Josh and Rusty go scuba diving

We told the kids if they could swim 500M without stopping they could get scuba certified and we would take them diving. And I wanted to spend more time with the kids. Josh took us up on it so we went diving. We basically repeated Tara and I’s trip to Cozumel because it’s the best diving, it’s easy to get to (nonstop flight) and it was easier to plan that way (fresh in my head). We even stayed at the same hotel (Mahekal resort) because the food was delicious and so it was one less thing to think about.

I’m so glad we took this trip. I had the impression that it was really important to do this after portugal and so I came home and booked the trip right away. And I’m really glad I did. It was kind of a pain to book with moving things around but made it happen.

We headed out Friday (just a bit late) and after circling for parking for awhile we made it just barely on time. We took off a little late, but still no big deal right? But then about 2 hours in the pilot says Nah the weather is not looking good so we are going to go to Houston instead. What??? BOO! I had looked and the weather did look pretty bad, so started to move things around. We landed in Houston and they were like you can’t get off the plane. And then they said we could so we just went out and basically stood in the bridgeway. A new captain showed up who decided that we could go to Cancun so off we went. Or so we thought. We sat at the gate for awhile and then taxid forever and eventually we were on our way. Long story short we landed about 630 when we were supposed to land about 230. So our initial afternoon was shot but that’s okay we had just planned to relax. We landed to a crazy rain storm, but we had a window so we found our air transfer (I like the cancunairporttransfers) and were on the road.

Check in took a while but no biggee. We had a good talk on the way down about all the ways mexico was different and all the things you would see differently. We got settled (they had no twin beds just a king but fine) and then headed to dinner. We were starving! Dinner didn’t dissapoint. A buffet as usual, full of mexican food. We stuffed ourselves with mexican food and then headed to walk the town. 5th ave was quite a site to see as usual. We hit the bank aand that’s when the pouring rain set in. We’re talking sheets and sheets of rain. It was impossible to go anywhere or do anything without getting completely soaked. What an adventure. We went to the bank, ate our Marinetta’s and then went home and crashed.

Saturday we were supposed to go Cenote hopping or exploring but we woke up to find out we were in a named tropical storm. Tropical storm Nadine! So we weren’t in a hurry. Josh slept till like 9+ and then we hit breakfast and started our lazy day. It was actually a pretty fun day. We hit the gym, then came back to our room and bought a 2 player steam game called BROFORCE that we could play on the same computer. We had a great time. By now our AC had decided to quite quit that’s just what AC does when it sees me so we needed to move rooms – we took the chance to get two beds and moved just down the way to a nice fresh paolin roof that had two beds, working ac, AND no leaks (our previous place had a number of puddles from drips. the worst was the one right over the toilet so while you were sitting on the toilet you would get a drip drip drip right on the back of your neck 🙂 We went to lunch at the turtle restaraunt place. My tacos were just okay but Joshe’s fish looked amazing. Played some ping pong for awhjile. What did we do after that? I think by then the storm had petered out so we finally got to play in the ocean, we played some paddle ball and jumped in the ocean and hit the pool. We relaxed in hammocks for awhile and then got ready for dinner.

Dinner was great. I decided that we would have a question of teh day each dinner, that we would discuss between eating our dinner and while we were waiting for dessert. Tonight’s question was: What is one piece of advice you give a younger person? Josh’s was great, he talked about how life is always better when you have something to look forward to so if you don’t have something then manufacture something. My advice was around being comfortable feeling and discussing emotions. We decdied to get Tara in on the fun and she was having birthday dinner with Dan so they all joined in. Tara’s was “learn to look at problems from the same side of the table as friends partner etc”. Carlies was the best. Dissapoint others before yourself. That gave us a lot to talk about. Should you change for someone else’s sake? What’s the line between individuality and not being a jerk? It led to a great conversation before we stuffed ourselves. Then we watched Blake Crouch in Dark Matter because we had both read the book and really liked it. Then we crashed because we were actually going to do stuff the next day.

Up Sunday morning and ready for adventure! The weather still wasn’t great but at least we weren’t in a named tropical storm anymore. We ate our breakfast and headed out. I’m so glad I remembered that you have to have your passport to rent the car. Renting the car was painless this time and we were driving to Xel Ha. I actually had mean to book tickets at xcaret versus Xel ha but oh well. I guess I really wanted to show my kids how much Xel ha meant to me. But it just wasn’t the same. Maybe it’s the weather but it just wasn’t that great. And it was pouring rain, like literal sheets of rain. We snorkled around the bay, then walked to the cenotes and the rope swing, then over the floating bridge (which was one of the funnest rides because of the crazy waves bouncing that thing around all over the place) and then finally to the lighthouse slides.

These slides were something out of this world. We climbed like 150 feet. No line (advantages of the pouring rain) uinto the clouds where everything was thunder and people are like this is fine. So then you start going down the spiral and then you just start going faster and faster and faster until you are eventually plastered to the wall. And then it drops you down a dark tunnel where you are completely losing your senses and then it shoots you out in the pool where you like skip for 15 feet across the water. It was unbelievable! I was laughing my head off. It was really something else, unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I was just laughing and laughing. We did it a couple more times. Loads of fun every time. Lastly we hit the lunch buffet and ate a mexican feast while we were soaked and just in swimsuits. Kind of awesome. We loved all the different kinds of drinks you could get and the ice cream machine (which they fixed in time) and tasted very different from america.

Then we went to Sac Actun pet cemetary cenote. Was excleent and glad I could take josh here. But we were both kind of tired and they gave us the “extra tour” because we didn’t have any kids with us. And it was super cool but we were all getting pretty cold by the end and were ready to be done. We were just under there for so long, like 90 minutes, so everything else was closed at that point. So we just drove home.

We took warm warm showers and got ready for dinner. Tonight it was at Casita which was the outdoor place because there was a wedding at the usual dinner place. This was an even better mexican feast, I think this was the best dinner we had. The home made tortillas and tacos were just excellent with all sorts of relish and other goods. We ate ourselves stuffed and then waited for dessert. Both of these dinners I came away with thinking just how awesome Josh is and what a capable young man he is and how lucky I am to be his Dad.

Monday we woke up to Blue Skies! Finally! Same drill, an early breakfast and then return the car (oh yeah, the seats were damp so we had to keep it the night and dry off the seats, no problem). It was finally time for Cozumel and DIVING! We walked to the ferry and were on our way. The ferry was super windy which made me very nervous for our dive. I whattsapped with TCL rentals on the way to have them get my buggy ready for us 🙂 And it was, no problem we walked off and were in our buggy 20 minutes later cruising down the beach. We stopped past money beach again at that place with the bar and condos right across the street. And the snorkling was excellent! this made me optimistic. We then were looking for a quick taco and ended up at a tiny beach restauraunt and this was one of my favorite moments. We were sitting at a plastic table on the beach and the lady was like you can snorkel while you wait so I did and it was just awesome. And come back soaking wet and just sit at the beach and eat amazing al pastor tacos and fresh fresh guacamole while sipping frozen pina coladas. This was the best. I’m going to remember this cool little beach place just down the street (after the road splits) from our funky little snorkling place. I’ve got a picture tagged with the location.

Time for scuba! The sun came out! It was great. Off to Scuba Tony’s. They were awesome as usual. Moises was our guide. A sweet college student and just stand up guy,. He sat on the floor next to me and josh the boat ride out and went over the whole thing. First was Palancar Gardens. PALANCAR GARDENS. [I should start a dive log]. We jumped in and we were off. It was gorgeos. Huge coral structures. Josh did great! This was his first dive and we were already swimming through coral tunnels like it was no thing, no problem. Josh just cruises. He’s good. No problem all the time. He’s just good. No problems with his mask or anything, he just went and he did great. We boated over to the paradise beach club to take our break. I saw some swings out on the beach so I climbed up and swang as high as I could then leaped off them. Josh wanted in on that. Got an amazing perfect picture of josh launching off into the ocean. It perfectly symbolized the day of just having a great time. Then for our second dive. This one was at TORMENTOS. This one was more wildlife. We saw 3 different kinds of turtles. A nurse shark. Lobster. Octopus. Sting ray. Eagle ray. It was just amazing. Like being in an acquarium. The current was so fast. We just sat in the water and watched the scenery go by. Super cool and super fun. Another great dive. The water so perfect and so warm that I didn’t need a wet suit. This is the best feeling in the world. Not cold at all so I could breath slow. I didn’t even have to move much. So really I just got in a trance and this way I didn’t use up a lot of air. I started with 3000 and was only down to 1000 by the time I was done. Usually I have the least amount of air but this time I had plenty. So fun. Going to be hard to top. This second dive everything worked. My mask was great. Water was great. I could have stayed down there like forever. We came up and Josh was pretty pumped. But then we were pretty wasted the rest of the day. We drove around the island. Saw a crocidile. Took a picture or 2 and then returned the car and ate street tacos just up the road. These are so good on the blue corn tortillas. Josh ate 4. And fresh guac. Some quick souvenir shopping and then the ferry ride home where we talked about networking and DNS filter. funny we were getting off the ferry and Josh heard the EFY song and thought that was hilarious. We walked back talking about networking and then we got home in time for 2nd dinner. We just went straight there. I was waisted and just ate papaya and lime which is the best thing ever. Josh had more food. Dessert was just meh.

Woke up the next day to a Pangolin at our door. We ate breakfast. Played a little frisbee. Swam. And then was time to pack up and go 😟 I was really tired at this point. (Turns out I had bronchitis, I was coughing like crazy). What an amazing experience.

I’m so luck I got to go and do this wish Josh. And by lucky I mean really blessed and standing on the shoulders of giants. When someone achieves prosperity in this life it’s built upon the backs of generations of sacrifices to make that prosperity possible. Not just in your family but in others all around you. And so you need to give back to the system, to give more than you extract, and allow others and future generations to reach the same level as you were able to.