Hello friends and family!
As many of you know, for the past few days we have been in Zanzibar! We spent the first few days at a beach side hotel in Paje beach on the south east part of the island. Our time there was amazing and very relaxing. We spent most of the days there lounging on the beach, swimming in the beautiful turquoise water, and eating delicious food. We also finally got our fill of fresh coconuts and completed the tropical paradise. Below I have attached a picture of Dayle, Nikolle, Natalie, and I on Paje Beach.
The last morning we were there we woke up early and went swimming with dolphins! We drove to another part of the island where we were given snorkels, masks, and flippers. We then waded out and got in motor boats to drive out to the dolphins. When we got out there we were joined by about 5 other boats of tourists all looking to do the same thing. As a result, whenever the dolphins would come up to the surface, all of the boats would go over to them and everyone would jump into the water. Even still, we had some really up close interactions with some of the dolphins which was probably one of the cooler things I’ve done in my life. One of my favorite jumps into the water ended with me swimming next to one dolphin for probably about 5 minutes as he swam back and forth checking me out. The whole time I knew that he could just swim away or dive to the bottom if he wanted to, but he stuck with me anyway. I was also incredibly grateful in that moment to my parents and my camp for teaching me how to swim and allowing me to keep up with the dolphins like I did.
The next day we packed up and headed up to Stone Town. We were running late, so we dropped our bags and immediately started the scuba diving course. The course consisted of 5 different chapters of information on just about everything we need to know before we go diving. There was a lot of information about the gear, ascending, descending, and what to do if something feels wrong. The most complicated part was a card with 3 different charts that tells you how long you can stay underwater at certain depths before the nitrogen build up becomes too much. We spent a good amount of time learning how to use it and how to calculate the maximum bottom time for multiple dives.
Today we actually got in the water! We went to a pool and learned how to assemble and use all of the gear. We learned and practiced a lot of different skills which made us all feel a lot more comfortable with diving. It was a pretty incredible experience sitting down on the bottom of the pool and breathing underwater for a while. After years of fantasizing about scuba diving, I am so excited to be learning how to do it. Tomorrow we go diving in the ocean and I can’t wait!
Love,
Sarah
