Mutis
Our tiny prop plane brought us to Bahia Solano and our first stop was Mutis, the closest town to the airport. We arrived on Friday and only planned on staying there for one night. Our intention was to spend the following two weeks at a beach about 20 minutes up the coast. We found a PADI dive center in Mutis and signed up to take a 4 day course to become certified open water divers! This area is known for some of the best dive sites in the world, we were stoked…the course started Monday. We went to visit the dive center when we arrived on Friday and our plans quickly changed. Our instructor informed us that we were supposed to have completed the “online dive course” prior to the start of the class. Oops! He also told us that it would be nearly impossible to get to and from Mutis on Monday and Tuesday for the first two days of the class if we stayed at the beach up the coast. Well, ok! Glad we asked and glad we are flexible. We extended our hotel stay in Mutis through Tuesday and buckled down to studying the dive book in preparation for our class on Monday!
So here we found ourselves in this little town for 4 days. We knew this was a remote, undeveloped area but it was much more remote and undeveloped than both of us expected. Especially with its reputation as a tourist destination for some of the best fishing and diving in the world. The town is almost solely navigated by tuk tuks and motorcycles on dirt roads that are usually filled with mud and potholes because of the frequent rains – this area is also one of the rainiest regions in the world. The power also went out frequently. We realized the first time it happened that clearly it happens often. The town went dark and everyone went about turning on generators or navigating with flashlights, business as usual. And because everything they need has to be flown or boated in (no roads from big cities lead to this area), the grocery stores had empty shelves and very little variety or fresh produce. Lastly, there was no reliable drinking water or trash collection system. Drinking water was also boated or flown in and all of the town’s trash went right into the ocean. The general feeling from the people who live there is that the government has failed them and their local officials are fraught with corruption. It was pretty shocking to see and very sad after seeing how much money gets pumped into cities like Cartagena and Medellín.
All of that being said, Alex and I both agreed that the people in Mutis were by far the friendliest and most relaxed Colombians we have come across. Everyone was super welcoming and wanted to share with us what we should do while visiting. We spent our time in Mutis studying and frequented the 2 restaurants in town for pizza and tuna.
Diving School
And then Monday came – the start of our highly anticipated diving school! Day one was spent in the classroom watching a video and learning about all of the equipment and technical skills we would be applying the next day during the pool dive. Our instructor’s name was Ja, an Egyptian immigrant who took diving very seriously and was determined to make us into divers. He had a tough love drill sergeant vibe about him and he was an excellent instructor, albeit a bit intimidating.
I was excited for day 2, I wanted to breathe underwater already! We met Ja by the pool where he made us assemble and disassemble our equipment for what felt like an hour and finally we were told to suit up! We got in the shallow pool with all of our gear, went through all of the steps we had been studying for the last 4 days, and finally went under and took my first breathe! Amazing. We spent the better part of the day in the pool going through different scenarios and practicing our buoyancy. The next day would be our first ocean dive. I couldn’t wait!
We were picked up early the next morning by Ja along with an assistant dive master, the boat captain, and a boat hand. Ja gave us the rundown on the way to the dive site – what to expect at the dive site, what skills we would be practicing, etc. It was during this prep talk that I started to feel some inklings of seasickness. Uh oh. I did my best to ignore it and got ready to dive!
So we got all geared up and got into the water! What I immediately noticed was how strong the current was, way more intense than I was expecting. It really thrashed me around! The instructor kept telling us not to fight the current, just flow with it but that felt nearly impossible to me. It made me feel so out of control! The current subsided so we did some skill tests and swam around a bit. We saw several beautiful schools of fish. Alex was battling some claustrophobia and the instructor had to convince him to push through it. He also sucked down his tank of air twice as fast as everyone else, so we had to ascend after about 35 minutes underwater when normally it would be closer to an hour. That man has a big set of lungs! It immediately became clear to me that diving was way harder than we expected it to be. I honestly thought I would just plop into the ocean and putz around. Yeah right!
Ja took some underwater photos of us during our first dive and they crack me up. He captured us during some of the skills tests, e.g. swimming without our mask on, taking off our tanks at the bottom and putting it back on. It all sounded so simple, but was very challenging!
We hung out in the boat for about an hour after the first dive to allow our bodies to release enough of the dissolved nitrogen to allow us to go in for another dive. As we were suiting up for dive #2 I really started feeling nauseous. I asked the instructor what I’m supposed to do if I become sick under water and he instructed me to just barf into my regulator. Not the answer I was expecting, but ok! So we started our second dive and things were going well. Again we saw beautiful schools of fish and coral reefs and practiced getting comfortable in the water. Part of our education was learning hand signals so we can communicate underwater. Ja signaled to us and asked how much air we had left in our tanks. I had plenty, but Alex signaled that he was starting to run low. Our instructor nodded and swam on. Did he see that right, I wondered? Alex is running low on air and we should be getting ready to ascend! But I trusted this guy and we moved on. Not much later he signaled to me that Alex is out of air. I got a bit panicky! Ok…why are you telling me, help him! But he kept pointing to me and then to Alex and his plan became clear. He was purposely letting Alex run out of air so we could practice what to do in an emergency situation. Knowing it was only a drill did not make me feel any better! I shoved my extra regulator into Alex’s face and we started sharing air from my tank. We latched onto each other as we slowly ascended which was actually very challenging! We had to stay together and try not to ascend too fast as the current did its best to disorient us. The whole process really freaked me out and it was taking everything in me not to barf. When we finally reached the top, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Playing the hero was too much and I emptied the contents of my stomach into the Pacific Ocean. So embarrassing but if felt so good!
We scrambled back into the boat, both of us glad there was not a third dive for the day. We were taken back to our hostel and we couldn’t help but laugh. We were not expecting it to be such an intense experience! I was barfing and being knocked around by the current, Alex was getting claustrophobic and gobbling up his air in record time – and we had another 2 dives the next day to get certified. Why were we paying to torture ourselves?! Well there was no backing out now, we were determined to pull it through.
The next morning we both woke up full of nerves. We were picked up by the same crew from before plus a French tourist diver named Javier. I had prepped myself for this day with a healthy dose of anti-nausea medicine – I refused to go through that again! The first dive went way better than I was anticipating. Again we saw some beautiful fish and even a sting ray! Super cool.
Finally it was time for our last training dive. As the five of us reached the bottom, we immediately saw a shark! It quickly swam away, and I started to feel that sense of wonder that people talk about when diving. Then we swam closer to some rocks and coral reef and the current really started kicking in. One second I felt totally in control and at peace, the next I am being thrashed around and bounced off the massive rocks! The Pacific Ocean is a beast. I felt so out of control on this dive I thought for sure I wasn’t going to pass the class. But he passed us! I felt so relieved when we got back to our hostel…we did it!! I could hardly believe the experience was over.
As we decompressed from our certification, Alex already started talking booking another “fun dive” for the coming week. I was so exhausted from the last couple days, I could not entertain the thought of putting myself through that again. I asked him to push the thought off for a few days and we could talk about it then. In the end, he did convince me to go out one more time before we left Bahia Solano. And I was so glad we did! This dive, since it was not part of our course, was much more relaxed. There were no skills to practice and we were just able to swim around and get more comfortable in the water. Each dive got easier and easier! This final dive was definitely necessary and gave me a taste of how tranquil diving can actually be. But I think my next dive will be somewhere with a bit calmer waters.
We also asked the captain to take some photos of us during the last dive. After going through all of that, we wanted some evidence of us in all of our scuba gear 🙂
Wandering Between Meals 
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