Sorry, Can't Understand Basic Aquatics!

Day 16: Thursday, July 2nd
Steps taken: 773( Again, probably four or five thousand)

I woke up just in time to be cognitive for our wake up song, which is the most literal wake up some I've ever heard.  We had cereal, fruit, and toast for breakfast, and then headed towards Blue Tongue Beach.  The rest of the way there was full of disturbing songs that were satirizing pop music, and different social and sexual conventions.  For example, "Tastes Like Sushi".  I'll give you three guess what that was about.  I appreciate anything that rips pop music a new one, but some of the lyrics were pretty extreme.

When we arrived at the beach area, we took a mini-zodiac/speed boat to the beach.  We hiked up the cliff area for some awesome views of the actual beach area we would spend the next few hours at.  The sands of the beach were pure white, and the water were similar shades of teal and cerulean that filled the Whitsundays.  Many of us spent a good hour in the water swimming and playing games.  The water was cool, but inviting.  The rest of the time was spent on the beach.  I walked over to some of the rocks to the left of the beach with Lazar.  I also made a sand turtle, which Alex from Glasgow later destroyed although I kind of provoked her.  Around noon, we headed back towards the meeting beach to be picked up.

Back on the boat we had a lunch of pasta, quiche, and potato salad.  The birds/gulls were getting somewhat awnry, and one almost stole a slice of bell pepper from me.  We spotted a sea turtle, and a manatee in the distance.  Then we were off to our next spot.

It was time for one of the activities that I was looking forward to the most, which was scuba diving/snorkeling.  I was told both were going to cost money, however only scuba diving cost money and it was less expensive than I was told.  About eight of us went scuba diving while the others went snorkeling.  I had never gone scuba diving before.  I thought about taking a few introductory classes before this trip, but wanted to conserve my money since G Adventures said that you could scuba with no experience.  When I was in Mexico right before my 12th birthday, the hotel had a a scuba tank, but I was a year too young to go in.  Since then I never gave myself the opportunities to do so until now.  I got into a wet suit, and was taken with the others going to the scuba boat.  We went through a basic lesson about getting water out of our masks, how to decompress, and how to relieve pressure on our ears.  It was awkward to walk around the boat with flippers, and scuba tank, but I got somewhat used to it.  I was in the first team to dive.  We walked out to the steel deck, and dove into the unknown.

After practicing for a few minutes breathing under the surface, we descended.  I wasn't feeling comfortable, but we had to go into the deep while we were descending closer and closer to the reefs.  My body was torn between wanting to get back to the surface, and becoming more comfortable with the process.  I had a difficult time reaching new depths because of this, and the instructor kept having to pull me back on course.  Despite my fear and limitations, it was magical down there.  An ecosystem barely seen and touched directly by most people.  Coral houses of various shapes and colors; all with their own personalities sheltering some of the aquatic life that we were lucky enough to swim with.  This experience may have felt like the longest fifteen minutes of my life because of how intimidating being a first time diver was, but it was also some of the most magnificent fifteen minute time spans I'll ever have.  The world beneath the surface was mine for this brief, but astonishing time.

I can't say that I was beaming like the sun through the surface of the ocean when we finally touched the world above again.  As unique and incredible as that experience was I was a little disappointed in myself.  The instructor helped me make the most of the experience while diving, but I can't believe that my body (and my mind a little bit) were constantly trying to pull me back.  It was still a moment in my life that I'll look upon fondly, and recommend this to anyone no matter how they feel about the water.

When we were back on the boat I felt like I was drowning in a reef of conflicting thoughts that I had to swim through.  We were waiting for the other group to come back, so I got out of my wet suit to warm up.  The other guys were going to the top deck and jumping off the roof.  It looked fun, but I didn't feel like joining them.  The other group returned ten minutes later, got out of their gear, and we headed back to our boat.

Once we were back on the Boomerang I spent a little time up deck before going back to my bed and read, and nap.  I woke up in time for dinner, which was chicken and rice.  After dinner, everyone got ready for the costume party.  It was fun.  There were a few animals: frogs, kittens, ladybugs, a few cross dressers, a few pirates, and one painter.  I extended a fake ear to anyone who recognized me, and didn't think I was some random nutjob.  Seriously though, I have nothing but admiration for Van Gogh, and his work.  We were broken up into teams, and played a few raunchy drinking games.  My team lost the first game, which was passing an orange from neck to neck.  We won the second game, which was bending down and picking up a cake box with your teeth without having your hands touch the ground.  Every time someone did, they ripped off a piece making it more difficult to get.  If you couldn't do it then you had to drink from the snorkel bong.  The box was half torn up by the time I went so I was unable to do this.  I've never been extremely flexible despite my Muay Thai instructor's help.  SORRY, MASTER FRANK!  The third game involved two people on each team.  One had to hold a tube with a rubber hand at one end between their legs while the other blew into the tube to blow up the hand enough to pop.  Catherine and I blew, so we lost.  The other team blew, so they won.

There was supposed to be two more games after that, but there wasn't enough focus on the part of Vince, the gamemaster, and people starting doing other things.  I went back to my bed, read for thirty minutes, and went to sleep after a day of amazing and crazy experiences.