Super hero scuba and playing in the rain 10/24/18

We took our time yesterday am, we are definitely embracing the island life. Almost midday we made the effort to go exploring before our scuba at 1. We headed north along the cost to the town of Paje. The gas station was out of gas. We drove by the town and didn't get out. Not really much to explore. No worries, we'll grab some lunch. Google's location of the hotel where the dive shop is located was wrong so we went to the Blue Oyster. Fun by a German, full of tourists. We waited for lunch to start at 12. We watched the sugar mama with her young trophy. Some tourists walking down the beach were being harassed by the dudes our taxi driver warned us about. In this location there are enough hotels and tourists for guys to harass, not so much at our hotel, we are one of two hotels in the whole area (plus no beach to walk down). These dudes were wearing Masaai blankets, dark sunglasses (no Tanzanians wear sunglasses), and they had machetes. Kinda harmless during the day but don't go out at night. We got out over fancy hotdog and club sandwich and headed to the scuba spot which was apparently 4km south.

We found the sign on the road for the hotel and found the Big Ocean Divers dive shop. The dude Rachid was happy we found it. It's a new shop with new gear which is rare in these counties. He was giving us our dive suits when we spotted the superhero section. Yes please! These are obviously for kids but we made them fit our bodies, Superman and Wonder Woman!

We headed out in the boat but stayed inside the reef walls. The wind has been blowing harder and harder the last couple days, the waves even inside the walls were nuts. Doing the back fall into the water was challenging. My mask filled with water. Waves were splashing over my head. OK, just chill and regain your composure. When Andy and Rachid were in the water we went down, at least I tried. I didn't have enough weight so Rachid had to give me another one (I need 12 kgs for reference next time). The viz was not great. We saw lion fish, ghost pipefish, unicorn leaf fish, honeycomb eels, black clownfish, the reef was covered in sand.

When we got back into the boat for our rest, the waves were pumping so hard the rope tied to the buoy ripped the cleat off the boat and left a gaping hole! I was very cold from the wind ripping us. We hurried to get back into the water for our next dive so we wouldn't get seasick. I wasn't thrilled about getting back into the water since I was so cold, but I figured I'd be warmer than on the boat, plus I was starting to feel sick. The second dive was shorter mostly because I was cold and done. It's too bad. If we have less wind and more sun I'm sure it would have been lovely. Rachid and his team did a great job. We tipped him large and he was super grateful (not sure if he's used to being tipped??).

Back at the hotel, we were tired and hungry. Asleep by 9 and well deserved.

Today is our last day here so it's lazy day. Driving by Paje left us having no need to drive several hours north to see more of the same. It's a nice island but it's still Tanzania with very small towns besides Zanzibar City which is a shit show. It's funny how easy it is to relax when you accept it (and have been on vaca for almost 6 weeks.

Breakfast was following by reading time on the patio, wrapped in my Masaai blanket Andy had to have (he loves blankets). It was a good purchase since we've used it multiple times here and in our tent. It was low tide so we walked out into the lagoon. Dark clouds were in the distance, rain was definitely coming our way. Finally my sandals came in handy. They are the "feel the earth" kinda with straps. Not good looking but functional as some would say. I brought these since they wouldn't slide off my feet light flip-flops. I mean, who wants to "feel the earth" when they are walking? Especially in Africa? Anywhere actually? I thought we had the technology now so we would never have to "feel the earth" ever again? Anyways they worked well for walking over the rocks and plants the low tied was showing. Then the rain hit us lightly. We scamped back to the hotel like kids, laughing and trying to run in the shallow water. We made it back just as the rain really came down hard. Finally a storm!

We chilled and napped for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we are off to our next destination- a day layover in Dubai!