What can I say about this one.

We stared out (in our ignorance) diving with Vallarta adventures, something which is to be avoided at all costs unless you like diving from a party boat/booze cruise with horrible and loud music and a bunch of activities people trying to get you to conga or other equally stupid and annoying things. (At least in the never so humble opinion of a couple of antisocial people who do not play well with others.  Not naming any names though) After resigning ourselves to spending the rest of our time there sitting by the pool listening to yet another set of loud and annoying activities coordinators playing yet more loud and annoying music, we did end up having a good time thanks to a little dive shop fortuitously located right across the street from our hotel called Silent World Divers (which I highly recommend).  We were a little disappointed with the quality of the dive sites though as well as with the visibility.  Puerto Vallarta is a decent place to go if you want to learn to dive, though neither much fun nor challenging for the avid and experienced diver.  The owners of the shop we wound up diving with, Rodolfo and Jadi? Rojas of Silent World Divers, are probably two of the nicest people you could hope to meet and they managed to turn what had started out as an abysmal holiday into a fun and entertaining trip.  Neither Lisa nor I can thank them enough for all they did for us.

Anyway, less blather and more pics.  Take a look at them and let me know what you think. 

Well, if I didn't know better, I would have thought Julian was a Pisces.  Talk about taking to it like a fish to water.  The kid's a natural.  Here are a few pics offered in evidence.

Sorry for the long silence, but traveling the country in a crappy camper going from campsite to campsite is not very conducive to internetting.  We have finished a 5 day liveaboard dive safari on the outer Great Barrier Reef followed by two weeks of traveling from Cairns to Sydney with many stops on the way.  Not least of which was a day diving the wreck of the Yongala, a passsenger and cargo ship which went down in a class 5 cyclone as well as a neat 120 meter cave swim through further south (for temperatures, when you see south, read north.  Brrrrrr.  17 degree waters.)  We spent a couple of days in the rain forrest north of Cairns as well as visiting the Tablelands in the surrounding area.  Could'nt make it to Uluru (Ayers Rock) as it was way too far away and we just didn't have the time for such a detour.  We saw Wallabies, Roos, Koalas as well as an untold number of different birds, all in the wild.  Yes Dad, I did take pictures of things other than fish (Though I did win first, second and third place in the photo competion on the liveaboard).  I am in the process of posting more pictures as we are now back in the real world and actually have a viable internet connection.  We leave tomorrow for Fiji and will be back in Calgary on the evening of the 13th.

PS.  Scooby says he loved his first few days of diving, but wasn't too thrilled to find himself in the decompression chamber after each one (see pictures) 

Sorry for the delay in posting new blogs and photos, but what with the travelling and the liveaboard trip, we have been out of internet comunication for almost two weeks.  We spent a fantistic week diving the wrecks in Truk Lagoon where we dove many shipwrecks, submarines and planes.  One of these ships, the SanFrancisco Maru was over 60 meters deep in places.  We followed this expedition with a 4 day liveaboard on the Spoilsport sailing the Great Barrier Reef. We are now traveling through Queensland and New South Wales on our way to Sydney.  We will be diving on the wreck of the Yongala with a couple of other quick dives as and where possible.  Pictures of Truk and Australia as well as the latest Scooby adventures will follow soon.

Two Rolling Stoned 

I first started dreaming of diving Truck Lagoon when National Geographic put out it's Truk Lagoon edition.  Today that dream came true.  Lisa and I dove our first two wrecks and it was absolutely amazing.  The incredible state of preservation and the amount of artifacts and equipment of these ships is astounding.The lagoon and the islands themselves still have that 1930's "Biggles in the South Seas" atmosphere to them.  It is almost as if time stood still.  This illusion is quickly dispelled though when one gets into town and sees the rundown vehicles and piles of garbage in the streets and streams.  There seems to be a large alcohol problem and poverty is rampant. On the brighter side, the prices for food items are a pitance when compared to those in Canada.  There is a bakery right here in the hotel where we are staying, and they make the most amazing choccy bun conglomeration for $1.85.  It must have at least a dozen of these yummy buns all stuck together.  The bakery is certainly making up for the 14 days of noodles/weiner sandwiches for lunch in Bali.  We've decided that fattening up in Chuuk might be a good idea before hitting Australia where a cup of coffee is about $6.00.  We had a 15 hour layover in Cairns before flying to Guam.  Managed to burn through $200 for lunch, three rounds of coffee, and trip to and from the airport.

Pics to follow, got to run as I hear a choccy bun calling my name 

 

Had the pleasure of diving the same site 5 times.  Got to see the Giant Mola Mola.  Droped down to 50 meters (bad boy, dive limit is 35 meters) in order to get pics.  The Mola Mola(Sunfish) only rises shallowly enough to be seen by divers in two spots in the World, both of which are in Bali, only a couple of kilometers apart.  Saw Manta rays and a field of sting rays.  There must have been 30 or more sting rays in a 50 square meter sand patch.  The only bad part of this experience is the 50 to 100 other divers all mobbing the pour fish and scaring them away before more qualified and patient divers can get decent pics.  Hence the dive down to 50 meters which weeded out the preemies and newbies (inexperienced divers in scubaneses).  Lisa especially liked the Balinese massages.  One hour at $6 a pop.  Sure beats a $100 pedicure in Calgary.  All in all great second week and looking forward to next week and Truck Lagoon.

Finally had time and energy to post some of the photos to our site.  Enjoying Bali immensely - land and sea. Being treated like Duke and Duchess with our own driver (Ega- pronounced ACAR - how fitting for a driver) and dive master (Made - pronounced Maddy).  So far we have gone from western Bali to Northern Bali to eastern Bali and now stationed in the South of Bali.  Fantastic coral and sponges in the North.  Simply stunning!  Funky frogfish in the east.  Yesterday, did a deep dive and saw two Mola Mola (Sunfish).  These fish are massive - up to 3 metres long and 2 metres tall. Gentle, inquisitive giants, one of which almost bonked Nick in the head he got so close.  Hopefully get a chance to see them again and this time get some good photos.  Too excited the first time!  Soon to be added to the site are the photos of our companion on the expedition - Scooby Bear.

Arrived in Bali safe and sound after umpteen grillion kilometers and 4 flights including a bum numbing 14 hour one from LA to Hongkong.  All I can say is thank god for sleeping pills.  We slept for 10 of those 14 hours.  More later as I have to get my camera gear together for tomorrow morning.  What time is it?  It's dive o'clock of course.  Duh!