Cuban Blog Day #16 Ask For What You Want. You Just Might Get It

Diving! When you live in Colorado, it’s a little hard to SCUBA dive.  I make sure every trip I take includes some sort of diving so as not to get rusty.  It still doesn’t work all that well. Each new dive, I’m a little nervous and worried that I may have forgotten how to do it.  To ease that worry I’m not shy about telling my Dive Master that it’s been awhile since my last dive.  This usually results in a little extra attention underwater, which in turns relaxes me a bit.

I got to the dive shop and was happy to see it wasn’t a full boat, just a Canadian girl and two older Mexican men.  While getting ready, I casually mentioned to no one in particular that it was a dream of mine to see seahorses.  They are so tiny that they are often hard to spot. Generally the Dive Master needs to know where they are and take you there. They are also bottom dwellers that prefer sea grass beds, so they are usually out of the way of typical dive sites.

We suited up and got situated on the boat.  We didn’t ride far before we stopped and the Canadian and our Dive Master and I jumped in. To my surprise, we were first going to the sea floor to find some seahorses.  We floated on the bottom of the ocean and watched five seahorses tiny enough to fit in the palm of my hand dance up and down in the water.  They were beautiful and magical and everything I’d hoped they would be. I checked that dream off my list. It was hard to leave that spot.

But we had to move on, first to a wreck where there was a plaque dedicated to The Cuban Five.  I had been seeing posters all around Cuba, my favorite being a hand in a high five position, saying, ‘Obama, give us five.’ I did a little research and found out that these are five Cuban spies who were ‘captured’ and are detained in a Miami prison.  You’d think the destiny of Cuba rested solely in these five men’s hands by they way they are honored and revered around Cuba.  I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing this propaganda underwater as well!

After the wreck, I was more comfortable underwater and really enjoyed roaming through The Labyrinth with all its nooks, crannies, tunnels and holes to swim through. The wall was just amazing and teeming with fish and coral. 

We surfaced and went back to land to wait for our next dive. This one was two different wrecks. I saw an awesome lionfish and later learned from one of the Mexican men that lionfish are actually very unwelcome and not endemic to these waters. He told of an aquarium in Florida which burst open during Hurricane Andrew and said this is how the lionfish came to be in these waters.  He said in Mexico they pay people to catch these fish to help keep the other fish around. Such a shame that such a lovely fish causes so much harm.  I also saw a trumpet fish, an eel and the biggest school of parrot fish I’ve ever seen. I mean, it just kept going and going.

They were both great dives, and I was so happy to be back underwater again.  I was also thrilled to see how comfortable and relaxed I was and very much looking forward to more dives in Cuba.

The Mexican men were staying at the all inclusive resort and invited me to a Cuba Libra. I wasn’t sure it would work, but they assured me it would. And it did. I sat and drank with them for an hour or so after our dive. They also treated me to lunch.  We talked about other places we’ve dived. They’d been everywhere, and they invited me to come visit and dive with them in Mexico. I hope to one day take them up on that.

Traveling Tip # 18 Ask for what you want. You just might get it

 

I never thought we’d actually go and find some seahorses. It was just one of those things divers talk about, their ‘White Whale’ (pun intended.)  We shoot the breeze while gearing up chatting about what we have yet to see (side note- My new ‘White Whale’ is in fact a whale of sorts… my diving life will be complete as soon as I dive with a Whale Shark.) I think due to the small size of our group, the Dive Master was able to make my dream happen, but he’d never know to do it if I hadn’t have thrown it out there.  Always, always ask for what you want. It can never hurt.