1 Feb-Esmeralda-SPedro

Mon, 1 Feb in the morning, Madi hugged and hugged me when i showed her the money. now she REALLY doesn't want me to leave. she said she's never had a contribution that large before. she said she could buy 4 'bales' of food with that, enough for 16 days. that's pretty huge for her. she was especially happy since i had given her a B$600 payment before she went to Mexico with her Mom .... and it was all gone!!!!!!!!!! After Madi left for work, Eddi and i finished up, quite quickly. a few days ago i figured out how to use the phone system here :) you buy a 'phone card', which is really just a receipt with a number on it. there are pay phones on almost every corner here! you go to the pay phone, pick up the receiver and wait; a recording comes on, "enter your pin", then you enter the number you want to call. as far as i can tell, this is how most people use the telephone. even for the land line at Madi's house, she has to buy a phone card to use it. you buy phone cards and enter them into your cell phone as well. so i took my phone card and called Darrel at the Dive Shop to see if anyone was going diving. he said they had a group at 9am ... it was 8:30; and they'd go out again at 11:00. i said i'd be there for the 11:00 -- hold the boat! i ran back home, packed my bags, wrote a quick note to Madi and Eddi, walked down the street to get a taxi, and left! i took the other water taxi this time, i didn't want to be late! i got there on time; and met the group from the morning dive. 2 women from Canada who were sailing around the world ... a young girl who was just certified ... a guy with a lot of camera equipment. Still being unsure of myself, i got in the water, and of course, i wouldn't sink :) i'm not sure why that is; but it's always been the case. Darrel helped me get down to the bottom where the rest of the group was waiting. we were diving OUTSIDE of the reef, at a place call Esmeralda Canyons. he had a gallon plastic water jug with fish he's caught to feed the sharks, moray eels, and grouper. it's an awesome place. there was a large area that had a sandy bottom, which is nice because you don't have to be concerned about stepping on or destroying any coral. he coaxed out a large green moray eel, and kind of held it and played with it ... no way, not me! i'll hold stingrays and nurse sharks, but no eels! lots of nurse sharks, which have skin like fine sandpaper. they have no teeth, they are bottom feeders, and just suck .. which is why they call them Nurse Sharks. many different kinds of large grouper. they aren't colorful, but really are pretty coz they have a lot of variations of brown, grey, black on them. then we started travelling. it was like being in the Rocky Mountains under water. there were huge crevaces, canyons, and gullys, with tons of soft and hard corals and fishes fishes fishes everywhere. it was so cool. i guess i was off in my own little world, marvelling at what i was experiencing ... and i was also practicing my breathing .... so i missed 2 sea turtles :( ...next time i'm staying close to the dive master! even so, it was awesome. unfortunately, i have no photos. after the dive, Darrel helped me find a room in town to rent for a few days before i take off for Dangriga and Glovers. we hung out, walked, and ate at the local restaurants, not the tourist ones. and fed the local dogs ... not cats for a change: