Bubbling coral

I learned from yesterday and wore a shortie wetsuit today, which was good because the weather wasn’t on our side.  It was raining when we went down for the first dive and still raining when we came back up.  It’s a funny thing to see the rain pattering on the surface as you approach from underneath, the opposite of watching the droplets jump on the top of a puddle. 

I had told Eric that I was uncomfortable swimming through coral arches if they were too narrow, which he said was ok because there was always a way around.  At the start of the dive, he led the others into a big coral archway.  Christina and I hung back to allow the others to move through and let us see the way, but they disappeared completely.  We couldn’t work out what had happened, but then spotted a chain of bubbles coming out of the coral and realised they’d actually swum through a tunnel.  We indicated to Kristin (instructor and owner of Eco-divers) that we didn’t want to go inside.  Instead, the three of us followed the bubble trail across the top of the coral, trying to guess where the group would reappear.  I’m not sure how big it was inside, or whether they were just swimming through a long series of arches and undercuts, but it seemed to take a long time to go through.  It was actually quite beautiful to watch the tiny silvery bubbles threading up through the gaps in the coral. 

The second dive had more sandy areas between coral formations and we spotted several types of stingray, including a small white one with a tail like a shark.

It was still raining the next morning, so we saved our third day of diving for better weather, having got so cold and wet the last few days.  Christina and I had a lazy day at the hostel and exploring the town of Cozumel.  We nosed through the tourist shops and then went back to the bar we’d watched the football in.  They had a first floor deck where we sat out and watched the sun go down while eating delicious ceviche (served in cucumber canoes), shrimp soup, chicken wings and wedges.  We’d got a little taco’d out so the comfort food was perfect.