AMY ELISE ALLEN: Mexico

Day 3 we spent in Mexico…scuba diving! Once we got off of the ship we found someone to lead us in the right direction of a scuba diving excursion. We got into a shuttle and drove over to Mr. Sancho's resort. It was really nice there. We met our scuba instructors and basically jumped right into it. I have scuba dived before but it was in high school when we took a trip to Hawaii and they walked us through it slowly and made sure we felt comfortable. This time they gave us a quick run down and then we walked down to the boat with all of our heavy gear on and drove out to the not so calm ocean. Yikes! I may have freaked out a little when he told us that we would be falling backwards off the boat with all of our heavy gear on into the deep cold ocean. (Like they do in the movies.) Once we were all in the ocean one of our instructors said, "Okay start descending three feet at a time, clearing your ears as you go." Then he was gone, under water! I had a little freak out moment thinking, "Wait! Let me make sure my gear works and I'm not going to die!" As I started going under I was breathing really fast, deep breaths, which isn't good. You lose your air faster if you don't relax. Pretty sure I was having an anxiety attack, which was crazy. I didn't freak out at all the first time I had been scuba diving. They just jumped right into it and the waves were crashing more than I would have liked them to but I stopped for a second and let myself get used to it, start breathing normal and I was good. Michael was cute too, trying to calm me down and make me feel better. My mom, dad and Michael are actually scuba certified. I was also worried about Brandon cause it was his first time. He wasn't able to clear his ears our first time down, so he had to go back up. But he made it down the second time with us after they filled the tanks with more air. :) The second time was much more enjoyable. Our first time going down it was freezing because they had just given us a shirt to wear over our swimsuit. As we descended further and further I could feel my body shaking. We got down to about 60 feet. So the second time before we went down again we were able to put on wet suits that kept us warmer. I saw a barracuda and sea turtle my first time down along with some other crazy fish but the second time we went down they took us through caves with really pretty coral and that was really pretty. Plus I got to hold hands with Brandon and share it with him. :) It's been almost 9 years since I fell in love with him. He still makes me giddy. The scuba instructors took my sd card and were able to get video of us down there! It's washed out though and doesn't show how beautiful it really is under the ocean. It was so blue and the coral was really colorful. At one point we swam off over a ledge and it just dropped down so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. We swam along the edge for a bit looking at the coral growing on the walls. My dad is so fun to watch down there. He could stay down there forever exploring just like he could fly in his airplane all day. :)

Anyway, once we took the shuttle back to the shops by the cruise ship we looked around for a little bit until we had to board. Steph ended up buying three Mexican blankets getting them down to five dollars a piece. :) The funny part is that she bought them all separately. As we walked, she would find another color that she couldn't leave without….also, she already has one at home. She's cute. I left with one as well and we made sure Brandon got some fish tacos. Wish we could have stayed there longer. Pretty sure Steph would go back just to look at sterling silver rings. We clearly didn't have enough time to shop after.