Scuba and New Years San Andrés style 12/31
We walked around for a bit, Andy was tired of wearing a heavy thermal shirt on an island for the last couple days so we paid full price for a Columbia shirt (hate that). I guess his comfort is that important.
It was hot so we got a couple drinks at a coffee shop. I don't know what the time allowances between a waitress being slow, or just forgetting your order, but after 30 minutes she clearly forgot our order even though we were sitting right in front of her. Andy doesn't like that much. We walked and search for the catamaran office but did not find it. We grab some sandwiches and more liquadoes for five dollars at the corner sandwicharia so we had some fuel for our afternoon dives. We grabbed a bottle of vodka and juices for the evening festivities.
An hour of pool time and then the dive shop picked us up. We went diving with a guy from the Netherlands and a family of five, all kids had their certification which was impressive. We did two dives. The first dive was OK, the corals seem to have a brown dusting all over them so there weren't a lot of colors to be seen. We saw couple schools of fish, and your standard lion fish, crab, puffers. I didn't have enough weight as my tank was emptying so I started to go up to the surface. I got Andy's and the dive master's attention and he gave me one of his weights. We dropped one of the dive masters off at the shore. This was no small feat. They dug "steps" into the volcanic rock which he had to climb as the giant waves crashed him into the rock, all while getting his flippers off. Impressive. The ocean has been turbulent since we've been here.
We did a wrecked cargo ship for the second dive. It wasn't sunk that long ago so there wasn't a lot growing on it. The dive master took through holes and crevices to dive through. I did swim down the manhole which was surprising because I don't like small spaces. It was a short dive as the sun was starting to set so we headed back to the dock and left. A jump in the pool at the hotel and a quick dinner of fish and meat. We grab our beverages for the evening and jumped on one of the last buses into town around 8 o'clock. The guy we dove with told us locals are all going to party on the beach so that's where we had it. It was early, there wasn't many people on the beach but we grabbed a spot.
We stayed in the same spot the whole night which was really nice. We had seats on the beach with our cocktails and chatted and listen to music. More people did show up, a family joined us at the benches. We watched a female dog battle off the male dogs and she did it quite well. It wasn't as intense as the female being hunted by 3 large dogs in Santa Marta. A guy ended up carrying her away (not sure where he took her) and all the males following. I gave them the para cord I had on my purse, always prepared, and their son tried to build a fire in the sand. We watched him try burning plastic cups and stacking wood and inappropriately. This hurt Andy's feelings, so after watching him for a bit, Andy got smaller pieces of wood to help the boy. This got all the men's attention in the family and they came over to help. In the end, they ended up burning a large piece of Styrofoam which was enough to get the fire started. There were large bundles of wood in the sand, it must've been for the evenings bonfires. It didn't rain all day although the forecast called for it but now. Everyone ran under the shelter. It was short lived like the rains here usually are. The fire started just in time to ring in the New Year. Now we had a large crowd around the fire. The new year rang, everybody celebrated and hugged each other, some fireworks were set off and the town. A native local came by, who was wasted, and started messing with the fire. This didn't work well with the cops who started kicking sand on the fire to put it out. It was a short-lived bonfire but it was lovely way to ring in the new year. We got a taxi back to the hotel with another couple who was staying there as well. A fantastic day! Happy New Year!!