Gosh, another day of waking up early. Plus I had a glass of wine last nigth and realized I’m not going to be much of a drinker when I’m older. So today we went to thee Southwestern side of the island so we could go scuba driving. We went to this place first to get a lesson. Khoa and my brother Quang have done it a few times so it was Duy and I who really needed the class. We then practiced in the pool and it was just hard getting used to breathing with your mouth. The instuctor who reminded me so much of Ms.Duckworth said I did pretty well for my first time, but Duy kind of struggle with some of the stuff like water in the goggles and breathingg through his mouth. He was nervous and just a bit anxious. We get onto the boat and were brought out to the reef sight and it was pretty close to where I went snorkeling yesterday, but a bit more out. Duy was really nervous, but surprising I wasn’t. I guess I wanted an adventure and to really do things like this so I knew I just had to do it. I can’t believe I was about to go spend 50 minutes 30 feet under the sea! As we were putting on our gear I felt a little anxious cause you have to sit on the boat and flip over backwards. Khoa and Quang went under first and waited for us down at the bottom. I went into the water first and the waves were so choppy and my goggles weren’t fitting correctly and I almost panicked.
There were two ropes on the side of the boat to onto. I held onto one while the instructor was trying to help Duy cause he was having a hard time adjusting. The longer I waited the more I got thrown against the boat. I was started to really wonder if I could do this. Finally the instructor just told me to go down. Going down was hard and the water pressure was really hurting my ears. There’s a technique for popping your eyes and I kept trying to do it, but it wasn’t working. The instructor signaled to see if I was okay, and I was struggling for a minute and then finally got it. I realized Duy wasn’t with us so I figured he ended up staying on the top. There was some water in my goggles, but I used the techniques to get it out. I was scared at first, but I knew this was once in a lifetime chance for me to do this and I was never going to do this again so I just sucked it up and swam along. I finally got used to the breathing and popping my ears. I saw a string ray, some many beautiful corals, schools of fish, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was really beautiful down there and I kept looking up, not being able to believe how far down I was! Later on the way back we saw about three lobsters! It was really exciting and I’m glad I stuck it out because it was such an amazing experience! When we got back up I felt a little light headed, probably from all that compressed air, and nauseous. The boat was rocking up and down, but when we got closer to the shore I felt a lot better. Such a fun thing to do, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to go scuba driving again.
After that we went to a close by restaurant on the beach to eat. The water here is just sooooo amazing. It’s clear and teal color, just amazing, though I’m really tired of beaches. We had lunch then walked around. We drove along the coast and Quang stopped the car so i could pick some tamarinds. We also stopped on this random beach so Quang and Duy could go snorkeling! We then drove through parts of inner Antigua to go to English Harbor which is in the very South. There’s only a few main roads here. The country side with rolling hills and mountains and lush trees is so beautiful! There are goats everywhere too! I just enjoy looking at everything. We stopped the car again so I could pick some mangos. There are millions of mango trees all over the place! We also passed the place where we’re going to go tree zip-lining on Wednesday hopefully. I think I’m going to be scared because it’s so high, but I have to go! I don’t care how scare I am, I’m not going to miss this. Duy saw it and is looking iffy, but I’ll make him go. We got to English Harbor and went up this mountain place to look down on English Harbor. It was really pretty, like one of those scenes you would see of Cape Town, South Africa. I really enjoyed the view. We also saw Eric Clapton’s house too. Then we drove along the Eastern side of the island to get back home. So today I went completely around the whole island and it was nice! It was a fun day, but I’m really tired now. The beaches are beautiful, but I’m tired of them and my sunburn! Tomorrow I think I’m taking the day off cause Quang has to go to school so I’ll just be by the pool probably.
