Day 12 - Under The Sea

Today I woke up full of excitement mixed with a bag of nerves, which I realise is ridiculous but that's just me. My sister on the other hand woke up very very ill; unfortunately she'd caught the bug I had just days before the holiday and let me tell you it was not pleasant. I felt a huge pang of guilt knowing she would be spending the last days of our holiday in bed so I brought her breakfast in bed & let her read my latest edition of Vogue, before I had. I know, I am such a good person. I however had lost my appetite due to intense butterflies-in-the-stomach syndrome and headed down to the PADI centre early. As I'd already watched the training video and practiced in the pool, I just had to get kitted out and was ready to jump on the boat. It was an extremely hot day and the group had been told they wouldn't need to wear wetsuits just a t-shirt, I hadn't been informed this at the training session, so Nick lent me his t-shirt which smelt of suntan lotion and aftershave. I spent the boat ride chatting away to him and found out his mother was actually a journalist herself which gave us ever more to talk about.

The ocean was deadly still and we were all hoping that this time we would see some amazing sea creatures as the group the previous day had seen whale sharks and a three foot moray eel. Once under the water I lost all track of time and felt like I was in my own world. This time I was so relaxed I could really enjoy being in the moment and not solely concentrate on just breathing, and that's when I spotted the turtle in amongst the coral, it was nothing like seeing it in a tank at Xcaret or when snorkeling, it swam so close to us and didn't seem to mind we were there at all. Just as we were coming up to the surface we also saw a school of barracudas. I wish I could have taken an underwater camera to show my family what I had seen that day.

As we exited the boat heading back to shore, I managed to slip on a rock and severely cut the bottom of my foot, but not to worry, Nick literally swept me off my feet and carried me the rest of the way. Having his hands wrapped around me and having his bare chest pressed against my body made me completely forget about my foot, in fact I was rather glad I slipped. After clearing up the cut and getting a plaster, Nick and I went to grab lunch before heading back to our next session. This time however there was a guy filming our 'experience' which you could buy afterwards. Nick held my hand and helped me back over the rocks and helped me back into the boat, one lady smiled at us and commented on what a cute couple we were and me and Nick exchanged an awkward glance and laughed.

This time, instead of staying by Nick's side went off to explore the corals and ended up lagging behind the group and that's when I spotted a giant sting ray only about a metre or so away from me. I froze, transfixed by this huge creature so close to me and could not think how to get the groups attention but I knew Nick would turn around soon enough to check up on me, which he did and the group soon gathered around. Once back on the surface, Nick's friend, one of the scuba diving instructor's filming, said how beautiful I moved under the water, like a mermaid, which made me smile. He sat and chatted to me for the remainder of the journey and asked, very loudly if I was single, which I replied, rather loudly too, 'yes' in which he winked at Nick who gave a cheeky smile back. I had to keep reminding myself that he was already seeing someone but this proved very difficult when he was so God damn flirty. Again Nick carried me over the rocks 'so I didn't hurt my foot again' and asked if I would like to go on a free scuba dive tomorrow, which of course I agreed to straight away. Tomorrow was going to be the best last day ever.