Taking the Plunge

Over the weekend, I journeyed down to Taba, a lovely little place (village doesn't even seem to fit) on the west coast of Sinai at the Israeli border. From the beach of the Taba Hilton, you could see the coasts of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the "Welcome to Israel" sign. Our last night, we heard some booms in the air and saw missiles going off over the water (target practice, apparently). High rocky cliffs dotted the coast, the ocean was calm, the water blue and clear.

But I didn't go to be a tourist and lie on the beach; I went to learn how to dive. And boy, was it worth it!

During our first "pool" session, this little fellow greeted us:Bernie the Barracuda
He circled us a few times and came back almost every time we were in the water. All of our "pool" sessions were at the house reef, and all of them ended with a little swim around the reef.

Then, we did our open water dives and ventured further out. We saw so many fish: clownfish, angelfish, a little juvenile angelfish (with a bullseye pattern instead of stripes), frogfish, moray eels, spotted sea snake eels, pufferfish, stonefish, and tons of others. Plus, all the coral. But by far my favorite fish were the ones below:Lionfish - there were a lot one day right before dusk when we went out, just swimming all over the reef
Parrotfish - these guys were just so big and colorful!

All in all, it was an excellent weekend. On our final dive, we went over some coral canyons and saw a school of yellowfin tuna. I'm hoping to get my Advanced certification next month, and I am planning another diving trip to Taba in late November.

Many thanks to my friend Krista for putting me in touch with her boss, Barry, the best dive instructor ever! Also, thanks to Yvette for coming all the way from the Netherlands to learn to dive with me. Nitrogen narcosis was blamed for our giddiness and silliness throughout the weekend!