12 January 2010

Sharks are most Frightening when Swimming directly at You

Tahiti continued

The next day primarily circled around two more dives. The first was a shark dive, with dozens of 1-2m black-tip reef sharks circling around us. The largest was a 3m Lemon shark that really looked as though it could do some damage. The next was a wreck dive through an old wooden ship and a sea plane. There were tons of fish, and even a turtle appeared during our safety stop.

The night was mellower than previous, and mainly used as an opportunity to spend the remaining Francs we had accumulated.

We decided to go to the waterfalls our final morning, this time with prospects of swimming. While asking directions with a single word destination was difficult (“Uh… No Francais.”), we were able to find a bus which dropped us 5km short of the same waterfalls two days previous. Swimming was possible and spectacular, leaving only enough time to fail at changing our last few Francs in town before boarding and leaving Tahiti.



Things I’ve learned:

-The local legend of waterfalls always involves a beautiful girl, her angry father, and a gentleman caller.

-Sharks are not that bad when diving. Think about it, you are the same size as them, making tons of noise, and have bubbles everywhere. Though, sharks are frightening when swimming directly at you.

-Fish are conditioned to respond to divers waving food in little clouds. While I did not feed any, I could wave sand around to elicit the fish to come in closer. Keep the fingers in, though, while sharks are around.

-Working on a boat happens at all hours of the day and night, though this should have been obvious to me.

NOTE: I am having trouble posting pictures because of the unreliable internet on the boat. Stay tuned for some good ones though.

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