Snorkel test

It was another early morning by our choice. Since we would surely not feel like waking up for sharks tomorrow or the following day, this was our last chance to potentially see our friendly thresher sharks. Even though we had to wake up bright and early, I felt the day had a great sense of relief to it knowing there would be no workshops or skill circuits, only fun dives. We made it to the dive shop on time by 4:30 and we were ready to start the day. We dove on Old Monad and I feel like the sharks must have known that we were leaving as we had 2 very good encounters. My group was the last to jump in. The other groups had all gone to the right therefore the divemaster took us to the left where we spotted a very nice shark right away. I was staying back a bit to see if the paying customers wanted to take the prime viewing spot. They did not seem to take this opportunity and then the divemaster motioned for me to get closer. This shark came so close to the divemaster he could have petted it. The divemaster told me to stay close to the bottom and limit my bubbles when the shark came close to optimize the encounter by keeping the shark happy. Soon Jeff's group came over and he got to see my new shark friend close up as well. We watched this shark for probably 20 minutes. Later in the dive we had a second encounter that was not quite as close but was still very exciting. I would have to say that this was a good last day diving with the sharks

After the shark dive, we had a nice breakfast at Oscars with some of our fellow interns. We had signed up for the morning dive at Quilliano and when we checked the dive board in the moring Jeff and I were on the dive together without a staff divemaster. This was a dive site we had never been to before, but seeing as how we were now qualified as divemasters we had no problem diving the site without a guide. Jeff and I took our time on the dive site searching for any neat little creatures we could find. We found several small shrimp, a snowflake eel, some saddleback clowns and some well camoflaged filefish. Jeff had heard that there were some pygmy seahorses (they are only 1/2" full grown) at this dive site so everytime we found a sea fan he would carefully search it. He did not find the elusive pygmy seahorse this time, and later learned the sea fan that had the sea horse was a short swim off of the main reef. We had our good friend Betty on the boat with us for this dive yet she was in a seperate group for the dive itself. We still got to enjoy her company on the boat and seeing her around the dive site.

After returning to the dive shop and washing up our gear, we headed off to the village. With tomorrow being my birthday we figured we would go to the one and only bakery on the island and order a cake. It seemed like an easy task as we had already done this once for Betty's birthday, we already knew what size and flavor we would order. Jeff had decided to have them write "Happy Birthday Bugs Bonnie" on the cake since CiCi, one of the waitresses at Oscars had given me that nickname recently. Much to our surprise when we arrived at the bakery the woman told us that they could not make a cake since they were all out of cake flour until Saturday. The island had been so busy with fiesta over the last weekend that they had used up all of their stock. This just did not seem fair Betty had 2 birthday cakes on her birthday and I could not even get one. Jeff and I put on our thinking caps, we had to have some kind of birthday cake solution. That was when it hit me, let's make a Choco Mucho candy bar cake. So off to the little store across from our house we went. The decision was to get 2 different flavors and arrange them in some kind of cake configuration. We bought one case of the peanut butter and caramel along with a case of white chocolate, a two tone cake seemed appropriate. With it being so hot here all the time, we thought it best if the candy bars would be frozen so we placed them in the freezer in the common area of our housing. With two cases of Choco Muchos costing only 200 php instead of 800 php for a cake we now had extra money for drinks and a make shift cake (The $100 USD would stretch even further). While we walking around the village, we came across two little girls. They were whispering and looking over at me, oh the little disco girls I realized as tehy approached me. They did not speak much English but I could tell they were excited to see me and wanted to know when we could all dance again. I twirled the girl around a little and reminsced about our dancing night. She asked if she could come see my home but I did not think this would be appropriate to have these little children walk off with me, who is technically a stranger. I also did not want to hurt their feelings. I tried to explain my busy dive intern schedule and eventually headed out of the village. I think they followed us to the edge of the village before they returned to where we met up with them. It was nice to see them again. After all of this running around, we decided not to even try and get on the afternoon dive. It had been an early morning and would no doubt be a late night so back to the room for a nap seemed like a good idea.

After getting a couple hour nap in, we headed off to the dive shop to finish up all the necessary paperwork for our divemaster course. We sat down with 2 of our instructors and looked over what it was we had accomplished and how we had scored overall. Both of our scores were rather impressive, we were very happy with what we had completed. We then discussed our opinions of the program and what we thought could make it better. Once all of the I's were dotted and the T's crossed we headed over to the table with all of the other interns and had a nice dinner. This was when the waiting began, they tell everyone that the snorkel test will happen around 1900. However this is never the case and when it was our day for the snorkel test it became a little nerve racking waiting for them to make the big announcement. Knowing full well that once they do, a very large crowd will form around us with all eyes on whomever has the snorkel. As this waiting game continued it became a realization that after tonight we would only have one more night with this great group of friends that we had acquired over the last month. It is funny how a big group like this can come together over a passion that we all share, spend this long together, then one by one all go off in separate directions. As the instructors started gathering I began preparing myself, just as I was telling myself I was ready I noticed a tray full of shark bite shots. The announcement was made that tonight had a variety of events that they called the appetizer, main course, and then dessert. The shark bite shots must be the first course. I had forgotten that we still had the shots coming for our 2 specialty courses that we had completed. The instructors each announced their students and what the certifications were. By the end all of the interns had at least one shot, most of us had 2. The exception was Rick, who had not drank since he got here a month ago, he had decided he was going to put his sobriety on hold tonight. This was good timing as he had 3 shark bite shots to take. After all of the shots were down the hatch, we had another short wait until they called me up to the bar. I motioned for Jeff to come with me but Mack told him to sit back down. What was going on here? They always have interns doing the snorkel test on the same day come up together. Mack handed me the blacked out snorkel test mask and snorkel. He motioned to put it on, I am certian I had a very puzzled and maybe a little nervous look on my face at this point but I went with it. As I sat on the bar stool not being able to see what was going on I hear them announcing how "Bonnie is very competetive and always wants to be first at competitions". At this point I had come to terms with doing the snorkel test first, then they start telling everyone "Bonnie did something very special that no other intern did". Ok now I am scared, what could I possibly have done that I am now going to pay for, was it my squirely behaviour from the other day, or what could it be. The next phrase I hear is "because what she did was so special she is going to get this" then everyone in the restaurant went nuts. Ohh no what is this going to be, at that point Mack tapped me on the shoulder and tells me to take off the mask. Much to my surprise one of the instructors was holding a Thresher Shark Divers polo shirt with my name on it. It was from the petition competition to save the sharks. On the back of the shirt it read "I gave sharks a fighting chance". That was a mean trick, they had me all worried that I was going to get something awful in my snorkel test. I was also given a very impressive balloon animal made into a seahorse that one of the guests had created. This seahorse became very popular later in the night and was used in several skits acted out by interns and instructors. It is amazing how entertaining the group can be, I found this to be a great substitute to watching TV. I went back to the table to once again wait patiently for our spotlight moment. This time it was a rather short wait and they called Jeff and I up to the bar. It was decided that I would go first then it would be Jeff's turn. As I sat on the bar stool once again blindfolded by the mask all I can hear is the comments of Dan as he creates the concoction behind our backs. Everytime he pours something into the pitcher the audience goes crazy, I had found this portion to be fun when I was in the audience. Now that I was the one on the bar stool it was a much different feeling. Dan would state he was adding a little red, white and blue for the Americans, some of the local spirits, a little of this for Mack in Scottland, a little of that to represent the Russians, Mexicans, and so on. Once the lethal mixture is ready, the procedure is to take 3 deep breaths then give them the ok to pour. Since I was wearing a scuba mask that covered my nose, the only way I was going to get another breath was to either drink everything they poured in the funnel or spit the snorkel and drink all over the floor. As they poured it in the snorkel I went for it. I drank it down as fast as I could and was able to claim a valiant victory over that snorkel test. Everyone applauded for me and I was glad to be done with the final task of my inernship. Jeff was next, he also was victorious over the all mighty snorkel test. After this the instructors came up with our divemaster badges and we posed for some "cheesy pictures" as Mack liked to call them. There it was, Jeff and I were certified divemasters WoooHooo. We hung out at Oscars for about another hour with the instructors and interns. This included several very interesting rounds of charades.

Much like many other nights during this month in Malapascua, we chose Malditos to be our final stop of the night. We sat around on the comfy cushioned areas surrounding the pool table as some of the interns and instructors played pool. There was lots of chat about where the other interns were headed after they were done here. I also informed everyone that they needed to come and visit us in Hawaii, as we would surely know all the good dive spots in no time. Several people seemed very interested in coming to visit us. I am not real sure how exactly it happened but around midnight a group of the interns and a couple guests decided it would be a good idea to go swimming in the bay right outside of the restaurant. So in we went, unfortunately we had not thought about the fact that it was low tide and even going out 20 meters from shore the water was only about 16" deep. This of course did not stop us from cooling off in the warm ocean water. It was unbelievable the number of stars that could be seen. I was impressed the other night at Ocean Vida and this was way better. We spent about half an hour in the water mostly just tackling each other and just splashing around. After the swim, we decided to call it a night and walked back to our place dripping wet. I believe, Jeff walked all the way back to our place in just his nickers. It was a very fun ending to a fun filled day.