Jake and January's Excellent Adventure

Exactly one month after our arrival in Mexico, January and I said a temporary farewell to our home in Akumal and hopped on the ferry over to Cozumel where we'll be for the next two weeks to celebrate my father's 75th birthday. As this first chapter of our time in Mexico comes to a close, it seemed like a good time to share a few miscellaneous photos and observations from the last month that haven't fit into previous posts.    Cairns out in the jungle near our apartment. Our morning run. The pool / my office. The Mayan Tree of Impalement and Death. What do we eat at home when we're not going out for tacos? More tacos, of course!  The resident cat at our local cafe. In the jungle, the insects are in charge. Sometimes they decide to visit you in your apartment. Grafitti on an abandoned condo in Akumal. Hugo belongs to Arja, our instructor. But he is the emotional support animal for the entire dive shop. No matter what happens, Hugo will greet you with cuddles at the end of...

January and I completed our Sidemount/Intro to Tech course and have moved on to Cavern! Hence the lack of updates for the last week.  Intro to Tech was such a great learning experience and has definitely improved my diving more than any class I've taken so far, though at times it could be a bit frustrating, particularly when I couldn't quite get my gear-laden body to move exactly the way I needed it to in the water. It's amazing how hovering at a depth of  exactly  11ft while performing a light failure drill can be so tiring. Every time I would sink down to 12ft or accidentally take too large of a breath and float up to 11ft, Arja, our instructor, would wag her finger at me as if scolding me for my poor buoyancy. But whenever I started to feel distracted or overwhelmed I'd take a timeout and spend a few seconds watching the snorkelers a few feet above us doing their goofy dog paddles around the cenote. Here I am on my final sidemount certification dive, sporting some st...

January and I began our technical dive training last week at Under the Jungle , a dive shop that specializes in cave training and exploration in the cenotes (freshwater caves) around the Riviera Maya.  Dogs and diving, what more do you need? After an initial day of set-up and gear sizing in the classroom, we headed out to Cenote Ponderosa to work on the skills and techniques that will form the foundation of our technical diving journey. We will be there 3-4 days a week for the next two'ish months (with a two week rest break to go to Cozumel). Technical dive training is the reason we came to Mexico in the first place and after all the planning and anticipation that's gone into this trip, it felt a little unreal to actually get started. It's very important that your equipment fit perfectly.  Everyone is familiar with recreational scuba diving. Mask, fins, air tank on your back, jump off the boat, see some cool fish and maybe a shark if you're lucky. Tens of thousands of ...