Scuba diving in Puerto Lopez

I am now a certified scuba diver! Last weekend I went to Puerto Lopez with two other girls from my program to complete our certifications. 

The fishing boats in the morning.

Our bus left at 8:30pm on Friday night and we arrived in Puerto Lopez at 5am. We wandered around in the partially deserted streets in the rain, darkness, and humidity along with some other tourists from France and Germany while trying to find our hostel, Villa Colombia. When we arrived at the gate we rang the bell and the owner came out to greet us. “Buenas noches” I said, but she replied, “Buenos días!" 

We woke up two and a half hours later to eat the delicious breakfast at the hostel and then meet up with the rest of the group at the scuba diving office. We did two dives each day and practiced the skills we had learned in the class and practiced earlier in a pool, such as maintaining neutral buoyancy, getting water out of our goggles, recovering our regulator, and breathing using a partner's regulator. On Sunday we took a bus back to Quito that left at 8pm and arrived in the city at 5:30am on Monday…just in time for my 8:30am class! 

Ready to jump (fall) in.

Going down for the first time.

Here I am practicing neutral buoyancy.

On the surface after a dive.

An eel.

This is the hand symbol for "I'm ok." If you do the thumbs up sign that means "I need to go up to the surface."

I loved these fish.

The group of newly certified divers in the office!