It was almost exactly 12 months ago when I sat in on a GUE fundamentals class and then got in the water with Clare. The dive was awful, frankly I was embarrassed at my lack of “ease” in the water, Clare was effortless and I was a shambles.
Over the following months, I got to dive with some experienced divers who seemed to be more than willing to take a Muppet like me diving. I did my GUE-F course with Clare in April and continued with my “diver education” over the next few months. Some skills were a struggle and I still hadn’t cracked the valve drill with any degree of slickness.
Around July/August I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new dry suit, which Clare arranged for me, I went for the fitting and she ticked all the options boxes. When the suit arrived I felt much better about myself, surprising what a new bit of kit will do. So I had a couple of dives in it before my holiday, some time ago I had offered to be Clare’s surface support on a forthcoming GUE-F course at Capernwray Quarry in Lancashire, we had made a tentative arrangement to do my upgrade dive at the end of the course, subject to time.
I didn’t have much time to practice in the new suit, so last week I picked up a diving day with Mark Emery at Stoney, he hadn’t been in the water for a while and when I volunteered to buddy him he accepted. The dives went quite well, the first not so good but for me they got better. So I was quite happy that I would be able to give it my best shot if the opportunity for a dive arose.
I headed up to Capernwray on Friday, arriving just as the guys were all finishing lunch, so they were soon off for their first dive of the day having spent the morning doing the kit set up. After their dives we headed back to Capernwray House where they were staying for another lecture and video de-brief, then headed off to the accommodation which had originally been booked for another candidate who couldn’t attend and I got his room, we also had a nice dinner there, although it was probably a bit late in the day for me to be eating and I didn’t do justice to my shoulder of lamb.
I met up with the guys again on Saturday morning at Cap. House and they were doing valve drills and S-drills in the car park, as my kit was set up, Rob used mine as their sets were at Capernwray being filled. After their first dive, I was ready to go and had a short dive with Garf, we descended and ran through valve drills and S-drills and a rather nice ascent – if I may say so myself. After their second dive if was back again to the B&B for another lecture and de-brief, then out again and as the food had been good the night before we headed back to the Kings Arms at Burton in Kendal for more food.
I woke up on Sunday morning feeling rather delicate, was I nervous about my potential dive – I don’t know, but I really wasn’t feeling 100%. Rob and Marty worked through their exam and then went in for their dive; this dive is for practicing something you need to have another go at. Clare’s suit had been leaking throughout the weekend and she looked really cold when she finished the dive, so a combination of this and me not feeling very well, I asked if we could leave my dive for maybe next week at Guildy. Clare agreed and we would see how we both felt after their dive.
Clare had asked me to play “3rd man” as there were only 2 of them on the course; I hoped I wouldn’t let them down, as it was their course. Clare said it would be fine. We got kitted up and entered the water from the beach area, Marty was number 1 and ran through the GUEedge and Rob was number 2, they had put me at number 3, which was where Clare had thought they would put me, this was because I would probably end up being snaffled during the dive to make sure they were watching the lights. We descended and ran through valve drills, I was quite pleased with mine which made a nice start, we then ran S-drills round the team and then started the “dive”, I was immediately stopped round the platform and within a few fin strokes Rob signalled Marty and they both turned to see me hiding being the platform legs, OK probably not hiding that well. A few failures later, I won’t go into too much detail, as it wasn’t my course or dive; I’ll leave the guys to post a report.
At the end of the dive, Rob and Marty were gas sharing so that leaves me to put the smb up, which goes quite nicely, just as I have finished putting it up but before I have chance to clip off a double ender, I see Garf coming at me OOG, so I donate to him and we ascend – sorry Garf it could have been a bit slower, I had developed cramp at the bottom and was trying to cope with it even before the bag went up, so I wasn’t having the best of times – lesson learnt eat more than a chocolate brownie even if you aren’t feeling well.
On the surface I am gathering myself when Clare comes over and tells me I have just upgrading my Rec pass, I don’t quite understand at the time as I didn’t even know it was happening. I don’t have time to feel pleased with myself as I am immediately told to “get back down and help the boys get theirs”.
Back on the surface I am told my smb was text book, I guess watching Clare’s video at least a hundred times must have helped then. Please don’t knock me for feeling more than a little pleased with myself - it has been tough 2 years 
October 29th, 2007
Posted by
Fiona |
Diving |
3 comments
We started to plan the trip almost 2 years ago, we put a group together and then we had some problems, which meant a few people decided to drop out. So the search was on for people to fill the places. We thought everything was going to plan until 12 months ago when we had problems with the US agent who imposed a mandatory gratuity on to the invoice as they had had “problems” with European guests who where not used to tipping as much as the US guests. In the end we had no choice but to accept the additional imposed costs, we always knew that we might not get the service other guests would receive as the staff wouldn’t really have to try very hard. Then back in July just after we had paid the balance and after reading on Scubaboard there were problems with the National Parks Service and they had suspended all diving from boats, which apparently didn’t have the correct permits. This issue took weeks to resolve and some trips were cancelled, I looked into other locations so as not to miss out on a holiday.
Eventually and only a couple of weeks before we were due to fly the trip was back on, although we had no idea what the itinerary would be and wouldn’t know until we got there. At last it was time to fly and most of the group met up in Amsterdam and boarded the long flight to Quito in Ecuador. I think we had more take off’s and landings than I have ever done before.
We eventually landed in Quito and the transfers were done quite quickly and we were met by the local agent and pilled on to a bus which didn’t seem to have enough luggage space, we got to the hotel and checked in, well I say checked in because we didn’t actually check in as we were just handed our keys, no passport requested, no signatures. We met in the coffee shop for a few coffees to wake ourselves up with and then decided to head off to the cable car to the top of the mountain at 4200m, probably a bit silly having stepped off an aeroplane about 2 hours earlier.
The view from the top of Teleferico was fantastic, even though a little difficult to catch your breath, some of the group went on a little higher but I decided a nice large rock was far enough for me and I decided to wait for them to come down. We had lunch, a burger and fries and a beer, the beer was probably a mistake because when we went out of the restaurant, I felt quite dizzy and had to lean against the railings, it soon passed as we were all on our way down, again the view was spectacular.
The weekend turned out to be election weekend and Quito was “dry” so when we went out to dinner we all had soft drinks – bet that hasn’t been done on a dive trip before. On the Sunday we decided to take in a city tour, a trip to the Mitad del Mundo – Middle of the World (Equatoral line) and lunch.
The Middle of the World was the accurate one, not the tourist one which is in fact not quite on the equatoral line as the French got it wrong. For some reason, I quess we were out of the way, we could have a beer with lunch but again at dinner back in Quito, we had to make do with soft drinks.
We were then off to the airport even though our transfer arrived almost an hour late, which we were not happy with and I think the agent realised this and didn’t speak all the way to the airport, she didn’t even introduce herself. Passports were collected and our bags were scanned and even though it had been suggested we check in as individuals all our bags were whisked off and went as one group, no excess was charged which was a result.
Finally we arrive in the Galapagos and I am somewhat overwhelmed by being there and get a little emotional, silly me. We meet up with the guys from Deep Blue and Gary is taken to one side and advised of our itinerary, we get 3 days at Wolf and 2 at Darwin, I am happy – it could have been a lot worse. We are taken to identify our bags and they are loaded on to a truck, we have to wait for one of the buses to come back from the dock so we sit and wait for a short time. We are soon off to the dock and get off the bus to find sealions on the landing stage, they have no intention of moving so we stand around and are loaded in to the pangas (zodiacs) in two halfs, I find having to put on a lifejacked for a 5 minute trip out to the boat quite amusing.
We arrive on DeepBlue and as usual have to remove our shoes which I am surprised about I thought this was just Redsea boats. We sort our bags and are given a welcome talk but there is no mention of dive qualifications – which seems odd to me, given the conditions we will be diving in, even nitrox certs aren’t requested. We have a weight check dive and I load 6 weights on my kit, 4 on the belt and 2 on the STA in pockets, I thought this would be about right and I asked for another weight, although I soon ditch this on the other dives as I ensure that I suck all the air out of the wing for the negative entries. The water is cold and I surprised at how cold it is, so the check dive doesn’t last very long especially since Jenny finds a fin and is carrying it around so I decide we have had enough an ascend to the boat, Jenny uses the ladder on the back of DeepBlue but it looks very vertical so I opt to dekit in the water and exit via one of the pangas, which have ladders on – very civilized.
That evening we have a boat drill which is a first, although being told you should put your shoes on if the deck is burning when they are all in a box by the door is a little strange. The aircon in the salon is a little chilly on one side and for most of the week I prefer to sit outside on the upper deck despite the air temperature and windy conditions at times, fleecey hats and socks are the order of the day, even scarves were used at times.
The diving around Wolf and Darwin was quite a bit warmer and there were lots of big life, we had 31 whaleshark sightings during the 2 days at Darwin and lots of hammerhead, eagleray and shark action. The currents were strong and a lot of the dives were spent hanging on to the barnacle covered rocks, a good pair of gloves were essential. Water temperatures ranged from 16 degrees on the first dives to between 22 – 26 at Wolf and Darwin, but much colder in the south. I had recently read a trip report about the dive guides spending time in the evening talking about the Galapagos wildlife but we didn’t seem to have any of this and our lead guide spent his evenings in his PC room editing the trip DVD, I even found him to be quite rude at times but I guess like I said before you really don’t need to try very hard when the company have over £3000 in tips already, we wondered how much of the money the crew would see.
The food on the boat was OK if you weren’t a vegetarian although it lacked imagination especially since the head guy dressed like a proper chef. I would have been annoyed if I was a vege person as the food was very limiting. But worse was to come, after only a couple of days the boat ran out of diet coke, then some very suspect varieties appeared. Towards the end of the trip we did actually run out of softdrinks, which frankly is unforgivable when you consider how many times you stock for a trip. It appeared that nothing was going to be done to rectify the situation so I had a word with the one guide we did get on with and that was Luis, I put it to him that it was unacceptable and that as we were in a location with other boats they should go and seek out further supplies, to be fair they did but only 2 cases – not a lot between 16 people especially since most seemed to be going into the kitchen.
The last day we ended up in San Christobel and not Santa Cruz to the Darwin Research Station, I thought this was to do with the itinerary until the wife’s and girlfriends arrived on the boat, incidentally they didn’t seem to have to remove high heeled shoes. One of the wife’s turned out to the be wife of the owner and when she was advised we had run out of soft drink she was surprised as she had put 150 bottles onboard – wow less than one each per day. I thought these people knew what they were doing. All the crew associated with the dive deck were excellent and helpful, Erick was everywhere, so can’t fault them. Luis one of the guides was a really nice and helpful guide. I enjoyed my trip, apart from the niggles with the boat, I am glad I went but would I go back – no.
October 22nd, 2007
Posted by
Fiona |
Holidays |
3 comments
The Galapagos trip is now over and I had a night back in quito, 6 of us went to find some spicy food as this had been sadly lacking on the boat. We found an Indian restaurant which was OK and as usual cheap about $10 including a beer. Some then head of for another beer but Jenny and I head back to the hotel and have a coffee in the coffee shop. Jenny is off on a trip to Cocapaxi the next morning so has an early start, I stay out of the way until she has gone then go for a lesuirly breakfast where I am joined by Lou and Caroline who also decide to have a free day. We go back to the old town and have a quick look round then off to a park and walk round the handicraft stalls. Back to town and we have a nice lunch at the Magic Bean. Lou and Caroline come and wave me off, it’s sad to leave them but we are off on different adventures. The Taca flight from Quito to Lima is on time and quite good, I am met at the airport promptly but have to wait 40 minutes for the driver I am not happy by this time, I am taken to my hotel in Lima – the less said about the Hotel Carmel the better. I request a 05.30am wake up call then get an apology at 04.45am for getting it wrong.
Back to the airport in Lima and arrive to find out the plane will be departing early, exit taxes paid I make my way to the departure gate. On the plane AreoGal could take note of Lan’s inflight catering, which was very simple. I arrived at the airport in Cusco but had to wait for the agent as the flight landed early – not a problem as I am soon at the hotel and meeting up with my friend Lou. The hotel is like a lot of the hotels in Cusco hiding behind a door on a street like all the rest, once behind the door this is where the surprise happens, I walked into a lovely courtyard with the rooms on two floors, I am immediately given a cup of coca tea and checked in. My room is though another walkway in another courtyard and there is a small Peruvian music group playing and children dancing, we later find out this is a charity the hotel is involved in for single mothers. The children look to be having a good time, then room is nice although quite dark because of the “cell like” windows, but it has a big comfy bed and a decent bathroom. Soon we have to leave for our city tour which turns out to be more of a walking tour than I had imagined and the altitude takes it’s toll. At this point I should mention the hotel has a first aid station with oxygen cylinder, I didn’t need it but when we were checking out it was being used. The city tour was a long day and Lou visited the last location in the dark – I didn’t get off the bus as I didn’t think it was safe.
Back at the hotel we find Gary and Kathy have been also checked in and while Lou and I are chilling in my room there is a knock on the door, we have a quick chat and then head off for some dinner, we end up in a small pizza place and order a bottle of wine which we think they had to go and get from somewhere, the pasta meal is lovely and is about a fiver each. The one thing about Cusco is your money goes a long way.
Next day we are off on a Sacred Valley tour, which begins in Pisaq market, very touristy but we find the local part and have an empanarda (cheese pasty) and then find the cake stall, I have a piece of pineapple cake and Lou has banana. 
Then we are off to visit the Inca location of Ollantaytambo but it looks quite a climb to the top so I opt to stay around the base and wait for the others. Lunch is a very touristy affair and for some reason the group is booked into 2 restaurants, we are given about 45mins for lunch so we make our way back to the vague meeting point at the appointed time only to wait a further 35 minutes for the rest of the group. Organisation could have been better. Our next stop is Chinchero for a local market, which is small and set around a courtyard, I buy myself a silly Peruvian hat and a small bag which I can use for our overnight stay at Machu Picchu. Lou buys a bag and had already been talked in to one earlier in the day.
We meet up again with Gary and Kathy who have to wait for the local agent to arrive at 7pm with their kit bags for their Inca Trail trek, so we all head out for dinner after that, we were looking for a restaurant call Baco which had been advertised in the Lan brochure on the flight but couldn’t find it, it turns out we were only yards away. We go back to a restaurant call Incanto although seated next to the kitchen so being picky not the best table the food was good and again cost about 25 Sol or about $8 with wine. Gary and Kathy are off on their trip in the morning and we have to leave the hotel at 05.30 ish so we say our goodbyes and we wish them luck with their trek.
Lou and I are picked up from the hotel and taken to the station we have seats on the Vistadome train which is OK. We arrive at the station at Aguas Calientes and are met by Jonny our tour guide for our trip around the citadel, Jonny is Quechua and is passionate about his culture, he spent 7 years being a porter on the Inca trail, his favouite phase was “now pay attention” when he wanted to give up another piece of information.
We spent about 3 hours touring the citadel and I could have stayed longer but Lou wanted a loo break and some lunch so we head back down the mountain to the hotel, Lou plans to return the next day and walk to the Sun Gate but I decide the one day is enough as it is a steep entrance and the steps have taken their toll on my knees. Back at the hotel we find the spa and Lou has a massage and I have a foot threapy which the thearapist finds amusing as I have very sensitive feet. Dinner is at either 7pm or 8.30pm and we have opted for the 7pm sitting, I head down to the lobby where they are serving complimentary Pisco sours while Lou has her shower, I also have Lou’s as she doesn’t like them – Lou has a champagne cocktail. Dinner is lovely and served in a very nice restaurant, I have as starter of soup which is made with a local grain, but can’t think of it now and the main dish is an Alpaca steak and jacket potato, followed by 3 flavours of icecream, we have a bottle of wine which we finish with coffee next to a roaring fire in the lobby.
Lou has an early start so head off to bed, I have a lovely relaxing breakfast which is the best of the whole trip, I spend the morning around the hotel, chatting to other guests and reading a book. Lunch is another nice meal and then it’s time to head back to the train station for our return trip to Cusco. Next day is a free one in Cusco and I am shattered so spend another relaxing day, we are then determined to find the restaurant in the Lan brochure so this time we check the street map and know where we are going. We have a drink at another bar/ restaurant I can’t remember the name to now and then head off for Baco. The combination of rich food, a large Pisco sour and half a bottle of wine take their toll. It’s all over and we are back to the airport for our return flights to Lima and my long flght to Amsterdam, there is a mix up at the airport and I have to wait almost 2 hours for my bag to be returned to me as they took it to Lou’s hotel, it was supposed to be left with the agent in Lima so I didn’t have to pay excess baggage.
After travelling about 27 hours I am finally back home. A great trip to the Galapagos and then Peru but I am glad to be back home – it was a busy 3 weeks.
October 20th, 2007
Posted by
Fiona |
Holidays |
one comment