Our first stop on day two was Pared Verde (The Green Wall). This was to be my first "deep" dive, going down to almost 100 feet. In our pre-diving "briefing," the dive master reminded us that would mean much faster air usage -- but believe me, I didn't need the reminder. This time, an extra tank of air (an "octo") was going to be thrown in from the boat at the end of the dive, in case any of us were running low by the time we got back to our safety stop at 15 feet. The dive master told us (looking at me, but I took no offense), if any of us were in the red by the time we got back to the octo, just switch, don't wait. Scuba tanks are apparently a pain in the ass to clean and service if you actually let them empty entirely.
I'll be honest; this one wasn't a very memorable dive for me. Looking through my boyfriend's pictures afterward confirms that it wasn't just me who didn't really see anything truly outstanding fish-wise, though there were some interesting coral formations and such. For example, don't swim near the "Alien eggs" (there were a lot of them):
But take time for a good look at the reef wall:
Get in close if you want to see all the little guys (they reminded me of fresh water neon tetras):
And always smile for the camera:
I did "run out" of air as expected, but this wasn't actually alarming in any way. When we made it back to 15 feet, I was down to about 1/6 of my starting tank; since I was in the red, so I switched to the spare from the boat as directed. (Okay, maaaaybe it was slightly embarrassing to be the only one who had to do this, but nobody seemed to care.)
Once we were all back aboard, it was off to our second dive site of the morning.
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