The Cold

Cabo Pulmo 191113

I spent the night dozing and waking every half hour to sneeze and blow my nose. Waking up so often I had tons of nightmares; at one point thinking the large bookshelf near the window was a huge square shouldered man looming over the bed. In the morning my handkerchief was soaked, my head was stuffed, and my throat was sore. When I finally got up and blew my nose, what looked like a chunk of banana came out of my nose.

I was feeling weak but I followed Amanda on another bird walk around the lagoon and we saw several new species.

Amanda, Kayla, and I had made dive reservations but I had to cancel. I couldn't dive without being able to clear my ears at depth so I handed over my gopro and told them to pay attention to what happened so I could write it all down later.

Before they went out to the boat, Kayla had to do a checkout dive because she hadn't dove for 8 years. This delayed their party by an hour but as their boat drove out we went out to the beach and watched as they set off.

Bull Sharks in situ 00:28 (7.0MiB)

They said before diving the captain of the boat had to radio in to the harbor master for permission to dive. Their divemaster, a man named Mechazuma (wtf) was studying bull sharks. He told them that at many resorts they feed the sharks so they will stick around for the tourists and as a result the wild bull shark population has modified their annual migration pattern to visit the big resorts instead of their natural hunting grounds. Cabo Pulmo was one of the few places where they didn't bait the sharks.

Mechazuma, when asked if they would see any sharks, said no. The reef where they hang out was closed until next week so it was a pleasant surprise when the sharks came to see them at 45'.

Back at the house I tried to recuperate, read another book, took a nap, and when Kayla and Amanda got back we all went out for tacos and beer at the La Palapa restaurant overlooking the ocean.

When asked what we wanted to drink (pacifico, the answer is pacifico) Karen told the waiter,

"I want a light beer, a light, a light beer."

"A corona?" the waiter asked.

"A light beer."

He brought her a corona light but she was disgusted.

"What's this? Less alcohol?! I meant the color should be light." (as opposed to a modelo negro).