Brittni’s Blog

Tayrona Park is a national park in Colombia and where we went on a 3 day dive safari with the Calipso Dive School. We all did 7 dives and Vlad and Brent got their Naui Advanced Certification. We stayed on a beautiful beach in an little bay, slept in hammocks, had a relaxing time without the complication and hassle of running water and electricity (haha) which left us plenty of time to read and relax. Since no one else was around for miles it felt like our own little paradise. On the trip was the 3 of us, a German guy (Kurt), the dive instructor, and 2 crew guys.

The first day was 2 fun dives where we had great conditions and visibility and saw large, green moray eel, several smaller, spotted eels, a lobster, and many beautifully colorful fish, coral, and assorted plants.

The second day we did a deep dive for Brent and Vlad’s certification, then Kurt and I did a fun dive while Brent and Vlad did a navigation practice dive for their certification. The last dive was by far the most amazing of the whole trip, and possibly my whole scuba experience. First of all, it was during a thunderstorm, which seemed a little dangerous being on the water with all the lightning, but when it light up the whole ocean, it was spectacular. Its a little spooky being underwater at night because you never know what’s going to jump out, especially because there are so many eels in this area and they hunt at night, but Vlad stayed close and held my hand when I got scared :-). But the most amazingly beautiful thing I’ve ever seen how all the plankton in the water light up when you turn your light off and stir them up. I’ve seen it before in night dives, but never this intense and beautiful. Its really hard to describe how stunning it is, but I like how Kurt described it: “Every dive is like another world going under the water, but that was like going into a different reality.” It really seems like something out of a fantasy book, and even makes me believe that magic does exist. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a good enough camera to capture this miracle, so its something you’ll just simply have to come see for yourself

The last day we did a cave dive, which was fun, but not as impressive as most caves I’ve seen in the Channel Islands, Hawaii, Mexico, and Palau. Then a current dive, which wasn’t strong, but has always been my favorite kind of dive because of the flying feeling you get when you stop kicking and spread out your arms.

Luckily, Kurt had an underwater camera and gave us his pictures. (Thanks, Kurt!) Here are a few of our photographer’s handy-work:

On the last day in Cartagena I said to Brent and Vlad, “Okay, guys, next stop is Taganga where you are going to learn how to scuba dive.” Taganga used to be only a fishing village, but is now known for being one of the cheapest and best places in Colombia to learn how to and go scuba diving, so the first day we looked around at a few different dive schools and on our 5th place we found Calipso, which is the cheapest school and only NAUI school, opposed to all the other PADI schools. Of course its a matter of opinion, but a lot of people consider NAUI to be the better of the two and since my dad and I have NAUI, and of course because it was a little cheaper ($240 for the Open Water Certification), Brent and Vlad signed up and started the next day. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen either of these guys so excited before and I’ve never seen so many high 5’s. The course lasted 3 days and entailed 2 pool dives, 4 ocean dives, 2 classroom sessions, and the written test. Everyday the guys seemed even more excited than the last, especially after the first days in the ocean. I’ve been proud of them everyday, but especially happy because they decided to do the Advanced Certification on a 3 day scuba safari, which I went along on for fun (since I already have my Rescue Certification).

First Class: \"This is a regulator\"	First time setting up the equipment
Dive School-Equipment Area	Setting up the Equipment
.	\"Dang it, how do I get this on here?\"
.	First dive - In the pool.
\"Wow, that was so awesome.\"	\"Imagine how its going to be in the ocean.\"
Ready for the BBQ at the dive school.	With British Tom.
BBQing with the Isrealy dive instructor - argentina style.	Beach at Taganga.
Fish for lunch with Tom.	.
Beach.	.
Restaurant on the beach.	Main road in Taganga.
Ice cream place.	Fruit stand.
How we found Calipso.	.
.	Brent and Vlad.
.	Brent, Vlad, and Brittni.
Where we went to the Safari.	The hammocks on the safari.
.	.
Dorm in the dive school.	The dive boats and fishing boats in Taganga.
.	Passing the test!