Mantas and Airplanes

I had the absolute honor of presenting for Tenacious LIVE 2021 about the Airplane Graveyard in Kwajalein Atoll along with Becca Boring talking about the wrecks of Truk Lagoon. The link is here.

Two incredible photographers come together for an evening devoted to WW11 in the Pacific.The Airplane Graveyard, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall IslandsAfter WWII ...

My first dive trip during Covid was to Socorro and after debating on if I should go or not for what seemed like forever, I went…bringing my anxiety with me. Being back in the water was healing and being around divers again was also amazing. Plus….mantas. Diver let me share my story. You can download the entire issue for free here.

One More Minute

I am a “one more minute” kind of person, particularly when it comes to the ocean. As a child I always wanted one more minute in the water (pool or ocean) or one more minute playing outside or one more minute reading an exciting book before I had to go to bed. I’ve always wanted to hold onto the good stuff as long as possible.

When I’m scuba diving I’m particularly bad at this, but my experiences have shown me that those ‘one more minute’ moments are sometimes the best. I can’t tell you how many times the dive was about to end and then the sharks or dolphins showed up or we found the craziest critter. I recall being in Lembeh once and the main thing I really, really wanted to see was a bumble bee shrimp. The poor dive guides had been looking for them for me the whole week. On my last dive of the trip I had passed up my camera and one of my fins when someone pulled on my other fin. The dive guide had found my shrimp (three of them, actually) and with my fin and camera returned to me, I descended back to a mere ten feet where they were living under a small coral head. I got my shots.

On my last night in the Galapagos I went to a place I had been seeing sea lions in the water in previous days. The golden hour is a real thing underwater too, so I hiked in around 4, arriving around 4:30. The three previous days I had seen the sea lions playing in the water; fins in the air, playing with each other, and their little noses and whiskers coming up to breath before I even got in the water. But this day I sat at the edge and looked around and saw nothing. I couldn’t even make out any sleeping on the rocks. It would figure, my last night would be a bust.

I got in anyway and swam in a big circle covering the outer edge of the area and almost returning to where I started without having seen anything. The light had gotten to that perfect point where sun beams could be seen flashing underwater and there was a warm yellow tinge to the shallowest part of the water. It would have been perfect if a sea lion would show up.

I started filming the sun beams (b-roll, right?) and as if it were waiting for me to push the record button a juvenile sea lion appeared right in front of my dome port. It circled me and even paused a few seconds in the perfect place in the perfect light. But I must have been boring and it didn’t stay for long. Happy I at least saw one, I headed for the exit, content with my experience.

The exit point was cement and rock stairs, slippery with algae and the low tide exposed all the stairs and lava rock below. Getting out with my heavy camera, fins and mask was a challenge and I was planning on sort of scooting up the rock backwards inching my backside up each step. I almost got seated on the first rock when a huge wave came in and swept me back out. Happy I didn’t get smashed into the rocks (no blood or scratches on my delicate camera port) I looked out at the incoming waves (which I should have done the first time) and decided to wait until the set has passed to try again. I swam away from the port-scratching rocks and waited.

The sun had fallen behind the cliffs and all the pretty light beams gone and I heard a snort behind me. Another sea lion had shown up (thank you to the wave that tried to pulverize me that kept me in the water.) As it twisted and turned around me I couldn’t help but think that I was about to get out of the water and I would have missed this. One more minute.

The one more minute turned into probably an hour and the sea lion found a stick floating in the water and played with it, (I always knew they were the puppies of the ocean), then it played with some seaweed, and then two other juveniles showed up and the three spun around me so much I got a little dizzy (and I’m sure the video of that will make people sea sick.) What amazing animals. What an amazing experience. The sun was setting as I was getting out, still having a bit of a hike to get back to my room and I was thinking about how sad I was to leave the Galapagos on the walk home.

I seem to have come to a place in my mind where everything feels very terminal. What if I never return to the Galapagos? How sad. Lately I have been having these feeling with people too, every time I part ways I have this immense sadness that I will never see them again. I’m sure these feelings are partly due to covid, part my father passing away unexpectedly, and part just getting older. But giving them an explanation for occurring still does not make them go away or feel any better.

When I was 20, I remember being in Argentina at the Perito Moreno Glacier and absorbing the incredible sight with others. We were watching ice break off the glacier and making huge splashes in the water, which would echo seconds after the event, like thunder after lightening. An older man said to me, “I will probably never see this again.” My much younger self couldn’t even fathom this. What do you mean you’ll never see this again? It’s amazing! Why wouldn’t you come back here? I hadn’t quite grasped the concept of time yet and how it keeps passing. How it becomes filled with so many things and how many places there are to see on this incredible planet of ours. I haven’t returned there either. Makes me wish I would have spent one more minute.

I understand the man better now and this concept weighs heavy on me. It makes me melancholy to leave an amazing place thinking I may never see it again, and it’s distressing when I part ways with people. I suppose this isn’t such a strange idea, the older we get the more people we encounter and the more people we lose, be it in death or just in life’s path taking us further away from some. This year has solidified this. It makes me want to have one more minute with everyone I meet, everyone I know, and everyone I have met before. Did I make the most of those minutes? I hope I did and I hope in the future I value those minutes more.

My life has been filled with amazing people; some I only crossed paths with for a short time and I think in the past I always said goodbye expecting to see them again. I’m grateful to have seen some of them again; particularly the friends that have become repeat occurrences around the world in this crazy life. I’m not good with letting go or loss, I want all the good times and good people and good places to go on forever. I want them all, all at once. While that is impossible, I hope these deep rooted emotions go away soon; of everything feeling so final and every parting being the last. Maybe after whatever way covid disappears or becomes integrated into our lives, these feelings will pass. That I won’t feel like every parting is the last parting. And for those that are, I hope we had enough minutes.

Sometimes returning to a place can be sad, seeing how it has changed and to be somewhere again but without the same people or in a different context. I find myself contradictory in that I crave new places and exciting experiences, but yet change is so hard. Returning to the Galapagos after 15 years, (I cannot believe it’s possible I’ve been a solo traveling adult for that long…or longer….) proved to be a place just as incredible as my first trip here. I had started to wonder if it was really as good as I remembered, and it is. I hope I am lucky enough to return here again and I hope it remains as good as it is; it has the odds stacked against it. The better something was, the harder the goodbye is. I want just one more minute before I go.

Bahamas

The Bahamas is open to tourists (and divers!) and after a covid test and being approved for the Bahamas Health Visa, I escaped the cold climate to spend some time underwater. You can read about my trip in the latest issue of Diver Magazine.

If you want to read more about diving in the Bahamas, particularly the world-famous Washing Machine Dive, check out my article in Scuba Diving.

Traveling During Covid

I have more than one good disaster travel story. Those usually make for the best stories, because who really cares if you just had a great time on your trip with no delays, lost luggage, robberies, injuries, bad weather or any problems whatsoever. But today added a story to my repertoire that I couldn’t have even dreamed with my entire travel history combine; which makes sense because none of us dreamed up a global pandemic interrupting our lives either.

So here I am, typing out an experience that I can’t quite wrap my head around yet. As some of you know, I have to admit to traveling a little during Covid. Travel is both my way of life and my income and it’s been a tough year. I have recently got a few assignments, and while I’ve been hesitant, I’ve also been desperate to get back to life as I know it (or the new life as I know which includes covid tests, masks, face shields, hand sanitizer, quarantines and staying away from people…all of which I accept fully.)

Today I was supposed to be going to the Galapagos. Prior to entering Ecuador, a negative Covid test is required within ten days of arrival and to go to the Galapagos requires another within three days of arrival. Forty-eight hours before my flight departed I took a Covid test from a lab in Ecuador that I had seen expats recommend and one of which a friend used only two weeks ago and had a smooth experience and returned back to the USA with no issues.

I got my results yesterday, got all my paperwork together (which is a serious stack of permissions to enter Galapagos besides the Covid test) and I showed up at the airport this morning three hours early (honestly so early just because I wanted to have coffee and breakfast in the airport lounge…yes…I’m a travel snob.)

In many countries outside the USA you cannot enter the airport without showing your boarding pass and passport and that is the case here, as well as showing the covid test, which I did. My senses always pick up a little when I notice someone holding my paperwork summoning over another person. About this time a representative from the company I was on my way to dive with showed up and as we introduced ourselves it became apparent they were not impressed with my covid test. There was also a large bust two days prior at this airport over fake covid lab tests. People faking their own tests and actual labs faking tests.

After about an hour of showing the powers that be at the airport my emails and my Whatsapp conversations with the laboratory that did my test, both the representative and the airport lady were on the phone talking to the lab and others. It was clear things weren’t going well, but travel in this part of the world and other places like Asia and Africa have taught me to just sit back and wait. Usually my method is staying calm and patient for extended periods of time eventually works. If not, crying is my second method…and in the case of arguing about my overweight luggage – starting to repack at the check-in counter while throwing my bras and underwear all over the counter is the third method (travel tip - pack those on top for easy access.)

With 90 minutes until take off, they decided I should go get another test, which is impossible. I used to do PCR work, the reason it takes days for the results is because the test takes a long time. There was no way we were going to get in a taxi, get a test and have it processed before my flight left. (Also – I was supposed to be getting on a boat…so not arriving today probably means no boat and the airline I booked didn’t have another flight for 3 days.) But I give in. Fine. If this is the game we have to play, I’ll get in the taxi (which is probably the brother of the airport person) go get another covid test (at the lab they told me I have to go to who their mom probably works at) which promises results in unrealistic times.

It took us at least 20 min to get there; it’s now almost 10:30 and they said check in closed at 11. We could hardly even get back to the airport at this point and there was a line for the tests. Plus they wanted to charge me $150, which whatever, I need to get on that plane. But then I started thinking about how this might be a scam. Was this just a way to get more money for somebody’s friend’s covid lab and I was the lucky gingo who they picked out of line today? I had also been messaging the lab the were saying was fake, as had the lovely representative from the boat, and the latest story was that the lab administers the tests but then sends them out to another lab (which apparently was on the list) so they were trying to get a results document from that lab.

At this point I decided I did not want to be part of the $150 covid test scam and I say to go back to the airport. Also – I have a bit of gringo-privilege. I don’t think I’ve ever not actually ended up on a flight for whatever nonsense someone was giving me in over 70 countries. In the end…usually at the very last minute…with tears…I end up on the plane. New plan – get back to the airport before the plane left. They weren’t really going to not let me on it….right?

Did I also mention I don’t really speak Spanish? Like beyond good morning and can I have a beer and where is the bathroom? All of this is way over my head.

We get back to the airport at 10:50….flight is at 11:45. The same lady comes back and still is like – no – this test was a fake. She calls the lab again and out of nowhere just starts yelling at the phone. I was like, what is going on? It was later translated to me that she threatened the lab with sending the authorities after them for charging people for tests, administering them, but then not actually processing them. There are obviously large fines for this. She hands the phone to the other lady who tells me that they will offer me a refund plus the costs of my hotel, new test, and flight the next day.

Basically I roll my eyes so far back into my head it hurts. Yeah right, like some lab a five hour drive away is going to pay for my new flight. I’m kinda getting to that sorta mad and frustrated point and I told her whatever, how are they going to get me the money? I’m not driving back there. She tells me they will transfer it into my bank account and I just need to give them my bank details.

Okay. So now is there a Nigerian Prince involved? I should just give my bank details to a company that has already scammed me? I mean…yes, I’m a gringa who can’t speak the language and maybe I look stupid…but no way. How many different scams am I currently involved in right now? I just want to get a hotel room and a cup of coffee and regroup. The flight is leaving in ten minutes. I’m not on it. And the airport lady is not letting me in.

I resign completely. I tell the boat representative that I’m not giving my bank details. But if she wants to give them hers and they actually transfer the money (there’s no way in hell they are going to do that), she can have $100 of it. Then I sit down on the ground (we are still out in front of the airport in about 85 degrees with humidity and the sun beating on us) and I open my laptop to book a hotel room. (Confession – it’s the Hilton, I’m so over this day, I’m going to the Hilton, where I have status and they pretend they love me and there’s a soft bed and comforting white walls which will make me feel so much better.) I also booked the next morning’s flight which may still allow me to catch the boat.

While I am spending money, the lady tells me they just sent her the money.

They.Sent.Her.The.Money.

I think my jaw literally dropped (no one saw though because of the mask). You have got to be kidding me. And is this not a total admission of guilt? If they didn’t fake my test, there’s no way they would have sent the money. I can’t even. Like I still can’t grasp that this actually happened. Plus like I just went through so many emotions in the last three hours my head hurts. I have this like adrenaline rush of – it really was a scam! How is this even real?

The lovely boat representative then calls her boyfriend to come get us, he shows up and they take me to an “approved lab” to get another covid test (which was awful – of the like 10+ tests I’ve gotten so far, this guy made me think he was doing internal damage to the inside of my nose and throat…and eyes.) Then they went to the bank and she withdrew the money. I gave her $120. They took me to the Hilton and dropped me off.

And now I get to try this all again tomorrow.

I feel like there’s some lesson to be learned in all of this…but the only one I can come up with is: There’s a Global Pandemic – Stay Home.  

2021!!!

diver coron.jpg

We made it through 2020 and my fingers are crossed 2021 will be better and hopefully as the year continues it will involve more travel and diving! I’ve been a bit behind on updating so here’s some recent publications (all of which are free to read online.) Best wishes to you all and I hope to see everyone (in person) soon-ish!

Check out Diver’s February issue to find me reminiscing about diving the wreck of Coron. Click this link to download the issue.

Over on Dive Log Australasia you can read about the brilliant colors of Fiji. Download the issue here.

Want to refresh your photography skills? I posted some quick underwater photography tips at Liquid Dive Adventures.

Ready to Dive? There are some locations open including the Bahamas. Ready more about Diving During Covid at All Star Liveaboards.

Meg Teeth

So this one time…diving for megalodon teeth…in South Carolina….

I managed to sneak in a little diving (if you can call 30ft with zero viz in a river diving)….

Read about it in the August UK Diver Magazine. Click for a free download here.

Dive Log Australasia is also letting readers download the latest issues for free, I have a piece on Truk Lagoon in the August issue.