I've Been Bitten...

I've been bitten by a lot of things in my life.  When I was eight years old I was attacked by a German Shepherd dog who bit me on the back as I tried to run away.  When I was twelve my bicycle "bit" me when my finger got caught in between the chain and sprocket.  And in college I'm pretty sure I had a girlfriend once who was a vampire...I'll leave it at that.

But never in my life has being "bitten" by something been so incredible...that is until today.  My eyes were opened to the world underwater when as a family we went scuba diving together at "Hole In the Wall" in Roatan, Honduras...and I was bitten by the diving bug.

I had dove a handful of times before, but there was something about this experience, indescribable and yet my mind flurried the entire time with adjectives and superlatives that I hoped I could capture later in word.

For those who have never been scuba diving before...I'll try and do it justice.  From the moment you go under the water, all sound disappears.  All "noise" from the Upper World is gone, and the only sound you hear is your own slow rhythmic breathing from your compressed air tank, like Darth Vader in Star Wars.  Shhhheeee Hooohhhh, Shhheeee Hooohhhh.  Time seems to stand still, because everyone and everything moves in slow motion.  It is the ultimate tranquilizer.

Our dive guide had instructed us we would begin the dive by dropping down onto the white sand patch on the ocean floor about 30 feet below.  As I descend from above, in slow motion, I feel like an astronaut coming down onto the surface of the moon and I think, "This must be how Neil Armstrong felt".  Touchdown...as a cloud of white sand kicks up from my fins upon landing.

I look up and others are descending as well, dropping down from the light above to the floor of the Under World...a world so vast and so beautiful you feel a sense of nothingness and a connection to God at the same time.  The colors are so vibrant, like a dance club filled with neon lights, illuminating everything in rich, glowing colors.

The valleys and crevices of "Hole in the Wall" are a maze of coral, each running off in different directions, all begging to be explored.  I have had a lifelong fear of tight spaces, or at least I thought I had...always shuddering at the mental thought of being stuck in a tight cave or tunnel, unable to move.  But as I weave my way through these tight coral valleys and tunnels, not only am I not shuddering, I can feel the adrenaline pumping through my body.  I must explore them all.

Then our dive guide leads us on to "The Edge of the Earth", a point where the 30 foot deep coral floor simply ends and disappears into a vast void of blue nothingness.  As you swim off of it, you literally feel like you're jumping off the edge of a cliff, but with neutral buoyancy from your gear you simply float like an astronaut in vivid blue space...zero gravity.  Absolutely stunning.  We descend down to 60 feet and glide along the vertical wall.  A crab the size of a bike tire crawls into a hiding place, but not before we've spotted him and gotten a look up close.  A small sea snake glides in and out of some coral, and a Grouper that must be half the size of any of us slowly swims by, unaware of it's own beauty and majesty.

The guide leads us to a spot he had teased us about at the surface...an underwater cave.  For some reason I inherently trust our South African guide named Francois completely as I swim into the black hole to follow him.  As we enter, the light filters in as our eyes adjust, and we go further into the darkness until we are completely inside a massive underwater cave.  Large fish swim in the shadows, and I cannot ever remember anything so exhilarating.  I.Am.Alive.

As we depart the cave and come back into "Living Color", I look over and see 2 of our dive buddies proudly hoisting a Venezuelan flag that they've unrolled and are dragging behind them.  Staking claim in the name of their country no doubt.  I smile and continue on, not wanting to miss a single thing, looking at every detail like a child in the world's largest toy store.  I look at my air supply...it's half gone already.  Time is standing still, right?  How could it have gone so fast?

I continue to weave in and out of coral tunnels, stopping only to study the different sea life and make sure my family is around to see what I'm seeing.  They are busy taking their own mental "Kodak" moments.  I swim along directly above them, finding a serene joy in letting the air bubbles from their exhaust tickle my face as they travel upward toward the surface.

The stillness of it all envelopes me, begs me to stay, and as my air supply continues to dwindle, I know that it must end.  Alas, time does not stand still.  Only an hour has passed.  It seemed like eternity.  As we slowly make our ascent, the surface of the water draws ever closer, and I do not want to return to the Upper World.  Like a teenager on a school morning, I just want 5...more...minutes.  Before I know it, my head breaks the surface...water is splashing in my face from the ocean ripples, the noise of people lifting their gear into the dive boat explodes in my ears and everything races back into fast motion again.  Back to life...back to reality.  And the only thought passing through my mind...is "When can I come back?"

P.S.  In order to maintain literary integrity, I must confess that while these photos are of diving at Hole in the Wall in Roatan, they are not all of this particular dive.  :-)