first dive. I headed down, and then realized I wanted my camera. I used the universal sign for camera toward our guide, and he went back up to get it. Awesome.

Our guide picked up this little crab.

After a bit I was like, aight; I can do this; where's my rabbit? and decided it was time for Francois to swim.

I was much more comfortable with equalization, so I didn't worry about surfacing again to nab him myself. I was like, "hey Jimmy... can you throw me my rabbit?"

He got Francois and made a half throwing motion toward the water to make sure that I in fact wanted him to get wet.

"Yeah yeah; perfect!"

And with a light <plip>, Francois began his dive.

At first he didn't want to go down; maybe he didn't want to get his outfit wet. Kuni had made it for him a few days before. Maybe he wasn't equalized. I had to totally squeeeeeeze the bubbles out of him before he would stay submerged.

Then he happily drifted with the currents, which were gentle but sometimes faster than I wanted them to be. I took many photos, trying to get him near some fish. I really wanted some fish to take an interest in him, but they seemed more interested in staying away.

Got some pics of Angie, Ryan, then me holding Francois.

These are the only other Francois and fish pics I got:

We dove for about 40 minutes, 1 tank each. I didn't adhere to the buddy system; I lost Angie, Ryan and our guide, but I stayed near the rocks where we had started. We were only in 3 meters of water, so I wasn't too worried about running out of air.

Before I ran out, our guide found me and checked my air. He indicated I should go up, so I did. Probably had 50 bar (is that the right unit?) left.

A really funny thing happened after I surfaced and gave my tanks to Jimmy. I kept my mask on and went swimming a bit and *almost* tried to breathe under water. No snorkel. Woah; that would have been worth coughing about.

An equally funny thing happened: Angie dove into the water and lost her bikini bottoms down to her ankles. Fortunately, she recovered them before anyone got a strip show (besides the fish (who I'm sure would have closed their eyes except for lacking eyelids)).

But I bet Francois saw everything.

- - - -

On the way out, we saw a turtle!

Our driver / guide saw him; I'm sure we all would have missed him otherwise. It woulda been so cool to dive near a turtle!

Francois was horsing around and got stuck in the anchor.

That naughty rabbit!

After Acapulco

1:36pm CDT Friday 05 August 2005

Today was post port holiday after Acapulco. My bed is now covered in food and stuff from Acapulco.

Watched a movie about and met a woman who was 1.3 kilometers from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Yikes.

It was argued that the US dropped the bomb not to end the war more quickly and with fewer casualties, but simply to test the bomb and its effects on humans.

I just finished lunch and checking Yuma's speech.

I have noted that I've lost all interest in learning Japanese. Don't know if it's cause I lost the momentum or just got sick of the language while on the boat.

All the grammars seem to have uncertainty or "I think so" built into them. Grr; just say what you wanna say.

7:21pm CDT Friday 05 August 2005

Had a GET meeting then planning for Fashion Show meeting (I'll be wearing sweatshop-made clothes (GAP and Nike)).