GVI Week 1
3:36 AM Edit This 7 Comments »
Wow! It has been so long since my last update. (my apollogies) I am going to try and give a little summary of what I've been up to this last week...
On Friday a whole group of us who had been staying at the same hotel had to wake up extremely early to get picked up by the GVI Staff. It seemed like it took ages for them to arrive even though they got there pretty much right on time. After they picked us and some other people up we drove across Mahe (the main island) to get to base camp. The ride was fairly long and we had to go up some very windy, mountainous roads but the views were always amazing.
Our driver, Mario, along with his wife (Valerie) run base camp. On our drive, Mario filled us in on some local laws ect. ect. The most bizarre was that the legal drinking limit is 8 beers so they advised us to be very careful about walking at night or if we rented a car, driving. Fortunately, there are no roads where anyone can go particularly fast on because they are all so curvy and that death by auto accident is a very rare occurence. (Still doesn't make you feel safe though...)
Base camp is an old government bordering school. I wish I could describe how forsaken the place looks. Old derilict buildings dot the area as if that sort of thing were normal. None of them have roofs because the wood and beams were all stolen/taken for other building projects. The place would be perfect for a game of man-hunt or capture the flag if we ever had enough energy to put something together...
The building we live in is functional, albeit old, and it does have a roof. (Yeehaw!) The building across from us, doesn't so late at night when the moon is out and its eerily still and the fruit bats are making a racket, it's more than a little creepy...
The rest of the afternoon we spent unpacking, going through rules, health and safety stuff, blah blah blah... And then EMMA FINALLY ARRIVED. Half-way through the day, after her plane got delayed (again). She had spent the last several days in Dubai just hanging out by herself which she said was more than a little odd, especially because she's a woman.
The big group of us went out for a snorkel and when we came back we had a nice lunch... I'm not going to bore you with the details...
On Saturday, those of us who were not adveanced open water divers started working on that course which meant we got to go diving! We do all our diving in Bay Ternay and it is absolutely incredible. I love seeing all the fish swim by.
For our advanced open water certification we had to do five dives: underwater navigation, peak performance bouyancy, deep diver, naturalist, and boat dive (which is every dive we do) I did these five dives over the course of the last week and it was amazing how doing each really improved my ability to dive, plus we got to see some really cool stuff.
The procedure for diving off the boat is very regimented and very well organized, which is nice and over the course of the last week we've all adjusted to it and learned the rules and regulations.
I think so far my favorite part has been all the cooking we have to do. I've enjoyed making bread and cookies, calzones, and cakes as well as lending a hand to whoever is making whatever. Hopefully, I'll be able to cook when I get home.
Cool things seen this week: Coconut crabs, 2 meter guitar shark (google it), moorish idol,
Cool things done: Went into the woods and found bananas, used a machete, made calzone from scratch, did an emergency responder course, walked to a waterfall, ate shark (just a bite), almost finished House of Leaves (amazing but very intracate book), went bouldering (awesome), drew a sweet painting for a staff member for her birthday, got head-butted by a bull,
sorry this is so short and lame. I'm giong to have to think of a better way to post what I'm doing because an hour in the internet cafe + skyping makes it really hard to write good posts.
Ciao Bella
- Sass
On Friday a whole group of us who had been staying at the same hotel had to wake up extremely early to get picked up by the GVI Staff. It seemed like it took ages for them to arrive even though they got there pretty much right on time. After they picked us and some other people up we drove across Mahe (the main island) to get to base camp. The ride was fairly long and we had to go up some very windy, mountainous roads but the views were always amazing.
Our driver, Mario, along with his wife (Valerie) run base camp. On our drive, Mario filled us in on some local laws ect. ect. The most bizarre was that the legal drinking limit is 8 beers so they advised us to be very careful about walking at night or if we rented a car, driving. Fortunately, there are no roads where anyone can go particularly fast on because they are all so curvy and that death by auto accident is a very rare occurence. (Still doesn't make you feel safe though...)
Base camp is an old government bordering school. I wish I could describe how forsaken the place looks. Old derilict buildings dot the area as if that sort of thing were normal. None of them have roofs because the wood and beams were all stolen/taken for other building projects. The place would be perfect for a game of man-hunt or capture the flag if we ever had enough energy to put something together...
The building we live in is functional, albeit old, and it does have a roof. (Yeehaw!) The building across from us, doesn't so late at night when the moon is out and its eerily still and the fruit bats are making a racket, it's more than a little creepy...
The rest of the afternoon we spent unpacking, going through rules, health and safety stuff, blah blah blah... And then EMMA FINALLY ARRIVED. Half-way through the day, after her plane got delayed (again). She had spent the last several days in Dubai just hanging out by herself which she said was more than a little odd, especially because she's a woman.
The big group of us went out for a snorkel and when we came back we had a nice lunch... I'm not going to bore you with the details...
On Saturday, those of us who were not adveanced open water divers started working on that course which meant we got to go diving! We do all our diving in Bay Ternay and it is absolutely incredible. I love seeing all the fish swim by.
For our advanced open water certification we had to do five dives: underwater navigation, peak performance bouyancy, deep diver, naturalist, and boat dive (which is every dive we do) I did these five dives over the course of the last week and it was amazing how doing each really improved my ability to dive, plus we got to see some really cool stuff.
The procedure for diving off the boat is very regimented and very well organized, which is nice and over the course of the last week we've all adjusted to it and learned the rules and regulations.
I think so far my favorite part has been all the cooking we have to do. I've enjoyed making bread and cookies, calzones, and cakes as well as lending a hand to whoever is making whatever. Hopefully, I'll be able to cook when I get home.
Cool things seen this week: Coconut crabs, 2 meter guitar shark (google it), moorish idol,
Cool things done: Went into the woods and found bananas, used a machete, made calzone from scratch, did an emergency responder course, walked to a waterfall, ate shark (just a bite), almost finished House of Leaves (amazing but very intracate book), went bouldering (awesome), drew a sweet painting for a staff member for her birthday, got head-butted by a bull,
sorry this is so short and lame. I'm giong to have to think of a better way to post what I'm doing because an hour in the internet cafe + skyping makes it really hard to write good posts.
Ciao Bella
- Sass
7 comments:
You head butted a bull? I don't think even Ernest Hemingway ever did that. -Dad
RPS - I suspect there's a difference between head-butting a bull and getting head-butted by a bull. I'd rather do the former than the latter. LMS
Well, someone had to initiate it. Either way, it seems like a bad idea. They have horns. Sharp ones. Even bull fighters have capes and a sword. You don't see them head butting bulls, do you?
No, I don't, but at all the bullfights I've ever been to, the first thing I did was to faint. And the second thing. And the third thing. So how would I know?
Dear Sarah,
I miss you.... and me being your arms.
Love,
Leigh
PS I do not have a blog even though it says I have a blogger profile.
Dear Leigh,
I was just thinking I miss you being my arms.
XO
<3
and no, I did not have a cape. And yes, it did have horns albeit they were small!
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