After only a few weeks of being back in Boston, Amanda wrote me letting me know she was coming back for more diving. I couldn’t wait. I knew that we had barely touched the surface of the diving in this area on her first visit down. This trip would mean walls, wreck, and cenotes!

As time passed drawing nearer to her second arrival date, she was diving in the cold waters of the Atlantic near her home. She had written me telling of how she had done in an underwater pumpkin carving contest. Little did she know that she was experiencing the same fun I had had as a teenage kid. Me, my brother, and parents would head up to Bluewater Park in Pelham, Alabama, for this underwater pumpkin carving contest. I believe they still do it today there. But it was so much fun trying to carve a pumpkin underwater. It didn’t bother me one bit that I was knee deep in mud trying not to cut off a finger while carving my pumpkin with one of those “far too big” dive knives….I was havin’ a good ole time! Well, to say the least I could totally relate to Amanda’s new passion for diving…regardless of the conditions she was havin fun
! I also knew that between that type of diving and the diving she was and would be doing do here with me…she would become a very good diver, very quickly.

As the the date approached, Amanda had somehow recieved or purchased all her own equipment. Regulator, wetsuits, BCD…you name she had it! Good O’le Boys over at Scuba Toys hooked her up on alot of it. I was interested to see what internet-order dive equipment looked like.

Finally the day arrived. I finished off my ham sandwhich and headed over to meet Amanda at La Rana Hotel. She was supposed to be in around 1pm and we’re would be gettin’ wet by 1:30pm. The cab driver pulled up at precisely 1:10, which by Mexican standards is excellent punctuality! I helped get her checked in and showed her to her room. I left her to get settled in and went to see my buddy Jez who is the manager. Not minutes had passed and out she bounced ready to go!

We walked down to the beach where I had the boat prepped and ready to head out. As we took out and assembled her “newly broken-in” dive equipment (which was all quality stuff), we talked about some of her diving that she had done while she was away. After considering her past experience here and her more recent diving past there in colder, murkier waters, I decided to take us to Moc-che’ Wall. This is a spectacular wall dive which is the beginning shallower section of a series of three. Top of the wall in 70′ and bottoms out in sand at 90-95. The viz averages 100ft around it and gets frequent pelagic visitors.

We all did our final buddy-checks then did a back-roll into the warm, beautiful, turquoise waters of the Caribbean for another trip beneath the sea. Amanda had brought a new camera and housing, but decided not to bring it on her first dive. I whole-heartedly agreed with her, saying that having fairly new equipment out here in a completely different diving environment then what you were in…well you may not want to carry the camera too. I really just wanted to check out her diving technique and see how she had progressed in becoming a better diver. And boy was I impressed!

It was Amanda and I as dive buddies. We driftred down going with the current, letting the beams of sun rays guide us to the top of the wall. As we neared the wall, I rolled over to watch what Amanda would do now that we had sank 65′ and were just 10′ off the oceans floor and moving at a speed that was definitely crusin’. She repsonded precisely by adding air direclty to the jacket slowing then halting her descent. She tirmmed out perfect and began to approach the wall with skill. We ran just over the lip of the wall like Cessnas flying over the lip of the Grand Canyon. I went inverted, as to get another aspect of the wall. As I hung upside down and motionless letting the reef (world) drift by, I saw Amanda trying her hand at the “inverted manuever”. She found it quite easy. As we drifted together upside down watching the wall pass by, I remembered what she had said on the boat about her fins being “light”. Now I knew what she meant.

We went back upright then kicked out a bit away from the wall. After about 30 mintues of acrobatics and just plain havin’ fun, it was time to head up to the safety stop. We monitored our computers as not not to go up too fast and then leveled off at 15′. Amanda, right on cue, released the air from the BCD and leveled off on a dime! What a huge difference from the first time I had ever dove with her. She wasn’t a guppy anymore…she was just one of the dolphins now!