I heard Burning Bush being compared to a small Burning Man at least 20 times. In some ways it was, but not really. I love Burning Man for the harsh environment, the 50,000+ people, and the intensity of 24-hour visual, auditory and mental stimulation. Burning Bush did not have any of this going for it. The day was warm and the evening was mild – nothing of any extreme. There was about 1000 people – a fairly moderate sized party. And the music stopped at 2am – early for most music events. What Burning Bush did have going for it was sheer lawlessness. Around the perimeter were massive black powder and gasoline explosions forming giant mushroom clouds. Closer in was a ring of pterodactyl-like birds made from what looked like drift wood and whale bones – these were all interactive art pieces that you could climb into and make fly. They also shot fire from the beaks. There were people walking around with flame throwers setting wood piles and random cacti on fire, and 4-wheelers speeding through fire and jumping off the surrounding dunes. My all time favorite art piece of the night was a dome located right next to the stage. It expelled propane and fire, making intense scales of flame that morphed and changed as you lay underneath it. It mesmerized whole crowds with the chaos and movement of the fire. There are few things in life better than being completely absorbed in visual stimulation while listening to Drew playing mind-blowing techno until you can’t stand it anymore and you just have to get up and dance.

I may be overselling it a little, but honestly, when you consider the beautiful art, unpredictable fires, and magnificent explosions and then add in the can’t-help-but-dance techno that Drew was playing, I have to put it into the category of “great parties”. I’m so happy that I was able to share such a fun night with our friends Mike, Nia and Dan. If you want to hear about it from someone else, Nia wrote a great description of Burning Bush over at her blog Uncensored Restraint.

This story starts back in early 2011. Drew and I traveled to a small island named Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico for a close friend’s wedding. While there we decided to try a PADI Discover course. You don’t have to be certified, you just go down to a max of 40 feet and pass a few skill tests like filling your goggles with water then purging them and removing the regulator from your mouth and replacing it. After you do the simple tests then you get to go diving for about an hour. It seemed like a fantastic idea. I was not much of a swimmer but I had absolutely no fear of the water. We immediately signed up.

When we arrived out to the spot we would dive from, the instructor went through the skill tests we would be required to do once we were on the bottom. I was excited and feeling fine. Next step, descend 20 feet and start the skill tests. Still fine. Watch Drew complete the tests. Still fine. My turn…and nothing. I thought as hard as I could about moving my hand up to my face and removing my breathing apparatus. Nothing. I try a few more times, getting more and more worked up each time, but still nothing. My body would not let me remove my regulator. The instructor even tried to play tic tac toe with me to divert my attention from the panic that was obviously welling up inside of me. Finally I gave up, returned to the surface and Drew went back out with the instructor. We validated my failure with the fact that I had not been in the ocean in a while and I was just feeling nervous. It seemed reasonable to me.

Now, almost 2 years later, we decide to give it another go. This time with the full SSI Open Water Certification. This requires several days of classroom training, a day of pool training, an open water ocean skill test series, and one recreational dive. The classroom training and written test went fabulously. The pool training was cold, and I was a little nervous, but we were both able to complete all the skill tests in the pool without much problem. Then came the open ocean part. I felt nervous but confident as we arrived by boat out to the test site just about 30 minutes from where Tie Fighter is anchored. It is also the same place that we went last year to swim with the whale sharks. Drew entered the water first while I readied my equipment. Then it was my turn. I flipped back into the water just as directed, floated to the top and immediately threw myself into a full panic attack, hyperventilation and all. I wasn’t even underwater at this point – just bobbing on the surface with my BCD fully inflated. I tried for about 5 minutes to calm myself down but once the waves started throwing me against the side of the boat it was all over. I burst into tears and dragged myself back into the boat. It was not my proudest moment. I have never experienced this kind of irrational fear in my whole life. It was completely foreign and all I could feel was disappointment in myself and a determination to NEVER try scuba diving again.

I took some deep breaths, about an hour’s worth to be exact, and decided that I had to do this. I could not fail – and that was it. I went back into the water, immediately descended with the instructor and made it through my skill tests with no fear at all. I even had trouble with my BCD at one point when it would not deflate properly and the instructor had to manually deflate it. The only part that caught me off guard was the final test. It was the emergency ascent. You have to kick straight up as fast as you can while breathing out the whole time. It is supposed to mimic running out of air. I was ready for all this. What I wasn’t ready for was that the instructor was actually going to turn my air off while I was at the bottom of the ocean. It took me a few seconds sitting down there trying to suck air through nothingness before I shot up into a standing position and blasted to the surface. Drew surfaced a few moments later and that was it. We both passed our tests, albeit one of us with grace and ease and the other with shaking, crying, and blue lips – but nothing says you have to be pretty, you just have to do it.

]]> http://www.thenomadist.com/2013/01/22/scuba-certification-in-la-paz-mexico/feed/ 2 http://www.thenomadist.com/2013/01/11/whale-whatching-in-bahia-magdalena/ http://www.thenomadist.com/2013/01/11/whale-whatching-in-bahia-magdalena/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:15:57 +0000 admin http://www.thenomadist.com/?p=1771 We were so excited to have our friend Mr. Matthew Trentacoste visiting us for the week. We had grand plans of adventure and excitement. We had grand plans that is until we both got sick – not at the same time, but even worse, one after the other. Drew spent the first half of the week in bed with a 102F fever and I followed it up nicely with my own version of the same flu. Just as we were getting better and ready to take off sailing, in came the bad weather and the port captain closed the port to small vessels.

With only a couple of days left to spend with our friend, we decided to take a rental car and head to the other side of the peninsula for some whale watching at Bahia Magdalena. We figured it would be nice to get away and hopefully see some whales along the coast. When we got to the hotel we found that it would only be about $30 USD each to go out on an actual tour, so we decided to jump on. We were warned ahead of time that seeing whales is not guaranteed since it is early in the season – if we were to come back in February we would likely get to touch whales since it is a birthing ground and pregnant and new whale moms like to follow the boats and get attention from tourists. Although we did not get to touch any whales, we were able to see several large grey whales fairly close up. The tour also took us to see some sea lions, an old Japanese whale processing plant and some beautiful white sand dunes. All in all, the week could have definitely gone better, but having Matt in town was fantastic and the mini-road trip was a really nice end to the visit.

Proof that we did *actually* see whales:

And Drew flipping gracefully onto the sand dunes:

We traveled to Todos Santos by bus – a short 3 hour ride from La Paz. Upon arrival we had no room reservations, so we wandered through town, stumbling across a lovely little boutique hotel called Posada Del Molino where we spent the next two days. It turns out that Todos Santos is an adorable little art town filled with all the kitschy Mexico art that I have seen (and unabashedly loved) my whole life. It is an undeniably cute town, and very peaceful, but definitely on the expensive side, especially for food and drinks. A 12 peso ($1 usd) taco in La Paz is suddenly 30 pesos ($2.50 usd) in Todos Santos, and a jalapeno margarita at the Hotel California will set you back 90 pesos, but I won’t lie, that was the best margarita I’ve ever had in my life. By the end of day one Drew had already grown tired of wandering the same few streets, and honestly, by day two I felt the same. We decided to move on to the next phase of our adventure – surfing!

It turns out that National Geographic is mostly wrong. The good surfing is not in Todos Santos, but actually in the nearby town of El Pescadero. We checked around and it seemed like the Pescadero Surf Camp was the way to go. They had rooms and surf lessons and got really good reviews. We called ahead to make sure there would be space for us – the owner, Jamie, informed us that they had a room for us that night and could probably sort out something for the rest of the week. It turned out to be a lot of moving around over the next week (4 different rooms for 5 nights) including one night of dragging a mattress into the office and sleeping on the floor. Even with all the chaos, it was a fantastic time. We took surf lessons with the owners son, Ryan and his friend Coen, and they were wonderful teachers. They walked us through the basic process while on shore, then pulled us out into the waves and launched us time after time towards shore shouting “paddle, paddle, NOW STAND UP!”. Their genuine exuberance even after many failed attempts made it such a fun experience. Drew and I were both able to stand up several times after only one lesson and walked away feeling very proud of our baby steps in learning to surf. I couln’t have asked for a better Christmas and am now a full convert to the experience over the gift.

Yes, that is the real Hotel California from the song!

Drew serenading me with Christmas songs

The resident horse at Pescadero Surf Camp

Going on a supply run with Angelo – he rode his motorcycle down from Toronto Canada!

We spent a lovely evening around a bonfire down at a friends palapa

Heading to the beach with Coen and Ryan for our first surf lesson

Surfing involves a lot of waiting. Drinking and waiting.

Mexican blankets sold outside our favorite fish taco stand in El Pescadero

When it was too cold and cloudy to go to the beach, sitting by the pool made for a perfect substitute.

In November I took the first level “Technician Class” exam and passed with a score of 100%. Last week I leveled up and took the “General Class” exam, to my great disappointment missing 2 questions, but still passing well within the allowable 8 missed questions.

I’m quite proud of myself and am now legally allowed to touch all of the many ham related electronics scattered about the boat. I was also rewarded with a Yaesu VX-7R submersible handheld radio, courtesy of Drew!

One of the best experiences of the week had to be swimming with the sea lions at Los Islotes. Everyone told us that it was not to be missed. Everyone was right! There are many companies in La Paz that will take you out there, but we just took the dinghy over, tied off, and jumped in with our snorkels. The only thing to watch for is the big males – they aren’t interested in playing and if you get too close to the pups they give you a warning snort.

We also had a really fun and interesting experience with manta rays. One night Tom noticed a couple of rays circling the boat so we grabbed a flashlight to see if we could get a better look. Within a minute we had them swarming at the light. We finally figured out that the flashlight was attracting the krill that the manta rays were eating. For the next hour we just sat out on deck watching the manta rays feed at the light. It was fantastically beautiful.

The weekend came all too soon and it was time to return to La Paz and return Tom to Canada. One of the hardest things about the cruising lifestyle is leaving old friends behind, but getting the chance to share new and beautiful places with the people we love definitely starts to make up for all the goodbyes. It’s also great to see things through a fresh pair of eyes. After so long of living on the boat it’s easy to lose track of how truly exceptional my life is. Having Tom here reminded me of all the things I have to be grateful for.

My only catch of the weekend – a Mexican hound fish, apparently only good for bait.

Tom helping scrape the bottom of the dinghy

Frigatebirds – if you look closely the males have large red throat pouches that they inflate for mating

A local fishermen fileting our dinner

Tom enjoying the bow nets

Swimming with the sea lions

A particularly photogenic little lady

Sailing back to La Paz with calm seas and perfect wind

Drew wrote a beautiful post about our time together: http://disengage.ca/2012/12/rest-in-peace-alice/

Our original goal was to leave La Paz on Thursday evening after completing a few final tasks. At the last minute Drew was offered the opportunity to play music at a local spot, The Shack, so we decided to leave early on Friday instead.

We didn’t have any specific plan for where we were heading other than “north”. Once we got under way and out of the La Paz channel we discovered two things. One, the wind was certainly not going to be any help getting us north, and two, the sea was so choppy and rough that motoring was going to be a frustrating and uncomfortable method of getting us anywhere. The decision was easy – we would pull into Isla Espiritu Santo, which was a short 3-hour motor, and try again the next day. We anchored in a little cove called Bahia Gabriela at the south end of the island.  We spent the afternoon fishing from the dinghy and deciding where we would venture to in the morning.

We made it out of the anchorage by 7am and up to Isla San Francisco by late afternoon. Upon arrival to Isla San Francisco we were immediately bombarded with tiny biting bugs, motivating us to get an early start and venture further north to Bahia Agua Verde.

On the way to Agua Verde we had beautiful calm waters, hundreds of little yellow butterflies surrounding the boat, and I caught my first fish of the trip. On the recommendation of Mary from S/V Hot Spur, we were hoping to buy some goat cheese in the nearby village but when we arrived they informed us that unfortunately the newest batch wasn’t ready.

Our final stop north was at Bahia Candeleros. It was my favorite. The bay was the most beautiful shade of blue and the beach led so gradually into the sea we could walk for what seemed like half a kilometer before entering waist-deep water.

We swam everyday and fished and finally made time to clean the bottom of the boat. We were even inspired to practice with our bows. Currently I am only able to hit the target on about 2 out of 3 shots. My bow is a 30 lb, which is just slightly over what I should be using but I am hoping by using the heavier bow I will gain strength in my arms and will ultimately be able to shoot harder. This will come in handy if I ever hope to use it for hunting.

Our time in the sea was filled with the most relaxed and beautiful days that I can remember but eventually we had to leave our little paradise. For the first time since this sailing adventure began a year ago, I wasn’t really ready to leave. I am usually the first to get stir crazy in a new anchorage, but Candeleros was still new and exciting for me. It felt peaceful and perfect.

We set sail in the early afternoon. We had a bucket full of chocolate clams waiting to be cooked for dinner but I threw my fishing lines out anyways. I ended up catching 3 big fish right in a row.. Every one of them fought so hard they nearly pulled me off the side of the boat, then promptly threw the hook and got away. Luckily I didn’t lose any lures. About 15 minutes later I hooked a 4^th fish and managed, with the help of Drew, to get it on deck. I have never tried filleting because usually I go so long between catching fish that, when I do, I want to make sure I don’t destroy the meat, but since we had all those clams waiting anyways, I decided to give it a try. I had my handy book in hand for reference (this book has taught me everything I know about fishing), and I got started. I’ll cut to the chase – I butchered the fish, and not in a good way. I was shocked at how little usable meat I got from such a big fish and I felt pretty guilty for killing an animal and then wasting so much of it. I think I will wait to try filleting again until someone with experience can walk me through it.

At the end of the day, I made fresh salsa and Drew barbequed. We ate our beautiful dinner on deck just as the sun set.

I love the sea.