Majahual

Before starting work a group of friends and I decided to go to Majahual for a long weekend. Majahual is on Mexico's east coast just north of Belize. The reef is part of the same barrier reef as that off the coast of Belize. We were on a much smaller boat but we had to exit the barrier with the same caution as we did in Belize. The waves crash over a belt of shallow coral and rocks and the captain has to navigate through a gap in the rocks with the help of a mate sitting at the boat's bow. The boat almost catches a wave and surfs over the barrier on the way in. We hit rocks both days. Out boat was a fishing boat and I'm not sure how used the Captain was to steaming over the reef.
Majahual's reef is one of the healthiest reefs I recall seeing. This site is not frequently dove, primarily because Majahual is a 5 hour drive from the nearest airport (Cancun and Merida are about the same distance). The reef is in finger formation, much the same a Belize and the ridges of reef are festooned with more variety of sponges than I've seen anywhere. I remember seeing a barrel sponge that must have been 5ft tall. It was like a small town, every inch of its exterior was full of life. Some of my favorite inhabitants were banded coral shrimp and the little purple, translucent, cleaner shrimp. There were also more types on anemone than I have ever seen in the Caribbean. Not like the large colorful anemones in Indonesia. Many of these were flat against coral, deep colors and no more than 7inch wide. I wished my camera was working - but then I would have slowed the group taking pictures. The reef resembled layered cakes, with ornate icing or fairy castles. I enjoyed just floating on my back looking towards the surface over the reef scape.
Lots of macro stuff. We saw a decorator crab:

Ours were much like this one but decorated with red sponge. I'd only seen this type of decorator crab once before. They are very cute:) They shuffled around 'you can't see me, I'm not there, right?'
Anyone looking for pristine reef and a peaceful vacation should head to Majahual. I kind of hope the place remains undiscovered for some time to come. It is also possible to take trips by boat to the reef's off San Pedro Belieze from Majahual.

FULL CAVE DIVER - yeah baby

I spent Sunday running lines all over the cavern section of Taj Mahal with Hans. I practiced finning backwards while tying in, over and over again. The visability was pretty messed up when we were done, but I got a lot of practice to build on my obsessive swimming backwards in the ocean.
Yesterday was Taj Mahal again with Steve - we went off to the Chinese Garden room off the left cave line. Thank the lord, everything went smoothly. No dropping my knees at tie offs - some successful backing off of tie ins. Believe me, there is still room for improvement, but overall it showed that I'd been practicing my ass off. Those with a keen eye will have seen, from Miguel's video, that my trim is still a little knees down, this gives my frog kick a little rock. Steve informed me that this fault is referred to as 'a braying donkey' - nice:) His overall appraisal of the video was 'good videographer, nice fish'. In other words my fin strokes still leave a lot to be desired. Without knowing what the current was doing he was unable to draw conclusions on the skill of my backwards finning (Buggar! - worth a try though).
Anyway after much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, and cursing at myself underwater I am now a FULLY CERTIFIED CAVE diver.
Steve pronounced his verdicts after the first dive of the day and offered to dive a second dive with us. I decided to end on a high note for fear of doing something stupid during a second dive which might cause him to rethink his decision. Excited about doing some more dives now.
As a side note the Chinese Garden Room in Taj is beautiful. I would like to do that dive again with less pressure.

The Proof

Here is an awesome video of me swimming backwards, courtesy of my good friend Miguel who is a videographer here in Cozumel:

http://cozumeldigitalcreations.com/video/gallery.php?title=Anna.mov

Now the first part where my knees are down is just because I was in a heads up trim for the camera (HONEST!). Anyone coming to Cozumel to dive should think about asking Miguel to take some video of their dives (shameless plug for Miguel)

New Job

Well on my first day of job hunting I got a job at El Cozumeleno Beach Resort
I start work on November 1st. I think it will be pretty hard work physically. Basically the routine is that we hang around the pool in the morning, encouraging people to take scuba lessons. The pool session is free as part of their all inclusive package and then we try to sell them a discover scuba dive. If they agree we head off to the Sunset Beach Club to do an intro to scuba dive:

The downsides of the job are that I will have to move 5 tanks to the pool every morning then back to the dive shop and then up and down the stairs at Sunset Beach; also I'll be in the pool every day which will be no good for my hair. The upside is that I think I'll enjoy teaching discover scuba. Its quite a high class resort so the guests seem pretty nice. Also the diving is all in one spot so I can really get a good routine going. Before I start I want to dive the spot a few times. I also intend to work out a really nice discover scuba routine. Its also possible to sell 'Scuba diver' and 'Open Water' courses if we can get people interested. There are two other instructors Fernando and Hernan. I spent a day working with Fernando and he seemed really nice.

Flying Gunard

This was an interesting fish that we followed around for about 15 mins yesterday:

It kind of lumbers along the ocean floor on two leg/fins and from time
to time spreads its glorious wings out and glides (no doubt to scare off
bothersome divers!). Very pretty though.

Guess what I was doing today????

Swimming underwater backwards!!!! It all just clicked after hours of practicing. I can now swim forwards, pause and then stick it in reverse, pull myself back in an even trim, pause, and then forwards again. Miguel was very excited to see a seahorse. I was excited to move close to the seahorse and then back off - move closer again and then back!!! Did I say that I CAN FIN BACKWARDS!!!
I have to give thanks where thanks is due and the most must go to Hans' friend Patrick who is a cave instructor with Protec in Playa. He was kind enough to run through the fin motion with me on his day off before we all dove in Xunaan Ha. Allie also blogged on this day with more pics. Let me tell you I looked very glamorous hanging off the back over Patrick's truck practicing the leg movements for forwards and backwards frog kicks:

Patrick teaches this very well though and it was this exercise which was definitely the turning point. Before I go back in the water with Steve on October 20, I want to do a few more dives in the Ocean here, to make sure I have this skill down and then hopefully a cave dive or two with Hans & Allie to put it all into practice. This will be a well earned certification!!
I am so pleased to have accomplished this today as I was really starting to think I would never get it.

Finning backwards - another attempt...

OK this is what I am trying to accomplish:

Actually this video is very good. I've just come back from a very frustrating dive off scuba shack's beach. After 40 mins work I was no better than in cave class. I can move backwards but my fins stroke lifts me up and back. The guy in this video claps the soles of his fins together before starting his stroke. I'm going to try this tomorrow. All I accomplished today was aggravating a bit of back pain I had, amusing some snorkelers above me and pissing off a damsel fish I was practicing near. Oh yes I can now curse through my regulator!!!
I like the style of the guy in this training video though so I have high hopes for tomorrow.