warpednormal's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - We headed to the island at 530am to dive with some sea lions. We meet up with some of his friends from his commercial diving course and I instantly feel a barrage of negative thoughts about how dumb I’m going to look in front of all these seasoned divers. One woman however make me feel instantly at ease. A Padi instructor in Hondouras and one of those people who immediately asks you questions about how you two met and what you do for work and how cool is it that we get to do this together after meeting for the first time. We set up our gear on the boat before it sets off. Our dive captain is a confident man in his 50s maybe, tells us plenty of stories about the dangers of re breather diving and also his time being a paramedic in the downtown east side. We related on the latter. Finally we arrive to the small island where the sea lions live. There were hundreds! We are bombarded with loud groaning sounds, we see large and puppy like sea lions piled on top of each other, trying to get back onto the rock face, some trying to get into the water. Their eyes are massive, their bodies full and some of them swim towards the boat as if edging us to come in. We are certainly not the first divers they’ve ever seen. I again struggle with my gear. I’m already feeling sea sick and nervous and start to show some irritably towards T. Mostly because I’m pissed off at myself for still needing help- but what can you do, we’re here to swim with sea lions. We jump in and descend down the anchoring line. We are instantly surrounded by these majestic and massive creatures. They swim above and below us. They nip at our heads and try to take our fins and our hoods. Some of them are so massive that it’s absolutely breathtaking, and yet they are so smooth underwater. We pose for the go pros and play around. This is literally the most surreal experience of my life- like watching a bbc nature documentary except this was real life. My mask keeps flooding and I have keep coming up to the surface to clear it. I feel guilty for having him to watch out for me and come up- but he reassures me that it’s all fine. My heart swells with both guilt and appreciation. In between dives we see the tail of a giant whale. One splashes far away, and then we see another splash a couple seconds later. I’m freaking out like a little girl because It’s a fucking dream, I think. How lucky am I? One day we might live on the island together. He will take a job as a commercial diver and I’ll look for some homeless people to help out. I’m not sure how this might work with children... but I suppose only time will tell. I’m softening to the idea that I have absolutely no control over what unfolds. I can just enjoy life as it unfurls- it’s truly the only option. 7:34 p.m. - 2020-09-30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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