Tortuga

This is my first blog, so here it goes.....

Tortuga.

Spanish for turtle or tortoise. For those who don't know me, one of my favorite marine animals is the sea turtle, you know the dudes from Finding Nemo. I don't know why but I love them. I have always liked turtles; as a kid we found one and kept it for a couple of days until my parents made us release it back to it's home by the creek by their house. A little over a year ago while my wife and I were on a cruise for her grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, one of our ports of call was Grand Cayman. Well Cayman has a very large sea turtle farm were the hatch and release turtles back into the wild. We had a very rushed visit, we ran short on time before our ship left port, but we had a good half hour of turtle time. I got to pick up a few and got some cuuuuute pictures with them.

So that brings us to Tortuga, a dive site off the Yucatan Peninsula. I had another sea turtle experience. First let me bring you up to speed, Nikki and I were on another 50th anniversary vacation this time for her other grandparents. Her grandparents brought 12 people to Playa Del Carmen for 5 days of fun and celebration. How lucky are we? Moon, my unofficial step father-in-law, offered to pay for me to scuba dive, if I was up for it. Of course my answer was yes, so I went through 2 hours of training through the PADI system. It's a quick crash course scuba diving skills lesson with instructor lead dives. I was so pumped to get to sea and see what's out there. The Yucatan Peninsula is home to the world's 2nd largest coral reef, besides the Great Barrier Reef. On the boat ride to the reef I was very nervous stomach, the choppy water didn't help either. Once I jumped in a calmness took over and then I was sure I would have the time of my life. Our first dive was at 35-40 feet; there was very pretty coral with caverns and hundreds of fish. We saw 2 puffer fish, 2 rock or coral fish, the ones that look exactly like the coral. We also saw one very large lobster, but he tucked himself away in a cavern as soon as he saw us coming. Our first dive lasted 30 minutes, I wish I could have stretched out my air longer but I knew we had 1 more dive later that day. I couldn't get past how clear the water is, even at 40 feet you could see the bottom from the boat. The hurricane damaged some of the reef, but it was still very pretty. Another thing I have since pondered is water covers 70.8% of the earth. I guess I didn't really ever think about that until I was at the bottom of the Sea feeling as small as the algae floating by in the vast sea of blue. The dive instructor said that I did a great job and he told our next dive instructor not to worry about me, that I would do fine. So instead of another 35-40 foot dive, we were upgraded to an intermediate dive of 80-90 feet. The dive site was called Tortuga, it's a feeding site for sea turtles. The turtles love a type of sponge that grows there on the coral. I was excited about seeing turtles but nervous about the depth. I wasn't sure if I was ready but I couldn't miss the opportunity to see some dudes. So after a light lunch Moon and I headed back for more. I had another case of the nervous stomach, but again once I hit the water I knew that I was going to have an awesome time. After a long descent to the bottom, we came upon turtle after turtle, some didn't care we were there, others made it a point to break camp as soon as they spotted us. We came upon 2 turtles eating some sponges, they didn't seem to mind our intrusion, so we got some great pictures and film of them eating. I lost track of how many turtles we saw after 7, but I don't think is was much more than 10. The 30 minutes flew by way too fast and before I knew our time was up in the underwater world. The memories will last a life time. Thanks again Moon, for the chance to see some things most people will never see. I also want to urge anyone who has never scuba dived before to go ASAP. SCUBA diving is very addicting, it's all I've been thinking about ever since the my last dive. I can't wait to go back and dive again.