getting out of the unbearable heat

the easiest way for us to get out of the sun is to get under the water (well actually its to head into an air conditioned bar) .....
on our way around cartagena, nell found a dive shop right around the corner from our hotel.
we went on a day dive trip with La Tortuga Dive Shop.

we went out of the harbour via Bocachica and did two dives off Baru Island.

the water was a balmy 29 degrees but the visibility wasnt all that great. probably about 12m or so.

i´m blaming the crap photos on the visibility.

we met jim from chicago (if youre reading this jim, i lost your email address!)

the first dive, we got to do 2 wrecks in the one dive. we understand that the dive shop might have had a hand in getting one of the wrecks sunk.

there is a massive jewelfish living on the wreck (like a grouper). its called nacho and its about as big as my torso!

it was a bit dodgey of them to take us through the wreck without checking certs or anything but the swim through wasnt that far and you could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

we did our surface interval on Banau Island but they didnt tell us anything about the island or what was on it.

the second dive, we went off in search of barracuda and two undersea mountains - which we found one of.
the divemasters seemed a little bored by that stage but nell found a huge crab (and then got a whole lot of stings on her arm) and then when she surfaced i found a MASSIVE green moray eel.

a pretty cheap days diving (165,000 pesos for all gear and lunch).
all in all - it was pretty good ! and we got out of the hot sun for a while.

.... oh and the stings .... the only thing that seemed to help was cerveza ...