Marc's Public Blog - Trips to other locations

I didn't manage to sleep a whole lot (less than 5H), so I ended up getting up and going to the pharmacy to see if I could get one of those decongestants than the PADI book was talking about and that might clear your ear canal (it was also saying that you should not take it before diving since your canal could block half way through the dive and cause a reverse block, which makes ascending a problem since you can't go up because of your ear).
Anyway, my instructor told me that they were going to have a great dive saturday afternoon and that I should try to make it if I felt better. I found the said medecine (decongestant), took one without really knowing what it did or how since the directions were only in Spanish, and sure enough, I felt my ear unblock slightly about an hour later. So, I signed up for the dive, and hoped that it would last long enough so that my ear wouldn't block half way through the dive.
The Dive ended up being very very nice (my best one so far, lots of little passages, caves, weird fish and other things at about 20 meters, and it was also my first dive with a 15 litre bottle (57mn dive time at greater depth). I had planned to take another decongestant just before the dive, just in case the other one wore out, but my instructor advised against it (no drugs before diving, medecinal or other), and reassured me a bit that reverse block is usually not fatal and that with careful ascending, the extra air usually find its way out your ear canal.
I was barely able to equalise, but managed to anyway, which allowed me to do the dive, and follow some very seasoned divers through a great visit which they only do 3-4 times a year.
I made it back to the boat in once piece, exhausted, but happy, and learned from the two technical divers who had done a 60 metre dive in the meantime (very serious stuff with regular air to go down, and a decompression stop on the way up where they breathe a 50% oxygen nitrox mix in a second tank they had strapped across their chest). This is the kind of extreme diving where mistakes or equipment failure can easily result in death, and honestly, from what I'm told, there isn't a whole lot more to see at 60 metres (i.e. isn't not really worth the extra risk). To each their own thrills I guess. I have a lot myself, but that's not one of them.


I then had a fairwell drink with all the people I had spent the last 2 weeks diving with, and headed back to my room for a quick nap (I really was exhausted :) )


Tonight, I'm going to take it easy and go to bed early so that I can go to Sunday @ Space early tomorrow morning before my flight. I still have my cold (I didn't really do a whole lot to nurse it), but I'm not as sick as I was yesterday, so I'm not confined to bed.
My next update will probably be a wrapup uploaded from California. Talk to y'all later.

Pictures from Saturday