Diving!!

Oh my goodness. Why I have not taken up this sport before now, I do not know. I was a little scared about quite a few things, my ears, sharks, rays, taking my mask off underwater etc etc. But the course was great. We did the first bit of theory friday night, the PADI videos are rather humerous. There were 4 of us on the course - me and another volunteer, and 2 girls that were working at the Charles Darwin Station (where they work to preserve wildlife, especially the tortoises).
On Saturday we went for the pool session in the morning. The pool was filthy and the visibility was less than a metre. Which made it quite hard to see the instructor demonstrate the skills. I also think that I had too many weights, or my jacket was too small as when we were above water I had to inflate my jacket fully which restricted my breathing and I ended up with a sore ribcage for a few days. Oh, well. We managed the skills, and went back for more theory in the afternoon. Sunday was our first dive in open water, it was in Academy Bay which is the main bay at Puerto Ayora where we are staying. Different people have mixed views about it, but I think we were really lucky as the visibility was really good (15-18 metres on all our dives) and we saw a lot of things. We had all bought underwater cameras and were quite eager to take them out, although we did wait until our second dive as we had to do all our skills on the first dive. Taking the mask off underwater in the sea I did not like, but once it was done we got to go around a little bit. Once I had got used to swimming along without using my arms, whilst not hitting rocks etc it felt far more comfortable. Although getting the buoyancy right does take some work, at one point I suddenly realised I was actually on the surface again and some one was pushing me back down!
On sunday's dives we saw lots of colourful fish, it really is amazing to see them just swimming around and not running away from you. We saw some stingrays which swam away once we had all clumsily crowded round (we disturbed the water quite a bit!) and the others saw 2 sharks.... I missed them. Not quite sure what I was doing at that point, maybe checking my gauges, maybe floating to the surface, maybe trying to get the camera out of my face (they are built to float, which is great unless you have them attached somewhere on your chest and they keep floating infront of your mask!) or maybe trying not to hit the rocks! But yes, I managed to miss them. I did see the starfishes though. They were great, and one had 6 legs (which is apparently very rare)!
Yesterday we did dives 3 and 4. A couple more skills - including using a compass. I managed to follow the correct direction and do my 30 kicks out, I just went up towards the surface but didn't realise until I stopped and looked around, saw the instructor quite far below, looking at me and pointing down!! Oopps! I stuck where I could see the sand on the way back.
Yesterday we saw a sea turtle and a sealion in the water, although neither came particularly close to us and lots more fish. But I figured for a first diving experience, that is actually quite a lot. I hope the pictures come out ok!
My favourite of all had to be one of the fish though. They have big bright yellow lips and bright blue eyes and suck the algae off the rocks. To me they just look like they are made up to go out on a friday night with far too much make up and bad botox!
I have another dive booked for thursday, apparently there may be hammerheads.....although whether I see them or not is another thing!