mitsugirly

Just for reference...here's a map of where the ship docks and the route over to the building where you go in and out and do some shopping (route in red). (The map must not be updated yet because the building is not even on google earth yet). Then you can see from the building across the street and over to the shopping area (Flea Market). (Route in green) It's a very short distance and easy to find. So what do we do now??? There's still so much time left. I looked around and noticed a sign that said "beach". Hmm, let's go check that out. There was a fence up along this path with barbed wire. Hmmm, what was the need for that on a path to the beach? It went along a road and then down the side of a building. Once we made it to the beach, I found that it was called The Oro Beach. There was something on fire in the distance. I guess if you wanted a free beach day, this would be the closest to the ship. Those waves though... There were area's along the beach that had a lot of rocks. They seem to be in patches here and there. Other places were sandy though: The kids said they were thirsty and wanted to find a place to get a drink. We all headed up to a bar on the beach. We would wait and wait and wait and no one would even acknowledge us. They were busy helping everyone else that walked up. We finally gave up and walked away. We would notice as we walked away that everyone in that area had on wrist bands and probably staying at that hotel. The hubby did say he noticed everyone that got a drink didn't hand over any cash. So, maybe that's why. We decided to go ahead and head back to the ship. The path on the way back. No way to get out of this fence and cross the street unless you go all the way down to the end. Finally we seen an open area. The sun was starting to set and as much as I would have liked to get sunset pictures on the beach, I knew I didn't want to be out here after dark and walking back.

After returning to the ship, we (and by we I mean mostly Karl) was hungry of course. So we headed upstairs to see what they had to offer. Our timing was off, of course, and the buffet was closed. We just decided to get in line for the deli. I decided on a grilled cheese and a hot dog and I won't admit to having any of the fries you see in the picture...just saying. Now I have to ask you all...when you make grilled cheese, do you put butter on the outside of the bread when you cook it? I always have and that's how my parents did it. Only on the cruise ship will I experience that they do not put butter on the outside. Is it just me? We had so much time left in this port (remember we are here until 9pm) so we decided to get back off the ship and go outside the port. Sakari and Karl also wanted to do a little bit of shopping and we had noticed they had some shops set up right as you get off. We looked around but really didn't find anything we wanted so decided to go ahead and head out of the port. We hitched a ride with these two ladies in a golf cart. I don't know if they were there to transport people or what, but they said "sure we can take you". Princess had left by now and gave me the perfect opportunity to get a picture of the Panorama in port. Once out of the building there is some type of area in the middle, like a courtyard....with some very short Mexican's. There are plenty of vendors in this area. Think of every port you go to that you'll find the exact same thing in almost every shop and everyone willing to give you a deal. Now Karl has never been to a foreign country. He has never experienced anything like port shopping. HOWEVER...you would think he has done this all his life. He haggled with each and every vendor he came across. He was talking them down and down and walking away if he didn't like the price and they'd bring him back and agree to his price. This boy was on fire!! I honestly was shocked. But hey, I guess he knew what he was doing. There was only one time that both Sakari and I got onto him about his "deal". He was so excited about his mad skills for negotiating the price that it got the best of him. There was something he found that he wanted and he said "I'll give you $____ for it". They immediately said "YES!" Both Sakari and I looked at each other and held our breath. As we walked away we told him, why would you make an offer before hearing how much they wanted for it? It could have been cheaper than what you thought. He took that deal way too quickly. Karl "Oh, I was just so excited on all the deals I've been able to talk them down to that I got carried away. But I'm ok with the price I paid"...and I guess that's all that mattered.

As we continued to walk, there was an outside area I noticed the kids headed toward as I was inside taking pictures. Oh...look there, let's take a picture! The hubby says "You know it's backwards right?" "Wait, what do you mean? It's M, P" Wait...what's MP? Why is this P backwards? Who designed this? We looked inside and on the other side of this was a "love swing". I guess you pay these people to sit in their love swing and the PM is behind it. But why isn't it PV? 🤷‍♀️ Wouldn't that make more sense? Oh well. We made it out of the building and they had some people movers waiting on us to take us back to the ship. I had to have the front seat. I told them I was driving this thing. They looked scared! I bet this was the boat heading over to the Rhythms of the Night excursion. I really wanted to do this but wasn't sure if we would make it back in time. Maybe next time. I also considered going there for their day excursion because the place looks absolutely amazing and I know that Sakari would have loved to hang out there as well. Maybe next time. It sounds like there will be plenty of next times don't it?

As we got closer to port, a very large and loud helicopter was coming in and over us. It said Marina on it and parked really close to the ship (picture taken from our balcony once we returned). Once we got up to the port, we kept looking for a way in. Everywhere we turned, it was not an entrance. We came to a little area on the sidewalk and seen people going into this very small building. We got in line and it had an xray machine and they were showing them (what I thought) a ship card, which turned out to be maybe an ID? When we got up there, they said it was only for the workers. Oops. I thought it was really strange and it was even more strange that once these people showed their ID and scanned their items, they walked back out the other side and back onto the sidewalk where we continued to walk. Um, ok. By this time we had passed the ship and still no way into the port. This definitely wasn't the way we went out. They make it so difficult. I can't even imagine someone running late getting back to the ship...you would definitely be a pier runner and blasted all over the internet for sure. We continued walking...not only past our ship but past another ship (Princess) in port as well. Finally we came to an area we could go in. But, there's no instructions on where to go and we had to walk all the way down to the end of the parking lot...of course. This was the building you enter...because everyone knows you can't just walk into a port and get on the ship. You have to walk around all the shops and spend all your money before returning...or at least they hope you do. It took us 29 minutes from the time we left the dive shop until we arrived at this building. Not a bad walk at all. We stopped at the restrooms and then knew we needed something to drink after this walk. The first store we came to wanted $7.50 for 2 bottles of pop. Um, nope. I'm not that thirsty. We stopped at another store, they wanted $7.00 for 2 bottles. Hmm, I'm starting to see a pattern here. Let's keep going. They have an umbrella alley inside!!! Finally we came across a place that charge $3.00 for 2 bottles of pop and I considered that a deal. I guess the closer you get to going out of this building, the better the deals get. They are making one last pitch to get you to buy something before leaving the building. Of course Karl was hungry so him and Sakari stopped for some ice cream and a drink. They are 5 minutes away from the ship, but needed something to tie him over with because by this time he was melting away with only eating a sub less than 1 hour ago.

I almost forgot, on the way back into the marina, they fed us subs and ....peanuts. LOL Sakari said "This is the best thing I've had all week"....her number one fast food restaurant is Subway and she had really been missing it...so this would have to do for now. We returned back to the dive shop after docking and they offered to get us a taxi back if we wanted. We were really unsure what we wanted to do at this point (or what was around the area). I went in to have our dive book filled out that we keep for reference. We walked to the end of the street to look around. I told the hubby I was going to bring up Uber and see what they charged to get back to port. I found that it was only going to be $5.63 (compared to the outrageous $25 the cab charged us to get here) for a ride back to the port but for SOME REASON the hubby pointed toward the ship and said "It's right there! We should just walk". Well, alrighty then. We had plenty of time still and we might find something along the way that we wanted to see and off we went. There are sidewalks all the way back to the port, so no worries about having to walk along the road with traffic. We kept going and going. It was a little more of a walk than "it's right there" but we were ok with it. We went over a bridge and found a few iguanas. Down by the water:

I have a video from our dive that I'd like to share. You will be amazed at the amount of fish...like seriously amazed. (My pictures don't begin to show the amount of fish) I've never experienced this many fish before on a dive. At one point, the instructor took the GoPro and filmed the hubby alongside of all the fish. The instructor was so excited at the amount of fish that was seen today (watch his hand signals). He said he doesn't think he's ever seen this many there on any one dive before. It blew his mind. Make sure to have the video set to 4k for best quality. Notice what the hubby seen and filmed that I did not get a picture of? The spotted eagle ray!! I totally missed it. I think I was just so fascinated with all the various types of puffers in the area. Also, you see how green the water is when we started? That's exactly what the water looked like. Then it cleared up once we got over by the rocks. Just an all around amazing dive!!!

Well, I'm finally back. My dogs got out the other day when the hubby opened up the back gates to mow and we went on a wild chase which resulted in my twisting my leg and a loud pop in my knee with swelling. I've been laying in bed with it in my artic ice machine that I used for my foot after surgeries, plenty of Aleve, leg elevated and on crutches because I have been unable to bear weight. Yep, you guess it, it is my bad leg too. Go figure...Karl, Sakari and the hubby have waited on me hand and foot and they are the best. It's been such a rough week (not only this incident) and Sakari and Karl made me a card, bought me flowers and some sugar free Keto candy and ice cream. They are such amazing kids. See, he even signs his name Karl LOL and Sakari, well we've called her Kari since she was little off and on, so she decided to sign her name that way.

I'm glad (well not really glad of course) that we are not the only one's that have experienced this and heard that you were able to get it back. These people must deal with this all the time. Sakari actually used to watch a program that had divers in it and they were fortune hunting in the ocean, lakes and creeks for things that people have lost. It's amazing all the things they've come up with. They always say to take a picture/video of something with your name and address on it so if it's lost and someone finds it, they will see who it belongs to (and hopefully return it somehow). I know right! I'm never worried about the strap but this end piece to the pole is a different story. It always wants to unscrew itself. I have a different pole, but it doesn't extend as long as this one. I may have to switch them out eventually. I can't afford to lose this again. After that rude comment, I'm not going to entertain this conversation anymore and move on. He definitely expresses his insecurities to me and is very open about anything. We are very close. I just don't think he knew what to expect even after explaining it to him. You just don't know until you experience it. He seemed to think it was a one and done type of deal and the next time around he would "be used to it". He will know next time. I just think that we've been snorkeling for so long and seen these fish so many times that I've just come to know what they are. However, a lot of these fish were new to us and the captain of the ship gave me his "fish identifier" book to see what the names were. Those fish that I can't identify, I will look up online. I also have a fish book collection at home that tells all kinds of neat information about each fish (which is why I sometimes include this information in my reviews). I can usually tell by the shape of the fish what category they belong to (such as Angelfish, Butterfly fish, and so on) that this gives me a reference where to start. 🙂 Thank you! Yea, I've raised 2 male humans myself and know what you mean. Yes, you can do a Discover Scuba Dive (what we did) without having any experience. That is what it is. You get an abbreviated course and the basics and then they take you out to experience it. You are only allowed to go down to 40'. We are not certified (never had the urge to go get certified and we're perfectly happy at the 40' dive) and always do the Discover Scuba on each vacation. We are up to dive number 23 now doing it this way. The class can be done either in a classroom setting, out on the beach, or on the boat. We've done it all. This time it was on the boat. Then once in the water, you go down and do the skills. However, they did not have us do the skills. He did not last very long and wanted to go up. I think the instructor seen how well we dive (and how many dives we have done) that he felt comfortable not having us do the skills (which has happened to us before as well). However, we did have another guy that was new with us that had never done a dive before either, but he was doing great (although we still all should have practiced the skills as per PADI rules). I think he will do much better in warm clear water from the beach. I will definitely make sure that this will be his next experience if he is serious about trying again. Yea, that is Sakari for sure. Even at her recent birthday glow party, she invited a bunch of people at her school (even if they no longer hang out) because she didn't want anyone to feel left out. She even invited some of her old friends that had moved away from her school back in middle school. Then even at the party, she made her rounds, spending time with each one of them, she said because "I don't want anyone to feel left out". She's just so caring and thoughtful. Oh no, your first experience sounds horrible! I don't even think they are aloud to have 8 people (that are new) with only 1 instructor. I was shocked we had 5, but maybe it was because 3 of us had done it so many times they felt comfortable with it. It reminds me of one of my dives when we were in Cozumel and the instructor deflated my bcd and yanked me down...several times, when I wasn't ready. Panic sat in and it was such a horrible dive that I didn't even do the second dive with the hubby and Sakari. It's experiences like that that make you never want to do it again. Where are the places you went to in the Pacific that you were underwhelmed? (I want to make sure we don't go there...although when in the ocean, it can change daily I realize). Where is Huatulco? Yep, the Canon D10. That's what I started out with and loved it. But they kept dying all the time so I discovered my Olympus Tough camera's and never looked back (less bulky too). I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! Every time they come out with a new one, I get another. LOL Sakari loves them too and took over my newest camera because it has even better settings for macro/micro. My camera that stopped working is working again. Maybe it was just the temp of the water. It will alert you to things about temperature and also depth if you get down too far. If you go beyond the boundaries, it will eventually shut off.

It was his idea to go scuba. He really wanted to try it and picked that over going to the Mariettas. He talked about it all the time prior to the cruise. He's real excited to try again. His mother told him to buy something to prevent seasickness and he declined. I even ask again when we were at the hotel in Long Beach and told him we would pick something up before the cruise if he wanted. Once again he declined. You can't force someone to take something if they don't want to...no more than we forced him to do this dive. I would hardly say he went through a lot to please my daughter. Actually, totally the opposite...she decided not to do the second dive to please him and missed out. He only did what HE wanted to do/try and said he will try it again. 😉 I just don't think it was the best circumstance for his first try (I had no idea what it was going to be like since we've never been there before).

Exactly and no where near where we actually were at. Exactly. I was praising his glory after that one. It made up for everything. 🙏 Oh gosh yes...if I lost my camera...I would flip out. All the pictures I take on vacation and for the review and the scrapbooking I do for our vacations and...and...and...I can't even imagine! I'm so glad your story had a happy ending as well. Whew! Yes, this scuba tour was amazing at the arch and I highly recommend it! The dive instructor was awesome at his locating skills for sure. I guess with them doing this scuba tour all the time, they know where to look and the way the water takes lost items. I'm definitely going to figure out a better way to secure the GoPro stick now. I do know the end of it likes to "unscrew" itself...which is why I'm always checking and double checking it when I have it.

So after showing our dive instructor what had happened and explaining that the GoPro is somewhere in the area (he had hoped) and attached to a very long stick, the instructor said he would look around the area for it. Now the hubby had absolutely no idea at what point he no longer had it on his arm. I know that when I swim with it (or the camera's) I never let go of it. It never dangles from my arm trusting the arm brace. I'm always holding onto it even when swimming. I'm also constantly checking to make sure everything is still tightly screwed. The last video he had taken was all the way over by the rock/cave area with the abundance amount of fish. However, I do know that I seen him with it when we stopped to take a picture together (when I effectively cut his head out of the picture and didn't know it in the picture above). So, that meant it had to be fairly close to us? But, that water was really moving back and forth so there was no telling. Our instructor went down and I can tell you he was moving at a very fast pace. We could see his bubbles at the surface and we watched him go a pretty far distance and he was circling around, to the left, by the rocks, to the right and then through the middle and circled around again. When I seen him go around that second time, my heart sunk. I was losing hope. We could see him heading back toward the boat. The bubbles were getting closer and closer. He popped his head up. I held my breath. Then up came the GoPro on the stick. WHEW!!! OMG!! It was like Christmas to me! You would have thought I won a brand new car! I'm pretty sure I squealed and maybe even shed a tear. He said it was "All the way over there!" as he pointed over to the rock mountain and to the right....but we weren't even over in the area he pointed to so we were very lucky he had found it because the water had carried it that far. It was time to head back now. The hubby and I couldn't stop talking about all the fish we had seen and showing pictures to Sakari and Karl. I really really wished she would have foregone her loving, caring status for at least this one time and been a mean girl and came with us. It was by far the best scuba I could have imagined!!! On the ride back, we spotted a whale again. However, it went under and we never did see it come back up so that I could get a picture of it. It was the perfect opportunity to get some good pictures of this beauty we called transportation for 8 days. No sea lions, but there were plenty of pelicans.

Yea, it was a big oh nooooo! My heart dropped when he came up without it. That's exactly how I felt at the time when he was looking down to see if it was on the bottom somewhere.

Well lookie there...I found another ZEBRA EEL! It had some friends (SPOTTED PUFFERS) with it. This Damsel was getting in my way with everything I tried to take a picture of. First the eel and now it was blocking me trying to get a picture of these two Starry Groupers. Damsels are such a pain in the arse but I'm giving it a hall pass since the Damsels here in the Mexican Riviera are so pretty. At least I managed to get a picture of this one as we headed back. Now that was a lot of BANDED BUTTERLY FISH! I have never seen them grouped together like this before. Usually you will find two to three of them swimming along, but this many??? As we headed back, the water got colder and greener. I was reminded that I was probably on the verge of hypothermia at this point, but I didn't care after everything we had just seen down there. I probably could have spent another 30 minutes down there and still been excited to see the same fish over and over. I will say that I did miss something.... the hubby told me him and the instructor found (in the video I will be doing) but I was busy off in my own little world. So my first picture that I took when we started this dive compared to the last picture I took before we surfaced...which was this picture: We were down there around 37+ minutes. Not long enough AT ALL. Seriously...we could have stayed down so much longer. I REALLY wished that this would have been the only place they took us to and let us do 2 dives there. This should have been the place they took Karl to. If he's anything like me, seeing all the fish and unique things you would never get to see by snorkeling might have calmed him down enough to do the swim (or at least a little longer). I honestly don't even understand why they took us to the other dive area. There really wasn't much to see there and nothing that was like WOW (other than us saying we seen something new that we have never seen before). Like this dive site was AMAZING! If I go back to PV, I would do it all again in a heartbeat! AND request that we ONLY go to this area. So once we surfaced Sakari was above to take our picture. She had said that since she was staying on the boat with Karl, "they" might get in and him try to snorkel. I told her if she did, take the other camera with her and see if she could get it to turn on and take some pictures of us diving below. When I ask her if she got in, she said "yes, only for a minute...I had to use the bathroom" 🤣 But he did not get in nor did they snorkel. So here's where things went downhill. She took the picture of me and the hubby. I climbed back onto the boat. I look down and see the hubby. He didn't really have the excitement on his face of someone that just had an amazing dive and seen things we've never seen before as he did a few minutes ago. I had no idea what is going on. He sat on the steps. He brings his hands up in the water and he's starring. Do you notice anything? Do you see around his wrist the little black things that are fanned out? Well, our GoPro has a built in stand. You just flip them over and 3 little flaps come out and you can sit the GoPro down to take videos. Well....THAT'S ALL THAT'S AROUND HIS WRIST!! WHERE IS MY GOPRO???? OMG!! He's looking all over the place and looking really worried. He's showing our instructor. He climbs out of the water and onto the boat in shame. He knows how much this GoPro means to me. It has all of our video on it...other that what was taken with the camera's. I wasn't sure if it had downloaded to our GoPro account or not yet. I was devastated.

Then I spotted this large beauty: BLUE TRIGGERFISH PANAMA PORKFISH: SPOTTED BOXFISH

Wow this area was loaded with the Orange Cup Coral. I had really wished that Sakari would have been with us because she would have been getting all the macro shots of them. Her photography always turns out so good.

Ok, that black and white spotted boxfish I just showed you....well it's time to meet the male version of it. Absolutely gorgeous with the black and white spots on the top, blue and black spots along the side, and also orange mixed around the edges. We would see several of them during this dive. Ready for something new yet? I was....so we found a WHITE SPOTTED PUFFERFISH now. There were a lot in the area. LOOK!!! It's Gill from Finding Nemo!! OMGosh....another new fish for us. MOORISH IDOL: The Moorish Idol got their name from The Moors who thought they brought happiness. They have a maximum length of a little over 9". Their extremely long dorsal fins actually shorten with age. They can be found alone or in groups but most juveniles are more likely to swim in schools together. Adults mate for life. They are found from the Gulf of California down to Peru (and also other places like Japan, Hawaii and Africa). They eat sponges, tunicates, invertebrates and algae. And most of all I loved them!!!! When I got back to the boat and showed Sakari my pictures she yells "You found Gill" Yep, I bet you now wished you had went with us. Here we have a SPOTFIN PORCUPINEFISH. A little different than the Long spine porcupinefish that you normally see. They have spots without the large spots. SPOTTED BOXFISH WHITE SPOTTED PUFFERFISH Look at the guy on the left bottom corner photo bombing my picture of the SPOTTED BOXFISH Ok, I'll get a picture of you too! Ok, here's what I'm talking about with the Pufferfish. A lot of them would have very long skinny bodies. It looked weird. They reminded me of a tadpole.

Now I want to say that we went under the arch rock, that is where we found the most fish. I honestly couldn't believe how much warmer it was under that area as well. Plus, the pictures turned out so much better too. It was so weird. Inside this cave area, the temps were 74.4° and it was usually between 8.2' to 12' deep in that area. Then I seen my first SPOTTED BOXFISH! Oh my gosh so pretty and cute! A little Boxfish facts for you: They protect themselves with a deadly poison on their skin when they feel threatened by a predator. They lay lots of eggs and can lay every day for 1 month They blow the sand in search for prey There are 23 species of boxfish: These spotted boxfish are located in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico...which is why we have not seen them before. They are slow swimmers and like to hover They can grow to 18" long They live for around 4 years on average We seen quite a few of these too! BANDED BUTTERFLY FISH: There was an area that was like a swim through and the water was rushing in and it swayed back and forth. It was a little difficult to swim over to the other side, but in this area were quite a few of what I thought were Trumpet Fish at first. They were pretty big. But I believe they ended up being PIPEFISH.

Here's another first for us...and it was a beauty!!! Just look at the markings on it. CORTEZ ANGELFISH: KING ANGELFISH: GROUPER The amount of fish in this area was just amazing! So many of them. I was really wishing that I had made Sakari come with us. Karl would have gotten over her leaving him. She was really missing out! Not to mention...all the new fish we seen here as well.

GIANT DAMSELFISH (I still cannot believe just how big these things are! I didn't even know they existed). MEXICAN HOGFISH: Then I spotted some ORANGE CUP CORAL. I get so excited when I see these because I've been told they are hard and rare to find (although they were not open or "blooming" like a flower). Also, right beside it was a black and white spotted fish (hard to see because of all the sediment floating around) and I have no idea what it was. KING ANGELFISH: And another one: BARBERFISH: And more: I have located YELLOW!

I managed to catch an adult CORTEZ RAINBOW FISH!! (toward the bottom of the picture) So pretty! Of course...another first for us. A bunch of baby (initial phase) CHAMELEON WRASSE. (Another first). They are a pretty pink in color. The one color you did see a lot of is RED! (And purple) PUFFERFISH Finally a close up of the pretty RAZOR SURGEONFISH. You can now see the blade like spine at the tail. These are used for defense and are as sharp as a surgeons scalpel, which is why they are named surgeonfish. They usually swim in groups and there were A LOT of them. They were so pretty to watch.

I just wanted to give you a few "stats" on the air and water this day. The air temps were 86° today, so yes, it did get nice out for us and the nicest it had been the entire cruise. The water would be freezing cold, then you'd hit a warm area, then back to cold again. According to the camera's, the deepest we went in this area was only 23'. The coldest was 63° and the warmest area was 72.1° Now as we sat on the boat and told Karl about the fish we seen down there I noticed our instructor was removing our tanks we used and putting new tanks on. Um...what are we doing? He said "We're going to switch out the tanks for your second dive". Second dive? I had no idea we were doing a second dive. "Where are we going for the second dive?" He points "over there" Wait, we're actually going over there? That's where I wanted to dive in the first place! I was getting super excited now. I was hoping to see the things I've seen in pictures and video's. Sakari had already peeled off her wetsuit and was comforting Karl. The instructor told her to gear up. She looked at Karl and looked at me and said "I don't think I'm going to go." I kept telling her "This is the place you DO want to go...so I've heard." She just kept looking at Karl and I know she felt sorry for him. She's very caring and does not like people to feel left out and she did not want for him to feel left behind. She just kept saying no, she was staying behind. Well, I can't force her so...I guess it's just me and the hubs. You didn't have to tell me twice, I double back flipped and stuck my landing into the water. First off the boat this time!!! The hubby followed. Back into the freezing cold water. UGH! Gosh it was cold. It was somewhat deep in this area, so of course all you could see was the green. We swam under the ropes and headed toward the arch. The roped off area is so that boats cannot go into that area because that's where the snorkelers area is located. As we swam, the water got warmer, then colder, then warmer, the colder. I'm not gonna lie, I found a way to warm myself up every time I got cold...I'll let you use your imagination on that one. I showed no shame in it either! Just saying... So I will show you what kind of pictures you get in this type of water. No color correction done. They are horrid. These are a few that I color corrected. Not the best... The instructor was making bubble rings with his hands. Oh how I wished Sakari was here. She likes to do this. Three Banded Butterfly fish: This picture I was trying to get a photo of an eel that was hiding in the rocks. It was a Zebra Moray Eel (Another first for me). It was so pretty with the black and white stripes! I only wished that it would have came out enough to get a better picture. Can you see it to the left of the purple coral? Then before long, we were at the rocks by the arch and IT WAS SUPER CLEAR!!! And it was WARM!!! Things got a lot more colorful in area's as well. However, you won't find all the pretty colors and coral you will find in the Caribbean. Giant Damselfish: Spottail Grunt: LOOK AT THIS!!! Another new fish for us! A Barberfish! It is a type of Butterfly fish.

So here's a very short video of our dive. Remember, the water clarity was terrible and there was so much stuff floating in the water. Also, it was VERY green. I've tried to color correct a bunch of it so it's not so hideous to watch, but it still isn't the great work I've done before...just saying. *Pats self on back for making it even visible* You're gonna witness Karl's first flip off a boat into icy cold water, losing his fin and being led by the instructor. Ha ha...good times. A little information about Los Arcos: It is located 7 miles south of Puerto Vallarta in a Marine National Park. When we went diving, we were within the park, just not at the arch. It's the perfect depth for beginning divers and ranges from 10-90 feet. "El Acuario" (which is over by the arches) is a shallow site of 30-40 feet. It's a great place to see a variety of fish and especially schools of Angelfish, Pufferfish, Butterfly fish, Parrotfish, seahorses (wait...where were the seahorses???), Trumpetfish, Sea Turtles and large Manta Rays are usually spotted there.

So, just a few more things before this dive is over with. I totally forgot to mention...when the hubby and Sakari got into the water first, I was still on the boat preparing to do my acrobatic dismount from the boat when the instructor goes LOOK DOWN!! I guess there was a large group of stingrays going by. Of course I missed it and Sakari looked down just in time to catch them going by. Now...since she had the camera (which I highly recommend NOT taking video's with it because video on the Olympus Tough is NOT great and very grainy, especially if you are far away) but...it's all that we got of them (included in my video). Here's a screen shot from the video of the stingrays going by. I have taken a few other screen shots from the video I'm about to post, so not the greatest, but I wanted to share a few fish we seen. Here is a picture of that eel that I said I seen about 5' from the other eel that Sakari missed. We did get it on video. It was a Jewel Moray Eel. A Juvenile Queen Angelfish. I think I shared a picture of one already, but I'm doing it again because I just love the colors on them. We also managed to see another new fish that we've never seen before: A King Angelfish! A couple of Yellow Goatfish hanging out under the rock. This must be one of the moma's to all those Mexican Hogfish we kept seeing. We did end up seeing several of them. I did want to mention that it was really odd, first of all, to see SO MANY Porcupine Puffer Fish. It was also odd that many of them were EXTREMELY L-O-N-G and skinny. Usually they are big and fat but there were so many of them that were long and skinny. Are they not eating good? Dieting? Hibernating because they think it is winter in these freezing cold temps? I'm not sure. I also forgot to mention, after I did all that I could with trying to get my camera back on when it went caput, I went over to the hubby and handed it to him and gave him the signal to give me the GoPro. He had no idea what was going on because I've been letting him take the video's every time we dive for quite some time now. I guess he thought I wanted to change things up. He would quickly learn, I pulled a fast one on him and he got the faulty equipment. 😄 I guess that meant he could just enjoy the dive and not have to worry about being in charge of anything.

At least he knows (kinda) what to expect the next time. I hope he has a better experience. We're going to work on him! He will become a fish when we are done with him. Next segment coming right up... Sooo many new experiences for sure! Aww thanks so much.

Another unique looking starfish: Phataria unifascialis in a tan/whitish color. These are sometimes blue. Then we would come across a school of fish: Another puffer...just because they were everywhere!! You can't begin to imagine just how many there were here. A large school of Razor Surgeonfish: Now it's hard to tell in those pictures above, but Razor Surgeonfish are a new experience for us as well. They are actually light in color with a yellow tail. They have moderately large teeth that are close together with flattened serrated edges. The dorsal fin has 7-8 spines and the anal fin contains 3 spines. There are 3 bony plates along each side of the back of the fish, close to the tail, that stick out. They have black spots and a dark bar through the eye and through the shoulder. They can get close to 2' in length. We started to head back up to the surface and I was kinda glad at this point. I was so cold and just wanted to wrap up in a towel and sit in the sun. It wasn't the dive experience I had hoped for and we definitely didn't see the same things that I've seen in other videos. However, it was a new experience for us and tons of new fish and starfish that we've never seen in the past. That made the dive worth it I guess. $149/pp worth it...ehhh, I doubt that. But those puffer fish!!! Awww...so cute! The time stamps from the beginning of the dive until the end show it was 30 minutes. However, it would be even longer if you add on from the time we went under and down and coming back up. Over there is where I expected to be... We found Karl sitting on the boat and embarrassed about not being able to go far in the dive. We know he made it to at least 22' according to the camera and picture we had taken of him being led along by the dive instructor. He was at least proud of that moment. He did inform us that he had been just hanging out on the boat while we were diving...and yep, you guessed it...his head was hanging over the side of the boat several times getting sick. We let him know it was not entirely his fault he wasn't able to do the dive. It wasn't really a good place for a beginner. The water was just too cold. The water was just too cloudy and greenish...visibility sucked unless you were right up on something. And going off a boat into deep water for your first time probably wasn't the best choice. We assured him that if he would have went from a beach, in the Caribbean, in warm water that was crystal clear and got a chance to get used to the breathing before just taking off (not to mention doing the skills) he probably would have done much better and not panicked. He said "Oh, I'm definitely going to try it again for sure! I will be able to do this!" I was glad it didn't scare him so bad that he would never try again.