Scuba Certification

 SCUBA certification was a long process, involving 20 hours of class and 10 hours of open water dive time.  But it was pretty great.  These are pictures from our open water certification weekend in Portobelo on the Caribbean coast. 

Our instructor was Manuel, a fascinating Panamanian man.  He is a US educated engineer who is a Dive Instructor on the weekends.  He was patient with us, and laughed along at some of our very stupid jokes.  And his pick-up truck held our 14 tanks, 7 sets of fins and BCDs, as well as all of the other miscellaneous gear that SCUBA diving requires. Bring on the coral reefs and gorgeous fish.