ok, imagine walking into a haunted house. the deeper you go inside, the darker and scarier it gets. then you have a gun in your hand looking to shoot the ghost, but along with the ghosts, your mother lives there too. so you open one door carefully, then something comes straight for you!!! it’s pitch dark so you can’t figure out of it’s really a ghost, or maybe your mom. you have to let your eyes adjust for a while so you can figure out the shape to determine what it is. and it’s getting closer and closer by the second. then at that split decision, you have to either shoot it, or not to shoot it! that’s how today’s diving was. the water was dirty and dark. so dark that you can’t see 5′ in front of you. then you’re blind diving deep under water waiting in total darkness for something to appear. you see a big silhouette swimming toward you but you can’t make out the shape. is it a tuna? or is it a dolphin. you aim your gun waiting for it to get right in front of your eyes and BAM! hope you made the right choice.
if you shoot the ghost or tuna, you’re a hero. if you shoot a dolphin or your mom, you’re a zero. it was like that all day yesterday and today. you see big tunas and dolphins all over the place jumping around, then you jump in the water, dive deep, and wait in total darkness. all on one breath.

today i learned how to be very patient again. how to keep my hunting mind while holding off on a shot. i had big dolphins swim right up to my face in the dirtiest water i’ve ever dove in. yes, it scared the shit out of me. we kept on doing that all day and even though i didn’t kill anything, i enjoyed this totally different type of free diving. it could make one really frustrated, but i’m going to do my best again tomorrow as it’s the last diving day. if i get one, great. if not, it’s ok. i met some amazing people on this trip and had some great experiences with panama and mother nature. looking forward to diving tomorrow and not looking forward on trying to get a flight back to hawaii the day after as it’s getting full again. omg! but hey, life goes on…

check out Johnathan taking a look into the dark scary ocean. gosh, in hawaii, the water is sometimes dirty on the surface and gets crystal clean deeper down. but here in panama, it’s the opposite. the water is semi clear until 25′ deep, then gets dirty and dirtier the deeper you go. after you past 30′, it actually gets scary. it feels like you’re falling deeper and deeper into a black hole where visibility is only 5′ or less. and to wait 60′ underwater in the pitch dark waiting for a huge tuna to swim your way is pretty crazy when i think about it. i was waiting down deep yesterday and out of the black, a huge shadow came straight for me. i turn my gun and point it in the direction as i think it’s my dream tuna! then when it’s 3′ away and 1 second away from pulling my trigger, i see that it’s a dolphin. omg! my heart races as i turn up, and ascend from the dirty black deep sea. and i do that over and over until my head starts hurting. i’m not too confident anymore. help!

then i see a sea snake. it’s just swimming around minding it’s own business. i call Demetrias over to show it to him. we go close to it and he sticks out his gun to scare it my way. it came a foot within my face. he laughed. we came in and i told him that these are one of the most deadliest snakes in the world. if it bites you, you will die in less than 2 minutes. he wasn’t laughing after that. i was. haha. but yeah, these snakes are very dangerous but they have small mouths. it will be hard to bite you but if they get a shot between your ears, fingers, toes, or legs, you will have less than 2 minutes to say your goodbyes. hatihati!

omg, this morning was so beautiful!!!! woke up to an amazing panamanian sunrise. we knew the day was going to be awesome! so we get on the boat, drive out into the blue water, 20 minutes later, the big storm comes and some of us stay outside and get soaking wet, and some of us take cover in the front cabin.

soaking wet and camera lens fogging. can you believe the weather has been 82 degrees? and the water temperature has been 85 degrees? that is 30 degrees celsius? omg, the water feels like a japanese onesen!

the weather cleared up and we were all anxious to get into the water after the 3 hour drive.

i give Kyle a lot of credit. i know his passion is free diving but he waits patiently on standby for the moment. i use to be able to do that before, but now, it’s almost impossible. i’d rather dive. thanks Kyle for always getting the moment and for all the patience in the times we miss fish. haha. this time, Mr. D produces!

yesterday after a long day on the boat, we get back and the staff is waiting on the beach with a tray of orange juice. i was so dehydrated and thirsty so i grab one, take the biggest sip, and instantly my body started to tingle. it happened to be a maitai filled with rum. omg!

then today, the same thing and even though we knew it was a maitai, it was all good! a great way to finish off a day!
yesterday we saw over a thousand dolphins but today we only seen a few hundred. shucks. haha. mother nature at it’s finest!