Whilst in Puerto Colombia thought I'd check out the diving so arranged a day out to Cepe beach where allegedly there was a dive shop. The sea had been pretty rough and the local boats had been grounded for a couple of days. However still rough Steve, Karen, Lisa, Heather, Vanessa, Angela, Duncan and I braved the 40 minute boat ride to this beautiful beach. The girls and Steve to relax and have lunch whilst Duncan and I for the diving. The ride out was entertaining, well it was for those in the back watching me leave the seat of this cracked fibre glass boat every time we hit a wave, which was every 20 seconds. It was funny until I landed on the family jewels. Red faced, eyes watering and trying to laugh along took an incredible effort. Arrival at Cepe beach couldn't come soon enough. We found the dive shop at the rear of the beach, a run down shack which was closed. Strange they knew we were coming but one thing I've learnt in South America is it's in their time and this can mean anything from 5 minutes to an hour plus delay. A while later a couple of likely lads arrived and opened up.They didn't speak any English and my Spanish is limited. They seemed to have all the necessary gear including a compressor which resembled a motorcycle engine on the rear bench. Santiago, the main man and Ronaldo (mute) his assistant having gone through the formalities, which were none, and got our gear together. Setting up I changed a set of regulators and a couple of 'o' rings before being satisfied everything was ok to dive with. Duncan faffed about with his fins :) and eventually we headed down to the beach to dig the dive boat out of the sand to get it launched. Eventually the four of us headed around the headland back out into the very high seas to find a dive site. It was an amazing experience and once we got over the initial shock and realised we would be doing everything ourselves we had a good laugh. The two lads were nice guys and there were a lot of thumbs up, laughing and general joviality neither of us having a clue what the other was on about. Arriving at the sheltered site we established Ronaldo was staying on board and would remain in charge of the boat and to pick us up once we surfaced. Over we went and settled down to a lovely dive over wonderful corals, fish, a turtle and numerous sponges. There was a fair bit of current and Duncan who hadn't dived for some time was very proficient. The dive ended and we surfaced to find Ronaldo about 100 metres away looking out to sea. There was quite a swell against us so foolishly I shouted to Ronaldo.... He couldn't hear a thing !! as he's mute, do you think he'd look round inshore, would he heckers like. We had to fin the whole way out to the boat. Arriving totally knackered, I'm not as young as I used to be, Ronaldo thought it was hilarious, we thought otherwise, Santiago threatened to sling him over the edge and leave him there. It all ended in laughs and high fives until Santiago went to retrieve his weight belt leaving Ronaldo in charge of the boat. The engine cut out and we were heading for the rocks. Realising there was a problem Ronaldo buggered off down the other end of the boat getting very animated. About 8 foot from the rocks Santiago regained control, having a right fit at Ronaldo who could do nothing but laugh, infectious, we all ended up laughing again. Duncan then went a paler shade of white as he got a whiff of diesel combined with the high seas. I changed both sets of equipment and we were all set for the second dive. Once in the water Duncan regained his composure. Duncan's also an Aussie and I assured him I wouldn't mention it :)) Duncan and Angela leave the expedition in a few days time after travelling for about 9 months. Duncan is a child at heart, and I enjoy his juvenile capers as much as my own. What's worrying is he is a police officer back in Aussie, at least I'm retired. I'm going to miss both of them. I do feel for you Angela, but you must take more control ha ha. I digress, the rest of the diving was great, but there again any diving is great in my world. This was a mini adventure from start to finish and it ended with me asking for the banos...toilets, which I was directed to at the rear of the dive shop. My god I should have realised. Upon entering the smell was the first thing that hit you. Trap one full to the top, trap two the same, ohh guess what ! trap three looked like someone had spray gunned excreta down the back wall. I just had to laugh and walk out, what did I expect. We'd just made it back in time to meet up with the others to catch yet another boat back to Puerto Colombia which thankfully was a little calmer. The day was fantastic and added to the memory bank of this great trip. I definitely needed a beer on return so we had several.
1. Dive Centre !!!!! On the beach, 12 x 10 shack, note the compressor in middle right of picture
2. Duncan
3. Lion fish, venomous
4-5. A surprise turtle initially having a doze
6. Flatfish
7-13. Various corals and anemones in close up mode
14. Shoal of blue fish
15. Ronaldo "in charge" of the boat
16. Beautiful beach
17. Moray Eel
18. Me
19. The rugged coast line.
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