Fully licensed DiveMaster

Well, well, as I had gone through all the practical tasks for the Dive Master course and had just passed the theoretical exam before I left for Galapagos, I was now ready to take on my next challenge in that field of work: Teaching 14 – 19 danish high school graduate students each week how to surf and to dive within only a couple of days time.

I knew about this massive booking since the beginning and wondered how we’d manage to get everything in place to cover all the necessary steps to make everyone happy and let them have a successful time at the coast.

In fact, this was the reason why I was summoned back “home” (to Montanita) a day early, to plan the steps one by one, for each group ahead. It would look like this.

Thursday: Arrival of the group, everybody relax and hang out.

Friday:

-         Early Afternoon: Everyone passes by the shop to get an introduction and to pick up their study books

-         Late Afternoon: The group sits in the shop and watches the first part of the PADI introduction DVD; after everyone gets sorted with their gear, including

o       Wetsuit

o       Shoes

o       Fins

Saturday:

-         Early Morning: Group 1 (7-8 people) gets in the pool for the equipment introduction (about 4 hours)

-         Afternoon: Group 2 (7-8 people) gets in the pool for equipment introduction (about 4 hours)

Sunday:

-         Early Morning: Group 2 goes diving with Victor, Eugenio, Beatrice and Me until Midday

-         Afternoon: Group 1 goes surfing with Beatrice, Michelle and Me

Monday:

-         Early Morning: Group 1 goes diving with Victor, Eugenio, Beatrice and Me until Midday

-         Afternoon: Group 2 goes surfing with Beatrice, Michelle and Me

Tuesady = like Sunday

Wednesday = like Monday

Wednesday night: Big Barbeque Party with both groups, including Victor, Beatrice, Eugenio, Michelle and me.

We tried to go through with this plan as good as we could, unfortunately things don’t always go your way. So it came, that two or three of the girls from that group had trouble breathing under water, which pushed the timely limit of the first pool group further back and left Victor, Eugenio and me a total of 10 minutes between the first and the second group, to get lunch. Within the second group, there was also some trouble and we finished right around 6pm, which meant that the three of us spend a total amount of 10hrs in the water that day.

The next day we visited our common dive spot, El Pelado, in order to get everyone comfortable with the equipment in the open water. Unfortunately for us, the swell had been really strong these days, which also led to a very wild water at hour home spot. Now this was unfortunate for the girls and guys, as the rough sea increased the sea sickness rate aboard and discouraged a few of the passengers. We still got everyone in the water and went down to a freezing cold 12meters to conduct our first dive. All went well, so that everyone was back up after about half an hour and after about an hour break ready to go down a second time.

After this, the whole group slept on the busride back into town as if they just ran a marathon. It was actually cure to see, and we were happy to have the other half of the group for the surf lessons in the afternoon, as the first group, possibly would have been to knackered to go into the sea and paddle for waves.

Having mentioned the strong swell earlier, it was the strong swell again, that screwed us over a bit during the first surf class with the second group. A big swell inevitably leads to a strong current in the bay, as the huge amount of water rushing in somehow needs a way to get back out again, which it usually does in rips; strong currents of water that pull out surfers and even worse swimmers. With the second group it came, that two of the kids who hadn’t enrolled in the diving classes, nor the surfing classes, no wanted to swim around their friends, as they hit the surfboards. It came how I must have come with this setup, and within an instant two of the guys, a girl from the surf class and another boy didn’t pay attention and got caught in a riptide.

When I saw it, I looked around for anyone who could give me their board, in order to pick up the boy and get him out of danger. Of course there was no-one around, but in the wink of my eye I saw one of the Baywatch guys already jump into the water and paddeling towards the two. I figured the boy would be able to hold himself above the water until the rescue swimmer with the buoy would arrive, and swam to the girl as fast as I could, as her eyes were wide with fear and I knew she wouldn’t be able to get herself out of this mess. Frankly, I told her to hold on the board as if her life depends on it and started to push her sideways into the massive waves that now rushed in the bay, which would hopefully bring us back to shore.

When the first big wave struck us, I held on to the back of the board to keep it stable and not let her experience the full sensation of being kicked around by the waves, although my legs and torso were thrown around like crazy by the 3meter waves that now hit the coast. With the second wave I gave the board a push so that I floated in front of the wave and was completely pushed to shore, where all the others were already waiting and took care of the shaking girl. I turned around to spot the boy and his rescuer, and found them quite a few meters further out in the water and turned around to ask if they need some more help. In the eyes of the rescuer, it was all safe and so I started making my way back to shore myelf, where the baywatcher in his red shorts thought he’d need to tell me that big waves are dangerous for swimmers. Of course it was clear that big waves and strong currents are dangerous for swimmers, but as the swimmer wasn’t even one of the guys from my group, I though “whatever” and politely told him “thank you for telling me”. On shore, both of them, the boy and the girl, were shaking like crazy and were obviously under shock, and everyone was standing around them watching. Quickly Beatrice and me shared a look and instantly went into a deeper explanation why big waves are dangerous and why everyone needs to pay special attention to when they are out in big surf. All around us were nodding heads and after a short break, we continued with the rest of the class for another half an hour.

The next day, it was a similar situation in the water concerning the divers: again a few guys were sea sick and had some problems in the beginning to get down, but luckily the water had calmed down a bit and this made it easier for us in the afternoon to conduct the surf class. The following days we found out that what both groups had be primarily lacking in diving confidence, they made more than up with in their surf classes! Almost all students constantly got on their boards during the classes and even the ones who didn’t catch every wave perfectly had massive smiley on their faces and were obviously enjoying the shit out of the sport. And for me personally, this is the best sign, that I got people interested beyond the classes itself into surfing, and made them hungry to go, grab a board and surf for themselves to improve.

With all that stuff happening and the really long days time flew and suddenly it was the last night with everyone. Unfortunately, the Dude who was supposed to organize the BBQ is the same dumb, lazy fuck you meet in every other hostel in south America. He’s managing some cheap place (that he should actually put a lot more time and effort in), is sitting on the porch all day drinking beer and flirts with every female guests that comes across his way. But as soon as you need something from him, he’s always going “Yeah, of course, no problem”, and in the end nothing is done. In our case it was the same, and telling him 6 days early to organize a fireplace and enough meet and salad for about 20 people, clearly was to much to ask and we quickly had to re-arrange food settings. In the end we went to Jimmy’s place, the Chicken Shed that I’ve been going to since day one and whose owner (Jimmy) was a small overweight guy from the Dominican Republic. But no offense, one of the coolest dudes in the whole town. About an hour and a bit later, everyone was fed with Chicken, fries and some cake and we went off to get absolutely plastered. Which we did, I don’t really remember too much of it, just that we were hanging about cocktail ally until the sun came back up and that I went to farewell the whole bunch after about two hours of sleep from their hostel, as a good guide, instructor, drinking buddy, whoever would do.

And this was it, first group gone… Thinking about it now seems like we met and they just left again the next moment. I do remember that it was tremendously tiring work that week, and that I had to have a 45min nap between diving and surfing, otherwise I would have collapsed myself, but right now I don’t recall this when I think about the group… It was awesome people and I still write a few of them now, weeks after they’re gone, because it makes me feel like they’re still around somehow…

I didn’t really have much time to regain my strength, as Thursday was another ladies night, which meant big party in my little town. Despite the attractiveness of another big party in the crazy spot, I decided against going out again and instead had a nice, relaxed beer with Eugenio on the street and did a recap of the previous week.

Ecuador Trip

Wow, what an adventure…

Galapagos was simply amazing and literally blew me away by its beauty. But actually I didn’t really have time to enjoy and reflect on the trip yet, because I was being expected in Quito and there was no time to fuck about.

So after my one night in Montaloca during which I just had enough time to change some cloths from my backpack, say Hi to a few friends and have 2 or 3 cocktails on the street, and head to Guayaquil lo antes que possible (= ASAP).

Unfortunately, there was no seat left in the early morning bus that would bring me to the terminal terrestre straight away, so I took a cab around 6am to Salinas in order to get another bus there with the same destination. It worked out somehow, but indeed was unnecessary hassle that could have been avoided by buying a bus ticket from Montanita early.

Upon arriving in Guayaquil I found out my cell phone with the German Sim card was gone, and I had no idea whether I lost it on Galapagos, on the bus to Montanita or the bus to Guayaquil. Never mind, no time to cry, my plane was already waiting for me and I wasn’t sure if I could board, as my Visa for Ecuador had just run out 4 days ago. It all went smoothly though, and about an hour of flight later I landed safe and sound in Quito, ready to be pickd up by my dearest Chris and Wladi.

That day we felt like our reunion had to be celebrated in a special way, and as it happened to be, we had the amazing impossible drinking game printed out and another 3 guys ready to get it fired up… After about 2hrs of playing, the first participant was already passed out and we decided to make some food… The food tasted all right, so we thought, but being spaced out of our minds doesn’t usually support adequate evaluation of tastes or smells. Anywho, the game continued after about two hours of break and somehow we stopped playing after another hour as everyone was too drunk to continue.

At the same time, Carina a friend from studying in Freiburg, was visiting Chris for two weeks and wanted to tour around Ecuador with the two of us. And as Chris had already seen most of the stuff in Quito, she and I went on a hike at the local Mountain, El Pichincha. It was a perfect day for it, and we took some amazing pictures of the city.

Also, we hit the local Mercado Artesenal quick and hard, but like always without buying any of the stuff: It’s just too much unnecessary things we’d be carrying around, although some of the articles they sell are quite nice.

Wednesday we all went to the Bungalow with a few of Chris’ friends, a place that I haven’t been to in a long time. The last time on the 15^th of December, to be precisely. It was the place that we all went to, on the Saturday night that I wanted to leave for Montanita, and that I missed my bus because (again!!) not seat was available anymore. Anywho, it turned out to be a messy night, once again, and we happily hungover left for our first stop on the Ecuador trip: Banos.

As we arrived there Thursday afternoon, we had a quick stroll through the city and came across a few friends of mine from the paradise at the coast. Stefan (CH), who was attending the Spanish lessons there, and Giselle (Peru) and Johana (Peru) who were dancing and entertaining in some of the clubs. With all of them, we decided quite quickly to go rope-swinging from the big bridge in Banos before the light would fade. I was the first one to jump and it was already really dark and so I was the only one to jump that day. And since it is a bit colder in the area due to wind and the lack of sun, we finished the day off by abusing one of the local thermal baths, which feed from volcanic hot springs:

Moreover, the next days were extremely sporty and for the most things, Giselle and Johana, along with a new friend we made (Adam / US and A) joined us on exploring the rainy mountain ranges and hot thermal baths of the Andes. Among these activities were:

-         Rafting

-         Canyoning

-         Biketour

-         And Canopy

All of the things were not really cheap, but absolutely worth the thrill and due to our big group we even got some discounts out of the greedy tour agencies. It might have helped that we had a Tourism Student among us. :D

Saturday night we joined Johana and Giselle on a few drinks just before they went to work (= dance) in one of the local clubs and asked us to take some pictures and videos (of them) for them, as for promo-reasons. The favor was luckily returned and drinks were on the house. Despite that really tempting offer, we were absolutely knackered from the previous days activities and thus we called it an early night. Carina wasn’t even out with us, because she was too tired and the next day we wanted to rent Quads, which would become a tiring tour, once again. In the end we returned home early in order to be fresh and funky for the next days challenge.

The Quad-tour (on which only Adam joined) turned out to be horrible. Originally, we wanted to drive up the mountains to watch the volcano from there, but on the way two of our Quads somehow refused to restart after taking a few pictures and since we didn’t see a point in continuing with two Quads only, we returned and got half of our money back. That same day we packed our things and left for Riobamba, which we heard was also one of the places to see.

It turned out, it was even uglier than Guayaquil, and as it didn’t have anything to show and the weather was complete crap, we left reasonably early. Next stop Cuenca, which I was told would be an breath-taking city. Unfortunately I cannot say the same from my point of view; at least not to that extent. It is a city that has a lot of museums, but none of them but one was really appealing to us (of course we checked that out and were NOT swiped off our feet). The city itself is nice, and the river passing through gives it a nice touch. Still, we ran out of things to do after a while which is why we started playing drinking games in one of the bars and got beer for less than a dollar. :D

GREAT TIMES!!!

After Cuenca we went to Alausí, which to be fair, really is a lousy place. There is nothing but one main street with nothing but cyber cafes and the place is dead from Sunday to Thursday. The only reason why we were there was because the train towards the famous “Nariz del Diabolo” leaves from there, as well as some old Inca ruins are within driving distance. The Inca ruins were unfortunately another slap to the face, as we did the trip there and upon arriving found out that we didn’t have enough time to check out the ruins, if we wanted to catch our train that same afternoon.

Basically, we enjoyed two 2hrs bus rides for nothing and then hopped on the train to the devil’s nose. This ride whatsoever was actually really nice, the weather could have been better, but I’m not gonna complain for stuff I can’t change anyways. It was a 3hr ride and it was crazy to see where and by which means and efforts they built a train track into the mountain, which later was abandoned because some dude said he’d seen the devil somewhere around. Culture, huh? Sometimes one cannot grasp the way people thought back in the day.

Moving on, that night we waited for about an hour at the big road while we were waiting for a bus that would take us back to the shithole Riobamba, in order to catch a bus from there to shithole Guayaquil (again). The good news it, there came buses to take us, the bad news is that Carinas cell phone was stolen on the last leg of the journey, and (understandably) pissed her off BIG TIME!!! I actually could relate to her emotions that night, as my cell was too recently lost.

We spend exactly 9 hours in Guayaquil during which we slept a little bit (after arriving at 3 in the morning) and then did a quick run along the Malecón 2000 and again left for the bus station in order to go to the coast, and finally some more sunshine. It took us 2,5hrs to get there and encountered clear sunshine, warmth and a beautiful beach at which people were playing 3on3 Volleyball. This of course called for us to join and the first match was lost to some freaking old locals, but in the second match the young and wild showed that bunch of graveyard potential how it’s done!!!

The night was finished off by a 2for1 Family Pizza promotion for 18$ and we happily sunk into our two, put together beds. Yes you read correctly, two beds. The place that we stayed in didn’t offer any beds for a 5er a night, and the only option there was, was an old kitchen in which two beds had been jammed and which were ours for the desired 5$ per person. It too had an outdoor gym and made fantastic juice-shakes, that we sucked on for about 2 hours the next day, just before we headed to the “Ruta del Sol / Spondylus” in order to find a Camionetta (pick-up truck) that would take us to Montanita.

Just after sunset we arrived back home (my home) and were startled by the emptiness of that elsewise so pumping and busting place. As we found out within 60mins the state police had raided the town and shut down every place that operated without a license in the first place, but also every employee without working permit (if foreigner) was “let go”, as well as the narcotics police hovered around and patrolled every street frequently. We still enjoyed ourselves in cocktail alley and had a drink or 5 and finally fell into bed after a long day of doing nothing.

The next day my work started one more time and despite Chris and Carina staying for one more night, I knew that it would be some tiring weeks lying ahead of me.
Well, let’s see how it turns out.

Galapagos, Baby...

Now time flew, I can tell you that.

Once more, a whole week passed in an instant and by taking enough time to thoroughly reflect on what I experienced during that week, I am sure I will enjoy it even more and appreciate the whole trip even more.

We started off by arriving on San Cristobal, which is one of the Islands in the west of Galapagos. And since my Mum and I haven’t had a decent conversation during the last couple of months, due to my travelling, we caught up on recent activities and happenings, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The next day we already started full throttle into discovering the islands secrets, beginning with Leon Dormido, also known as Kicker Rock. We met up way too early for my taste, headed to the boat and after a short “preparation dive” at Isla de Lobo, we were on our way to check out Hammerhead sharks and other animals with a shitload of teeth.

All in all during the two dives at Kicker Rock, we not only saw the desired Hammerheads, but also Galapagos Sharks, White Tip Sharks, Black Tip Sharks, massive Turtles and of course Sea Lions.

But the most amazing animal that we encountered that day was a 2,5m – 3m Eagle Ray, who was hovering over us and absolutely ruled the dive site. We even forgot about the curious Galapagos Sharks who we surrounding us and came closing in on us, to check out what or who we were. Somehow I didn’t mind the sharks so much; I was too busy starring at the Eagle Ray in Awe as it flew by majestically. Although in between the two dives, we went snorkeling and a few of the Galapagos Sharks came insanely close, especially after surrounding me for a few minutes, then descending and ascending from directly under me… *Scary Shit*

The next day we went to Santa Cruz in the very early morning, which despite the small size is the main Island. Here I by incident met Nikki, one of the two dutch siblings, that I met in Montanita and Chris as well, and together with my Mum, we shared two midday beers at the harbour before the two of them left for other one of the other islands.

The next day, my Mum and me went to the next dive spot, called Gordon Rock, who as well was habitat to a lot of Hammerhead sharks. Unfortunately we had shit visibility, which is why the first dive only revealed shadows of Sharks passing by about 10m away from us.

During the second dive visibility was better and we even had a female shark pass by us within one arm’s reach. Our Dive Master took heaps of pictures which I will try to attach here a bit later, as Mum took the DVD with her home… :D

The whole dive was a bit over-shadowed by the fact that two other divers who were with us, were absolute noobs and didn’t know shit about diving. I remember them going up and down like Jojos and we constantly had to watch out for them not to bump into us, or dropping down on us from above, tank first…

The following day we again had the unfortunate pleasure of the two doofuses joining us on the third dive trip to an island south of Santa Cruz; Floreana.

It was a two hours drive by boat, which is why we had to leave Santa Cruz around 5:30am, but despite the hassle, the second dive there made more than just up for the troubles of getting there. First, we had a whole school of young Sea Lions play with us and later were surrounded by literally millions of fish who “tornadoed” around us and by their sheer number darkened up the water and made us believe we are cave diving. Again the Dive Master took thousands of pictures, which will be provided later.

The next day we also did a day tour on Santa Cruz to Tortuga Bay, which is like a kindergarten to sharks and rays and every other animal that breeds on the island. It was about an hour to get there, but again we were compensated by the view on a beautiful bay and also saw little sharks and rays; and little sharks are really cute… J

Also, on one of the beaches I ran into Karin from Montanita, who was too enjoying life to the fullest on this amazing group of Islands called Galapagos. Well, rather she recognized me as I was wearing my green hat and the orange glasses…

That night we went to eat all together in a little street on Santa Cruz, which basically is turned into a restaurant as the places all put their chairs and tables on the street and make it impossible for cars to pass.

It was nice to exchange some memories and hear about the experiences, which my Mum especially enjoyed, as travelling today varies severely from travelling back in the day.

The next day we already packed our stuff to Island hop one more time and go to Isabella, the island which Chris identified as the most beautiful of all of them. Upon arriving we were directly put into a bus and drove to see the flamingos in their little pond. Unfortunately those bastards were all gone and only one lonely flamingo hung about there. People took their picture and we returned kinda fast to the hotel to unpack out stuff.

The next day was dedicated to hiking up one of the many volcanos on the island. In the beginning the weather was shit and cloudy, but this made the climb a bit more pleasant, and right on time for reaching the summit the sun came out and burned down on us. And it was a breath-taking view over a 12km (in diameter) volcano that was covered with ashes, volcanic rocks and heaps of green plants, AND still active.

The afternoon was spend snorkeling in a bay just outside of the harbour called “Las Tintoreras” and despite the shitty visibility we saw massive Turtles feeding on sea grass.

Unfortunately, the next das already our day of departure, and after a 2hrs boat drive we were standing at the airport, in line of LAN airline to get our tickets.
I really need to get all those pictures and go through the whole trip one more time to really grasp the (uh, watch out, made-up word) “amazingness” and the diversity of what we saw during the hand full of days.

Anywho, after we touched down in Gauayquil, my Mum and I shared a quick good-bye and thanked each other for having made this awesome trip together and then headed our separate ways: my Mum towards Peru to conquer Machu Picchu, and me towards home, Montanita.

My plan was to change my stuff, and then head to Guayaquil (again) to catch a flight to Quito, because Chris and I had planed to get on a trip through Ecuador together and time was precious… There was adventure waiting for us, and I couldn’t wait for it to get started… :D

Study Times!!

After this amazing time, one more time, with Chris in Montanita, it was time to get some studying done. As mentioned before there were heaps of books which I had to read, comprehend and reflect on as part of the Dive Masters course. So much concerning the theoretical part, we also had to partake in practical classes, ranging from simple displaying skills in the pool to more complex objects as repairing Regulators, BCD´s and cleaning tanks. All in all a physically more demanding job than the theory part.

Moreover, I was told that there was a shipment coming from the 2^nd shop on Galapagos containing a shitload of broken Surfboards, which I had the great fortune to repair in the days to come. Upon seeing the boards my heart almost stopped: The girls (surfboards) looked like they have been raped by the devil himself.

Summing up, there was heaps to do and Victor really kept me busy during the time.
Usually I would get up around 9:00 and work from 10:00 to 12:30, have an hour of lunch and then return to my boards until 6 in the evening.

Sadly I didn’t really get to take some pictures of me shaping the boards or maintaining the dive equipment, which is why I don’t really have anything to attach to this post, but I will hopefully (and eventually) take some and maybe insert them later.

Furthermore, the end of February was closing in fast, which meant for me, that I’d soon be Island hopping on Galapagos, go diving with my Mum and enjoy all the craziness that this wonderful spot has to offer. So let’s get packed and off we go to explore Darwin`s life´s work.

The inevitable return of the great white Chris!!!

Weeeeeheeelll, after I had such a f***** up week before, the following one would be way different. I had a few projects that I was heading towards and as the post-title already reveals, I wouldn´t be alone!

First off: business!

I had seriously considered taking the diving to a new level and to follow the path of professionalism, which means: Dive Master.

There were a few hills that would have to be climbed before reaching my goal (EFR Course, Rescue Diver, Dive Master), and so I got to it.

The Emergency First Response course is something everyone with a drivers license has already attended, in my case it was useless as it must not be older than 2 years to be accepted as basis for the Rescue Diver. The book I had to read was of course excessively Americanized and everything was explained 300 times in such a simple language that even my neighbors’’ goldfish would pass with waving flags. The video that comes with it was basically the same crap just within a 90min version. The only funny and exciting part was the practical exercise that I did with two other Rescue Diver Trainees: Michelle (the other surf-instructor and local) and Eugenio (a soon to be Dive Master from Argentina who’ll stay here until June).

With the two of them, our practical training was hilarious, as our mannequin (made of a diving west, wetsuits and some tape), “Puta” had to withstand some really severe and brutal CPR attempts by Eugenio and me. In the end, we ourselves had to be the mannequins for repositioning an unconscious person and almost didn’t get our tasks done as we were constantly afraid the other would apply the same rough CPR methods on us, as we were lying on the floor with closed eyes. All in all we still got everything covered and had a very nice afternoon together.

The following days we had some theoretical sessions with our instructor to cover the chapter reviews of the rescue diver book, which was then followed by the written exam. On a Thursday afternoon, just before my last chapter review, I was sitting in the restaurant on the opposite side of the dive shop and checking emails on my laptop, when I caught Mr. Kaiser online in the FB chat. The conversation was short but cheerful and in essence, Chris said: “I quit my job today, respectively got fired and it might be the last night you’re sleeping alone in Montanita”. I really did do expect him to show up the next day but was still a little startled when the next day around 11am a wide grinning Chris was ready to enjoy his life at the coast. The timing could not have been better, as it was the weekend of the annual Reef Classics Surf Competition that Montanita hosts every year, and the place was packed.

I unfortunately was scheduled to go diving Saturday and Sunday and feared that I would not enjoy the time with Chris as much as I could have, under different circumstances.

To clarify plans, I stepped by my dive shop and asked Beatrice, who gladly told me that the two dives had been postponed to the weekend after.

GREAT News, that screams for celebration. Chris, beer me, let’s get plastered… :D
Which, once again, we did as graceful as possible. I remember drinking a lot of beer (and of course cocktails) that day and since I had a little cold the previous days, which I had just overcome, my battery was sucked empty by 2am at night. Chris though, continued to party hardy and came to my place around 5 in the morning.

The next day, after grabbing breakfast somewhere I was surprised by a friend who works as a manager at the restaurant across the street from my shop (Hola Ola) and whom I had been helping a bit with managing the place during previous weeks. I usually was paid in free coffee, tea and little snacks, but this day she smiled widely as she approached Chris and me and told me she had gotten me a VIP ticket for the big Surf-Party-Concert-Thing at the beach that night. After telling her that Chris needs one as well, she performed absolute magic and got another VIP ticket for the Kaiser, just a few hours later.

That night was EPIC, I tell you. Two bottles of rum were captivated that night between Chris, Jana (yes, she was back in the sweet spot), Andre (a Portuguese Dude who Jana had met while traveling) and me. After this we crushed the party and somehow Jana pulled another two tickets from somewhere so the four of us were in together and had an absolute blast. I remember that Chris and I got home that night around 4 and left the Hostel again around 5 to go back to the party, as it took us only about an hour to overcome hints of tiredness…

At some point it was just inevitable to go to bed and when we again woke up around 3pm on Sunday I suffered like I haven’t before in a long time. Chris didn’t feel as bad as I did, but still had hints of “hangover” hanging across his face. He left that day for Puerto Lopez (about an hour north of here) to have another day sipping cocktails at the beach before heading back to Quito, and I headed back to bed.

The next day I passed my written exam for the Rescue Diver with waving flags (96%) and already got my study equipment for the Dive Master theory, which is even more comprehensive as it entails:

-         Dive Master Manual (written exam after)

-         Encyclopedia of diving (written exam after)

-         Instructing Cards (for practical tests)

I seriously cannot tell you how glad I’ll be when I finally get that bitch out of my life and don’t ever have to study this stuff again. So long, let the studies begin and let it be over fast, please… :-/

Of Argentineans, Bad luck, Coke Cabbies and Dope Doctors

And I can say that routine has not settled in as I feared at first!!!
One morning I woke up and there were 3 different groups of Dudes from Argentina who ran into my crib at the same time. The very same night, as I didn’t have anything to do anyways, nor anyone I could grab food with, I joined the horde and started chatting. They loved the grill that the hostel had standing in the backyard and used it for about a week to Barbie their food. That first night it was “posho” night and 15 half birds were send to hell.

For all the non-spanish speakers “posho” means “pollo” and stands for chicken. Also, the crazy Argentineans have a wide variety of words they pronounce differently which for peeps from non-spanish countries bears a nice challenge to understand what’s going on…

Anywho, aside of my work at the Surf & Dive Club and my new cooking homies from one of Argentina’s biggest student cities, there was something else happening. Right above my little room there was another certain group of Argentineans who rented the apartment and who spiced up my life significantly by making me part of their vacations 24/7, this time in a bad way, though. In the morning, they woke up early and cranked up the music, during the day they stayed home and drank and at night they preferred to get plastered on their balcony until 4 in the morning.

I on the contrary, usually went to bed around 12 because I had to get up around 7 to get to my boss’s place and prepare everything for the dives. As you can imagine these two lifestyles can’t really co-exist without one suffering and lacking sleep… In this case me…

I tried all I could, with earwax, listening to music and I don’t know what else. Even the Hostel-host Manuel and his wife Magdalena moved out because of the group and slept across the street at a friends place. Luckily for me, they stayed for only a few days and so I could get some rest after being very edgy for a solid 5 days.

After I bought my own surfboard just at the beginning of new years, I finally came to the idea that I could use my GoBandit Camera to go into the water and get some filming done. Mounting the Camera holder was no problem and the next morning I went for the early-bird surf at 7am. To be honest, this is not my favorite time of the day and as clouds were hanging low over the coast and rain was falling sideways, I didn’t expect much. Despite this shitty set up for a wake-up surf it still turned out to be the best surf session of my life: There were 2,5m barrels blasting into the bay, all breaking beautifully to the left and right, instead of the annoying close-outs that usually make waves unrideable.

So I went into the water and furthermore was rewarded with amazing footage of turtles popping out of the water next to me and pelicans almost landing on my board. Also, I got videos of the locals ripping the waves like there’s no tomorrow. Along with videos of me blasting through the barrels and duck-diving under the waves to get back into the line-up. And after 45mins of pure liquid enjoyment it happened in my last wave, on the way out. I bailed and the waves beat the shit out of me and my board. Unfortunately, it was too much pressure and so it came that the case of my camera broke and it got lost in the ocean… Summing up: best day of my life, everything on tape and the ocean takes it all away.

FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!

To cheer me up, I wanted to accompany Chris on his way to the Cotapaxi and had already planned how to get to Quito on the WE and climb that bitch Saturday morning. I was just finishing my work at Victors place, sanded the last of 3 boards I was working on and bit into a mango, when unbearable pain rushed through my face. It instantly became clear that I broke off a tooth and that I needed to get to the next proper dentist I could find around here. Victor suggested to get to Salinas, about half an hour south of Montanita, because he knew a capable Doc there. A quick call and 5 minutes later Carlos, one of Victors cabbie friends showed up and offered to take me to Salinas and back for 30 bucks. I didn’t know what to expect from locals dentists and how much it would cost, if I could pay with credit card or if I had to pay in cash.

To be fair, the dentist should have been my last worries, because as soon as Carlos and I rushed away, he stopped at the nearest gas station, coked up and blasted towards Salinas. He went 50 km/h over the speed limit and almost killed a motorcyclist along the way. I didn’t really feel comfortable in the shotgun seat but I my mind was revolving around the thought of some butcher fucking up my biters.

In Salinas the assistant yelled out of the window to get the doc from his coffee break back to work and an astonishing 15 mins later my tooth was back in place and looked like nothing ever happened. Even better, the whole operation only costed 20$, which in Germany usually will only get you into the waiting room and not further. Although I’m sure the coke kinda had already worn off when I got back down, Carlos again rushed back to Montanita at the same speed like before.

Again, I did not really get to take pictures during the time, except from one with my missing tooth. I’ll try to make it up to you next time and post some more impressions. J

Kind regards to all of you!!!!

El trabajo comienza...

Weheeeeeell, after we had some really fantastic days together getting on the piss again, it was finally time to get serious and start doing what I came here for. And since New Years also rang in the High Season in this joint, it suddenly got insanely crowded. And I´m not just saying this, I really mean it. Whereas Chris and I cosyly strolled past other people on New Years, I now had to fight my way through.
The upside of this is of course, that a lot of people want a lot of holiday experiences, such as diving and surfing.

For those who didn’t speak Spanish, I was the one to give surf classes and translate during diving classes or discovery courses (Translating here means to rephrase Victor’s explanations [= Dive Instructor] or give further information on a topic to make it easier for anyone to understand). And although there’s a shitload of latinos here, the one or the other European or Northern American came through and demanded classes in surfing or wanted to go diving.

This new kind of occupation (I mean actually working ^^) demanded a little change in habits, of course, and since we only went diving in the morning there was no room for party during the previous night. This was actually not too bad, becuz my bank account already started to suffer a little bit, despite the cheap prices here.
A little anecdote right here: Before my first dive with the team, I didn’t really sleep much and still had some buzz in my blood, which on the little boat of ours, made me seasick like I’ve never been before. The ride out to the dive spot was horrible, the first dive was even worse, and the break after was an absolute nightmare. I suffered so much and during the second dive session and I almost threw up in my regulator… So, first hand advice: rest enough and don’t drink (too much) before diving… ;-)

Concerning the surfing it was more or less the same: people came, wanted to go surfing, we met up, I explained theory and we hit the water for about 2hrs. All of my students more or less did a really good job, enjoyed their surf and got up on the board, with just enough good waves, that it made them hungry for more… I’d say: mission accomplished, another one is hooked by this beautiful sport.

Apart from that, I had two very memorable students, and both for different reasons:

The first one was a 37-year-old American called Dena who not only booked a diving course, but also 5 surf classes in advance. She spoke a little bit of Spanish, which is why my collegue Michelle (19-year-old local surf instructor) took her surfing first. Later though, Dena switched to me, cuz one day Michelle wasn’t available and someone else had to give the lesson. The memorable thing about Dena was that during 5 sessions she managed to display an absolute “dis-talent” for board-sports. In every session she got up on the board about 2 times each (with 2hrs per session) and otherwise slipped and slided around on the board and either landed on her ass or elsewhere in the water.

This not only made it hard for Michelle and me to keep our cool with her (you always need to be re-assuring and stay positive… -.-‘ ) but her own frustration also made her even more sloppy and careless with the board. So it came that Dena managed to almost kill herself by holding the big-ass board in front of her, while an even bigger-ass wave rolled in on her. The same thing happened again, but this time the waves blew the board out of her hands and into my direction. After it only missed my head by a few inches, I politely asked Dena if she had any grudge against me and made it clear, that her behavior (not paying attention and thus putting other people in danger) is one of the most common reasons for injuries among surf students. So many times, I see locals giving surf classes to like 8 people at the same time, who then go in the water and almost beat themselves to death with their boards flying around everywhere.

Anywho, so much concerning my first memorable experience. But as Dena was the bad student to remember, the second person will be kept in good memory: It was the 24-year-old soon-to-be-wife of a 27-year-old Canadian. HE wanted to take classes although he already took one class about 5 years ago and considered himself a semi-pro, and he just dragged his fiancé along. SHE didn´t like boards at all, but somehow had a hidden talent in picking up sports. Because after a few tries in the whitewater she got up on the board, like she never did anything else in her life and thus left me positively surprised and her fiancé absolutely speechless. After about half an hour she switched her big-ass beginners board to a smaller one (less bulky and easier to maneuver in the growing waves) and also killed it on this little bad boy. The result of two hours in the water were a very pissed off and intimidated soon-to-be husband, an absolutely thrilled and exhilarated soon-to-be wife and a sparkling surf instructor whom the Misses gave a 10er extra for his – and I quote - “excellent instructing skills”. :D

Well, so much concerning the days where I actually did have clients. During the other days I would fix and repair some surfboards that were lying around in my bosses basement and who’d been viciously raped by time and the countrys insane humitidy.
In between, I also celebrated a few days of being sick from a light flu. I understand that it does not sound that bad to be sick in tropical climate, but the previously mentioned humitidy here makes it impossible to just lie in bed and get well, but makes it unbearable to stay inside during midday. The only option I had was to sit at the beach with a scarf (in the shade of course) and hope for a breeze that will cool me down a bit. Eventually I got better and even got out during the evening once in a while to grab some food.

Summing up, I don’t think that there’s much more to tell, it’s like kind of a routine has settled, which worries me a bit, as I started to travel to escape and prevent myself from a routine life… We’ll see how the next days pan out, maybe some life-changing stuff will present itself… Cheerio Everybody.