Back from Utila

We went to Utila again last week. The flight over was brutal and left me drained, confused, and I had trouble with balance and speech. It was what we thought was an endurance trial of 14 hours of airports and planes, despite upgrading to Business Class.

On Sunday, our first true day at Utila Lodge, I prepared to go diving and realized at once that I was not the person I had been last year. I was unable to accomplish climbing the ladder without great pain and loss of breath followed by generalized muscle weakness. I completed the first dive but was so fatigued that I slept through the second one. On that first dive, however, I saw the tiniest lobster I have ever seen; a baby of about half an inch long. I found it quite by accident when I stuck my fingers in front of a small hole in a coral mound so I could have cleaner shrimp climb on my hand to clean me. Instead, I felt a wee bite on my little finger and looked in more closely to see the baby lobster try to taste me for lunch. A wonderful experience.

I am what I call a sand diver. I like to find a nice sand hole in among the coral heads and search for tiny critters to watch and intently study their behavior. Unfortunately, the other 10 divers on the boat liked a different type of diving so I had only a few that allowed me to rest quietly in the sand. As a result, my two alternating dive-buddy divemasters had to do some towing in order for me to follow the group across the coral reefs. My husband took over the duty of keeping me safe and towing me on the last dive day on Thursday. I did see a very large spotted eagle ray swim by in the deep, a young hawksbill turtle, and an enormous green moray eel so the reef dives were certainly not without excitement.

Because of this type of diving, I saw very few little creatures and was unable to fully experience my dives. Being underwater again, however, was wonderful as always. To float effortlessly with no gravity pulling me down, no pain from aching joints, is rejuvenating for me. I guess my buddies did not find it so effortless, but being underwater still beats standing on dry land any day of the week.