Another Day In Paradise

“1... 2... 3... Go!”

Holding both my goggles and my mouthpiece in place, I let the weight of my air tank pull me backwards off the side of the boat into the clear, blue water. It was almost a perfect fall in my view, until I accidentally kicked the person to my right with a flipper. ‘Gosh, every single time!’

SPLASH! Bubbles and refracted sunlight together worked to blur my vision, but with my BCD vest slightly inflated with air I felt myself being moved into the direction I figured must be up. Accordingly, I gave a slight kick to help my ascent and within moments broke through the surface.

When I felt the slight breeze on my face, I immediately started to look around, ignoring the beautiful blue sky and the white powdery beach in the background. Before anything else I had to find Leah and Mariano, our SCUBA instructor, amongst the group of about a dozen other divers who for the most part had already made it to the top themselves.

Moments later, I spotted them next to a cluster of others, waiting by the descending rope. The rope itself, which was anchored with weights, is normally for beginners to pull themselves down to the ocean floor, so with that being Leah’s and my fourth and last dive, we were expected to go down without using it.

I reached Leah and Mariano in no time and he began to explain what exercises we would have to do underwater before we would finally be certified. It wouldn’t take that long though, he explained, and we would shortly thereafter be able to explore the bottom.

“Sew, that’s a what we are gunna dew today.” He said in his Argentinean accent.

“Any questions?”

Leah and I shook are heads and said ‘no’ at the same time.

“Ok, kewl. Then deflate your BCD’s and let’s gew.”

Mouthpieces in and working just fine, we held up the air release valve connected to our BCD vests and pressed the button to let the air out as we descended into the Indian Ocean. All of a sudden as my face went below the surface, the sounds of the beach were replaced by the sound of my breathing and the slight background noise of others doing the same.

Keshhhhh Foooooooooooooo. Keshhhh Foooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Looking up I saw that I was only a few feet underwater, so I had to slow down my breathing rate. The longer I exhaled, the less would be in my lungs and the faster I would descend.

As I inched closer and closer to the sandy bottom, I looked to my side and saw Leah with her hair sticking up in the water doing the same. Plugging my nose, I equalized the pressure in my ears by blowing through my nostrils and continued to descend as I began to see the shadows of fish swimming nearby.

‘Just another day on our vacation…’



After four draining days of quizzes, homework, informational videos, and underwater practice, Leah and I finally got SCUBA certified. It was definitely a lot of work, but we had an absolute blast! All the colorful fish and corral we encountered and even just staying by the beach and enjoying the beautiful sunsets made everything worth it. Not to mention the fact that I was just blown away by all the cool skills we learned for moving around and exploring underwater. It was truly an amazing experience.

The vacation as whole, as a matter of fact, was just one big, awesome adventure. We got to wander the streets of Maputo (the capital) and enjoy Thai food, pizza and ice cream, attend Mass at the Cathedral, and just enjoy the change of setting (for her more than me) in a big city that is right next to the ocean. We rented a beach house in Xai-Xai with my friend Anthony and his girlfriend, who was visiting as well, and enjoyed making dinner and goofing off as we could hear the waves crashing in the background. Then I brought her to Maxixe and showed her my home, introduced her to some of my friends and of course my adventurous dog, Indy. :) After that, as mentioned, was our four days of diving at Barra, which was followed by a trip over to Kruger National Park in South Africa.

For those of you unfamiliar with Kruger, it is basically a giant reserve (about the size of Israel) that is home to all sorts of wild animals and plants to see. In riding around Kruger for two days, we managed to see Lion, Buffalo, Elephant, Zebra, Giraffe, Rhinos, Hippos, Eagles, Monkeys, Impala, etc… and all of them except Hippos were within10 feet of us!

As a matter of fact, there was one point that Leah and I stopped and saw an elephant eating leaves in the bushes by the side of the road. After a few minutes, we turned around and saw around 10 of them, including babies, walking together across the street behind our car. It was absolutely breathtaking. (Don’t worry… pictures to come soon :))

Aside from that, outside of scheduled events Leah and I have just enjoyed catching up on time spent together in general. Regardless of setting and whatever adventure we were on at the moment, we constantly found time for many of our favorite pastimes like cooking dinner, enjoying good food and drink, walking around, watching some of ‘the Office,’ and just hanging out and goofing off. After almost 10 months since I had last seen her, we just slipped back into life as usual and enjoyed a wonderful time together.

At this point I’d have to say that my only complaint is how quickly my time with Leah went by. One minute I’m waiting for her at the airport for what felt like forever and another I’m getting ready to drop her off and say goodbye once again. At the very least, however, being back here it has been nice to feel refreshed and have some of that energy for work/ the new business project. And seriously, by now, after 10 months; another 7-8 until the next time doesn’t sound quite so tough.