Our first stop in Nicaragua was San Juan del Sur. It is a small beach town which is very popular for surfing and was full of other travelers. We were hoping to get our PADI open water diving certifications in San Juan. This course is internationally recognized and is the minimum requirement to go scuba diving with any reputable diving company in the world. The course involves studying some theory, writing several tests, and four dives where we practice some of the skills with an instructor. Since the course takes several days to complete, we were expecting to stay in San Juan del Sur for at least 4 days.
We dove through Neptune Watersports which is run by Fidel Lopez. We met Fidel on Saturday, May 4, 2014 and signed up for the PADI open water course. He explained the course to us and gave us each a textbook. We spent the afternoon studying the first two chapters of this textbook, which we were expecting to be tested on the next morning. Studying while having a drink on the beach was a nice change to studying inside at a university!
Fidel had told us to meet him at the shop early the next morning (Sunday, May 5, 2014). He said he normally opens at 8:30 or 9:00, so we arrived at 8:30. An hour later, Fidel still hadn't arrived so we went down the street and got some smoothies. He wasn't there once we got our smoothies. Or after we wandered on the beach for a while. Or after we went back to our hostel for an hour. By now it was 11:00 so we decided to give up and try to find surfing lessons.
At our hostel, there was a sign advertising surfing lessons including board rental, transportation, and a day of instruction for $50. We asked the owner of our hostel to borrow a phone to call the number on the advertisement, and she told us the instructor was actually staying at our hostel! Five minutes later, we met our instructor, Mickiel, a young guy from n the Philippines who had been surfing his whole life and teaching it for several years. Shortly thereafter we were on our way to the beach! Our ride was a pickup truck. We rode in the back and the surfboards were strapped to the roof.
Mickiel was an excellent instructor. He taught us the basics of what to do and made us practice the technique of getting up from a lying to a standing position on land before we got in the water. Once in the water, he would put our board in the right position to catch a wave and push us to minimize the amount of paddling required. I was able to catch a wave and stand up within the first 5 waves! Eventually, he stopped pushing us as we got more comfortable with knowing when to paddle to get in the right position. By the end of the afternoon, we were mostly able to surf on our own, although it was considerably harder to catch a wave without Mickiel's help.
While surfing, we also made some new friends with some of the other people who were surfing with us. They were Emile, from Finland, and Claudia and Mélissa, from Québec, who we had briefly met on the bus from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. While it was disappointing to be able to dive, the surfing was a lot of fun, and it was nice to meet some other backpackers and share experiences!
On Monday morning (May 5, 2014), we went back to the dive shop, hoping to do our first dives. This time the shop was actually open! Unfortunately, only Fidel's wife was at the shop. She told us that he had gone to Managua for the day and told us to come back at 5 to meet with him. Disappointed, we went back to the hostel. Mickiel, Emile, and Mélissa were about to leave for surfing, and we were able to tag along with them, this time only needing to pay for the board rental and transportation. I unfortunately stubbed my toe right when I got to the beach, making it quite painful to surf, so I spent most of the day wandering on the beach and nearby rocks. I saw many fish and several different species of crab!
That evening, we finally got to meet with Fidel. We went to Barrio's Cafe across the street, had some drinks and went over the first two chapters of the PADI textbook with him. After reviewing each chapter, there was a short quiz. The material was much simpler than most things we learn in engineering school. Hugh and I both passed the quizzes with flying colors. Fidel promised us that he would be available to take us diving the next morning and we went home happy to know we would finally be diving!
True to his word, Fidel was at his shop when we arrived the next morning (Tuesday, May 6, 2014). He fitted us for wetsuits, buoyancy control devices, masks, and fins, and had tanks and regulators for our air supplies. We carried the equipment out to a little boat which brought us out of the bay to our diving spot next to a rock face. On the boat, Fidel briefed us on how to put on the equipment and what would happen during the dive. Underwater, you can't communicate verbally, so he also refreshed us on what the various gestures he would use mean. We put on our equipment, hooked up our air supplies and got ready to enter the water. We were told to roll into the water backwards. I was slightly nervous about this type of entry. You can't see the water behind you as you roll in, and you end up upside down in the water, which normally means water up the nose if not wearing a mask. I trusted my instructor tough, and rolled in. It was a very cool experience! I landed completely disoriented, but I was calm and could breathe through my regulator and my mask kept all the water out of my eyes and nose, making virtually any position in the water very comfortable.
Once Hugh, Fidel, and I were all in the water, we gathered around the line for the boat's anchor which we would use as a guide for descending. Hugh was too excited and needed to calm down a bit first, so initially just Fidel and I descended. Initially, I felt fine and was very confident in the scuba equipment. We stopped after descending a few meters and Fidel started signaling some information to me. He clearly wanted me to do something, but I didn't know what. Then I realized that I also couldn't ask him what he wanted to do our tell him I was confused, because we were underwater, and I started to panic a little bit. I didn't know what to do so I swam to the surface. Fidel followed and asked what was wrong when we surfaced. I said I didn't know what he wanted me to do, so he explained with words instead of hand gestures. All he was telling me was how to blow water out of my mask.
By now, Hugh was ready to go and the three of us descended to the bottom. The rest of the dive went smoothly. We spent most of the dive looking at various fish. The ocean has amazing biodiversity, and it is so much easier to see exciting animals underwater than on land! One species of fish, which Fidel called the dogfish, was very curious and would swim right up to us and sometimes even bump into us. Most of the other fish would generally swim away from us, but it was still fairly easy to get close to them. Some interesting animals we saw were pufferfish, eels, clownfish, rays, starfish, and the antennae of a lobster. When we saw a pufferfish, Fidel was able to scare it causing it to inflate to a sphere twice its normal size! On the first dive, I also learned what to do if my regulator comes out of my mouth and how to clear water out of my mask - two very useful skills. We did our second dive that day and it was in the same location as the first, so the experience was very similar.
Wednesday, May 7 was another study day. I had been reading the textbook in my spare time so I was done by 10:00 and spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and planning the next couple of days of our trip. On Thursday (May 8, 2014), Fidel was out of town again, so we had another beach day.
We had our last two dives on Friday (May 9, 2014) and got certified. These dives were at a different location further from the town so we had a slightly longer boat ride. During the first dive, I ran out of air after only 25 minutes. When I ran out, Fidel still had half a tank left (1500 psi) and he didn't even bother changing his tank for the second dive. The visibility was around 12 m, this day, which is typical of the Caribbean and very rare for the Pacific, so we were able to see even more fish. We saw a whole school of yellow butterflyfish who were crowded around a crevice in a rock be chased away by one lone blue fish. The blue fish was protecting its babies which the yellow fish were trying to eat. It was incredible to see just one fish able to fend off close to 50 other fish! I also saw a flutefish which is a long slender fish that is several feet long. During these two dives, we learned a controlled emergency swimming ascent, which can be used to safely surface if you run out of air. After completing these dives we were officially certified and got our log books!
We dove through Neptune Watersports which is run by Fidel Lopez. We met Fidel on Saturday, May 4, 2014 and signed up for the PADI open water course. He explained the course to us and gave us each a textbook. We spent the afternoon studying the first two chapters of this textbook, which we were expecting to be tested on the next morning. Studying while having a drink on the beach was a nice change to studying inside at a university!
Fidel had told us to meet him at the shop early the next morning (Sunday, May 5, 2014). He said he normally opens at 8:30 or 9:00, so we arrived at 8:30. An hour later, Fidel still hadn't arrived so we went down the street and got some smoothies. He wasn't there once we got our smoothies. Or after we wandered on the beach for a while. Or after we went back to our hostel for an hour. By now it was 11:00 so we decided to give up and try to find surfing lessons.
At our hostel, there was a sign advertising surfing lessons including board rental, transportation, and a day of instruction for $50. We asked the owner of our hostel to borrow a phone to call the number on the advertisement, and she told us the instructor was actually staying at our hostel! Five minutes later, we met our instructor, Mickiel, a young guy from n the Philippines who had been surfing his whole life and teaching it for several years. Shortly thereafter we were on our way to the beach! Our ride was a pickup truck. We rode in the back and the surfboards were strapped to the roof.
Mickiel was an excellent instructor. He taught us the basics of what to do and made us practice the technique of getting up from a lying to a standing position on land before we got in the water. Once in the water, he would put our board in the right position to catch a wave and push us to minimize the amount of paddling required. I was able to catch a wave and stand up within the first 5 waves! Eventually, he stopped pushing us as we got more comfortable with knowing when to paddle to get in the right position. By the end of the afternoon, we were mostly able to surf on our own, although it was considerably harder to catch a wave without Mickiel's help.
While surfing, we also made some new friends with some of the other people who were surfing with us. They were Emile, from Finland, and Claudia and Mélissa, from Québec, who we had briefly met on the bus from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. While it was disappointing to be able to dive, the surfing was a lot of fun, and it was nice to meet some other backpackers and share experiences!
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| There were many hermit crabs on the beach in San Juan del Sur |
That evening, we finally got to meet with Fidel. We went to Barrio's Cafe across the street, had some drinks and went over the first two chapters of the PADI textbook with him. After reviewing each chapter, there was a short quiz. The material was much simpler than most things we learn in engineering school. Hugh and I both passed the quizzes with flying colors. Fidel promised us that he would be available to take us diving the next morning and we went home happy to know we would finally be diving!
 |
| Rolling backwards into the Pacific! |
Once Hugh, Fidel, and I were all in the water, we gathered around the line for the boat's anchor which we would use as a guide for descending. Hugh was too excited and needed to calm down a bit first, so initially just Fidel and I descended. Initially, I felt fine and was very confident in the scuba equipment. We stopped after descending a few meters and Fidel started signaling some information to me. He clearly wanted me to do something, but I didn't know what. Then I realized that I also couldn't ask him what he wanted to do our tell him I was confused, because we were underwater, and I started to panic a little bit. I didn't know what to do so I swam to the surface. Fidel followed and asked what was wrong when we surfaced. I said I didn't know what he wanted me to do, so he explained with words instead of hand gestures. All he was telling me was how to blow water out of my mask.
By now, Hugh was ready to go and the three of us descended to the bottom. The rest of the dive went smoothly. We spent most of the dive looking at various fish. The ocean has amazing biodiversity, and it is so much easier to see exciting animals underwater than on land! One species of fish, which Fidel called the dogfish, was very curious and would swim right up to us and sometimes even bump into us. Most of the other fish would generally swim away from us, but it was still fairly easy to get close to them. Some interesting animals we saw were pufferfish, eels, clownfish, rays, starfish, and the antennae of a lobster. When we saw a pufferfish, Fidel was able to scare it causing it to inflate to a sphere twice its normal size! On the first dive, I also learned what to do if my regulator comes out of my mouth and how to clear water out of my mask - two very useful skills. We did our second dive that day and it was in the same location as the first, so the experience was very similar.
Wednesday, May 7 was another study day. I had been reading the textbook in my spare time so I was done by 10:00 and spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and planning the next couple of days of our trip. On Thursday (May 8, 2014), Fidel was out of town again, so we had another beach day.
We had our last two dives on Friday (May 9, 2014) and got certified. These dives were at a different location further from the town so we had a slightly longer boat ride. During the first dive, I ran out of air after only 25 minutes. When I ran out, Fidel still had half a tank left (1500 psi) and he didn't even bother changing his tank for the second dive. The visibility was around 12 m, this day, which is typical of the Caribbean and very rare for the Pacific, so we were able to see even more fish. We saw a whole school of yellow butterflyfish who were crowded around a crevice in a rock be chased away by one lone blue fish. The blue fish was protecting its babies which the yellow fish were trying to eat. It was incredible to see just one fish able to fend off close to 50 other fish! I also saw a flutefish which is a long slender fish that is several feet long. During these two dives, we learned a controlled emergency swimming ascent, which can be used to safely surface if you run out of air. After completing these dives we were officially certified and got our log books!
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| Officially certified as a PADI Open Water scuba diver! |
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