As we headed to BCS, which is how all the hip kids call Baja California Sur (I’m pretty certain they don’t), we actually had a shopping list of underwater creatures we wanted to see, and there was supposed to be a tattoo at the outset if we saw all of them. Spoilers: we didn’t, so no tattoo. The list was composed of whale sharks, sea lions and hammerhead sharks.
I found myself in the dead of night on a plane headed to Mexico, but this time we were headed to the Pacific coast, specifically La Paz, close to the southern tip of Baja California Sur, which, thanks to a pocket dictionary (and not the interwebs) I found out imply means Baja California South, and is usually (on licence plates, businesses and such) abbreviated BCS. Next to me were two other founding members of the D&C. This was going to be a savant mix of road-trip and diving. From La Paz we would take the back roads (I assumed St Christopher would be rather busy) all the way to Cabo Pulmo and then to the Cabos, Los Cerritos (a surfing spot), Todos Santos (where the original Hotel California can still be found) and finally back to La Paz. Our layover in Mexico City was short, we would be in La Paz for breakfast. It did not work out that way.
We dove twelve times off the western shore of Cozumel island, which is not too shabby for a week’s vacation. Our departing flight was late enough to allow us to dive right up to the last full day: kick ass. Our inaugural dives were on the morning of January first and a great way to start 2017. As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, all dives were either going low and slow among the coral pillars and swimming through the various tunnels, cracks and canyons, or quickish drift dives on top of the coral formations. The current was at times quite strong, it was best to keep an eye on your buddies. Never did we circle back to the boat, instead the captains followed our bubbles. This allowed for buddy ascents, if for example someone got low on air, and not having to turn the whole group around.
Have you ever wondered where the lime in a Corona comes from? I have. I’m hugely interested in how culture evolves and what roots the various changes might have. We all have our issues right? Plus there’s only so much youtube fail videos one can watch without irretrievably loosing I.Q. (and soul) points.
There’s a legit anthropological theory that says humans went from nomad hunters and gatherers to sedentary farmers because of beer, which thus becomes responsible for the greatest shift in the history of humanity. Alcohol, which we have been producing since about 7000-5000 BC (Sept. 2018 edit, 13000 yr old “brewery” found in Israel) is also credited (along with other drugs) with the birth of art and religious thought. True that. I’m not sure I’m prepared to go that far or get drawn into a debate about the evils of the materialism that comes from a sedentary society or the origins of religious experience (booze? magic mushrooms? aliens? divine revelation?). What I can say, is that for the Diving & Chillin’ Club, the chillin’ usually involves some sort of fermentation.