not that that is an excuse for failing miserably in posting in here, but there it is. between the diving course and then planning and then having our summer camp, i haven't had a whole lot of free time.
so first. dive course.
the monitoring course i took was fabulous. i certainly learned a whole lot and gained some really critically important skills as well. plus i finally got back in the water and diving again. my goal is to become a fish this summer. or, at least, to dive as much as my job lets me :)
the diving here is really different (obviously) from the philippines. lots of good inverts, a fair amount of fish, tons of gorgonians. lots of different things than what i was last used to. the visibility is also terrible, but i suppose that's just how it goes.
during the course i was able to take pictures a few times, so here's a few of the stand-outs:
[sting rays! there are lots of 'em here]
[cookie cutter star]
[these fish crack me up. they're territorial and really get in your face. you have to kinda swat them away when you're trying to do some of the monitoring stuff]
a number of the dives were done at isla san jorge ... it's sheer rocks jutting out of the water and is a colony for california sea lions (over 3000!) and lots of marine birds. the sea lions are really cute (the females and pups at least. the males are scarily-huge). and it's way fun to dive because the sea lions come right up to you to check you out and see what's up. the first time one torpedoed past me it scared the shit out of me, but it's actually pretty awesome. they're seriously hard to get photos of, but hopefully in the next year i'll be able to get some good ones.
