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Do and Go and See NOW

July 23, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

Crazy day. Today is Daniela’s birthday, and right now Felix is baking her a cake and playing some techno disco music. Where to start? First, I received an email that Rex is not doing very well and he is in the hospital. (My father-in-law). Apparently he has fallen and broken his tailbone, has a ruptured lumbar disk, and has had a somewhat difficult time cognitively. I’m very sad about it…he will go into rehab after he gets out of the hospital. I hope cortisone will work for his disc. It is troubling to watch our parents become infirm, it certainly lets us know that time is passing. I am glad he has done so much travelling in the last 5 years, he has been everywhere. None of us know when we are going to have problems, so we have to grab every moment, and I believe he has. I have always known this truth, I grew up going to the funerals of those who never made it to retirement, so I have always taken opportunities when they come my way, to travel, meet new people, experience new things. Age is creeping up, people my age have become ill, so I am going to do and go and see, before I cannot.

First dive this morning I saw a honeycombed whip tail stingray, the most dangerous ray in the world (or so I hear). Not close enough to go to the trouble for a photo, but it was big and beautiful. This was ray day….the whip tail, blue spotted rays, an electric ray, a Jenkins stingray, but no mobulas or mantas. Quite interesting animals on the second dive this afternoon: a Spanish Dancer egg case, for one thing. It looks like a gorgeous pink ribbon. The dive this afternoon was a mess: they forgot to bring my weight belt, prescription mask, and fins…. That was not the worst of it, though. We did the dive, I cannot see very well (no prescription mask), and of course I cannot push myself out of the water onto the boat, though I tried and ended up swallowing too much salt water. The reef, Salon, is only 10 minutes out of the bay, and when we return from a dive we “beach the boat”. Beaching the boat means that the driver runs at top speed ONTO THE SAND. It can be a bit harrowing, but today, I flew up out of the boat and landed in the middle, on a metal rod that runs the length of the boat. Embarrassing? Completely. I am quite sore. You know, it has to be said, I am a true walking, talking disaster zone. I am clumsy, often falling for no reason except I guess I don’t look where I am going, I am accident prone, and I cannot seem to stop these stupid incidents from happening. And yes, I spent most of my childhood in the corner, always in trouble for something. No matter where I go, these things follow me, I guess it is just part of being who I am. It ain’t easy being me!

Tomorrow we are off to Villancula and Bazaruta Archipeligo: Daniela, Ben, Suzanne, Marcel, and myself. I hear it is beautiful up there, especially around the islands….calm, warm seas, no current, hopefully a bit of a rest. I won’t have access to internet until Sunday night (as far as I know at the moment) so I will check in then. As everyone says here, cheers!

PS: Just had the big birthday celebration for Daniela. Darren (former bartender) mixed up some punch and everyone ended up playing some sort of truth telling card game (of the questions were mostly sexual in nature, and I have to say, they took it easy on me!) It was one way to get to know everyone!

A Giant Manta Ray and White Tip Shark!

July 22, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

May 16

moz 12 office honeycomb throat — Beautiful Office Honeycomb Eel

Marcel and Ben continue to work on their Advanced, and the Open Water Group passed their tests so they are certified and working toward their Advanced Diver, well, except Melissa. She is dating the dive instructor though, so I have a feeling she will pass. They all seem to enjoy diving….if they like it here, they can dive anywhere. It is lovely to hear them all talking about their dives, so excited by everything! I love it.

Today we all circulated and signed petitions regarding the massacre of sharks and rays yesterday. The Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna is rushing them to Maputo (the capitol) tonight. Most of the fishermen here have small rowboats, but this was a much larger, motorized boat. They have been told to fish 3 kilometers from shore, but they were in the bay. Even so, it is not illegal here, hopefully it soon will be. Darren, the marine biologist from the Seychelles, filmed it and there are many photos of the event. Let’s hope the government will understand that tourists are here to see these animals in the ocean, not being butchered on the beach. Rumor has it there is a Chinese mystery man in Maputo who pays top dollar for shark fins….some of the local guys who work in the dive industry are trying to find out his name.

I feel as though I have been here much longer than 10 days. I have become much stronger physically as the hills and treacherous stairs to the beach are unavoidable. It has been good for me. I have been diving every day since Friday, and I’ve done 3 ocean safaris. Launching the boat is no picnic, either, everything here involves physical exertion. I’ve started to know the scientists and divers….grad students, research assistants, biologists, they are all doing awesome work. I usually dive and safari with Ben and Marcel, and Darren is on every ocean safari as he is here from the Seychelles to measure and film Whale Sharks. Not much luck for him yet!

There have been few sightings in the last couple of months, and I sense a little concern. Great news filtered in today: a Humpback Whale was sighted off of Barra (one of the points of the bay)! I would love to see one. They come here to breed in late May, early June, so I may get lucky. I am also posting a photo of Marcel doing his laundry, and yes, I have to hand wash my clothes, too. A first for me.

I am very glad I decided to do this trip, and I hope it will be the first of many. I am diving in the morning and again in the afternoon, Friday morning a group of us leave for Bazaruto, a chain of island off of Villancula….it is said to be beautiful and serene, with incredible snorkeling. I am looking forward to it.

Dive Issues continue in Tofo

July 20, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

May 13

Still having issues with the diving here. I feel like a complete idiot. It is not very buoyant here….and I am over-weighted, so I slammed into a few things….not a good thing to do on a reef. Shit! I have felt bad about it today…I have not adjusted to the diving in Tofo…it is true that the conditions are not easy, though the sea was very friendly today. Sometimes I feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew (so to speak), but I am managing. I cannot heave myself into the zodiac from the water, and I hate that. I have had two back surgeries, and in 2000 my lower spine was basically rebuilt, and I am able to do activities now that I could not do for years, but I can feel the weakness of my left leg pretty keenly at times. Tofo is a young town,one and although back surgery is not an age thing, I do not want to be so far below their abilities that I stand out any more than I have to. The 20s and 30s crowd is big here, mostly English or Australian, and they are dressed like the surfers in SoCal.

The native population here is altogether different. Mozambique suffered through years of civil war and the atrocities were numerous. Most live on the coast, or near the coast, as the interior of Mozambique is still landmined. In a country where subsistence can be difficult, one doesn’t run into educated individuals, or those who care at all about the environment or sustainability. There are no doctors in town, no one to help if you fall ill. People here have a low life expectancy, in the 40s for men, 50s for women, so you don’t see old people very much.

On a happy note, I swam with a Giant Manta Ray today! So, so beautiful! I also saw my first frogfish. They are absolutely marvelous! Now that I have seen one, maybe I’ll be able to spot one in Cozumel. Saw a loggerhead turtle today, a crocodile fish (freaky!), tons of seastars of all different colors and sizes, 4 gigantic lionfish swimming around…..a very cool dive if I could figure out how not to over inflate my BCD (dive jacket) and could maintain some buoyancy. I am very pissed at myself as I am sure you can tell. I did take my Dramamine today and had no seasickness. After the dive I had a bite to eat at Albatroz, a restaurant just up the hill from the house. They have coke with ice. Ahhhh. You have no idea how good a coke with ice can taste here! I took a nice long walk along the beach, did a bit of yoga, and now I am at the house, very tired. Tomorrow I learn to identify whale sharks on the database, do an ocean safari, and then dive. This coming weekend I am going on a trip to the Bazaruto Archipeligo with some of my house mates.

My first dive in Mozambique

July 18, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

May 11

Today was my first dive. It was a completely different experience than I’ve ever had before. I fought terrible seasickness, for one thing. Apparently, the med I am taking for malaria preventative causes seasickness. Must take dramamine. Here is how it goes here with Peri Peri divers: from the dive shop you go down the “stairs of death” to the beach where the boat is being backed into the water by a Tracker. Everyone gets on the sides of the boat and pushes it out (it is a zodiac, but large). The women jump into the boat first, then the men, then you battle the waves to get off of the beach. The water is really pretty calm right now, but it is a bitch to get out of the wave line. Once out of the wave line it is open sea, and it is “yeehaw, ride ‘em cowboy”. I appreciate the zodiac, if it was a hard boat my spine would be in shards. We looked for whale sharks on the way out, no luck, and got to Manta Reef in 30 minutes or so.

I now know the “protocol” for diving here in Tofo. Weight belt first (I was overweighted for the first few dives), fins, tank (they put the tank on me, but holding it up was totally uncomfortable), mask, and negative entry. What is a negative entry? All air out of the BCD, roll back and just keep going. So, I had a few technical difficulties. First, the camera I had set up perfectly was suddenly set completely differently. I think someone opened the housing to look at the camera and in the process shut the flash trigger. So, there I am, at 20 metres, with no flash or strobe. The visibility was poor by Cozumel standards, probably 10 meters or so, 30 feet. The water is full of plankton and huge jellyfish, yes, the jellies from Finding Nemo. BUT. OMG, there is so much on the reef! The fish look like they’ve been on steroids! The trumpetfish are big and fat, I took photos of a scorpionfish twice the size of the scorpionfish on Cozumel. I saw a purple spotted eel, a four legged starfish, and then things started going wrong. I’m diving, checked my air and I had 150 bar. my jacket is overinflated, and I have 50 bar. Obviously, technical problems. So, I basically became completely nervous that I was running very low on air, and I didn’t want everyone to have to come up with me. I popped up without a safety stop, and that is never a good thing. When the dive master asked me why no stop, I said I was shaky from low sugar…not wanting to admit I ran out of air. I paid a price for that later on in the trip.

Waiting for the boat I really felt ill. To get back on the boat the skipper has to pull you up out of the water (or he has to pull me out of the water, most of them are strong enough to get themselves back on the zodiac, dammit, so humiliating). By the end of this trip my shoulders are going to be completely pulled out of joint.

Everyone got back from the dive, and off we went to look for whale sharks again. We found dolphins, and a Giant Manta ray. The manta was absolutely beautiful, just under the top of the water. Of course my camera was put away, but I have plenty of time to photograph mantas (I hope). One of the divers, a woman from Singapore, was very seasick and spent the ride back getting sick and being completely miserable. Tomorrow I dive again, and I must remember to take my Dramamine!

I just finished a game of Uno with the group, they are now playing spoons, of all things! I grew up playing spoons on Christmas Eves on Freeport with my family….they are having a great time with it. I took a video of them playing, I’ll post it in a day or two. They are an enthusiastic crew! Pieter, our young man from the Netherlands, is absent, as usual…he has a girl he is interested in who is at Fatimas, a bar and hotel on the beach. Most of us are here in the house tonight, four of us are diving tomorrow. 630 a.m. comes early.

I enjoyed a nice lunch at Albatross today, it is just a short walk up the hill (everything is up a hill or down a hill here….mostly up). The Mozambiquens are so very nice and polite, they always have a smile on their face. Tonight, Patty from San Francisco fixed a lovely corn and potato chowder, followed by flambe pineapples with rum. Wonderful meal.

I am off to bed, hopefully my dive tomorrow will be wonderful.

Mozambique fellow volunteers visit!

July 17, 2013 By Tam Warner 3 Comments

Felix, one of the young men I volunteered with in Mozambique, has come to visit me in Cozumel! He is traveling Mexico with 3 of his friends from Oxford University. Felix is now an Oxford graduate! Time for real life….but not quite yet.

He arrived yesterday and we did a long snorkel from my backyard over to Chankanaab. I wanted to show Felix the dolphins and check up on the nurse sharks. The dolphins were so interested in us! After an entire day of performing for people, they seemed very interested to see us through the fence. There were 6 or 7 of them who really checked us out and followed us as we snorkeled. They were so beautiful…smooth and serene. And best of all, the cross fences which seemed to “pen” or corral the nurse sharks were totally gone! So were the sharks, although they had been around earlier in the day when my friend Lyn and her group snorkeled over there. Maybe we will see them tomorrow!

Today we dove Columbia Deeps, one of the southern reef systems in Cozumel, with towers of coral, very beautiful. Not much in the way of fish, but when one hasn’t seen coral like that, it is breathtaking. We then went to an area known as “Cielo”, a shallow aquamarine area filled with starfish. I didn’t see many today, but my friend Lyn went later in the afternoon and her group saw plenty of them! After our surface interval we dove Punta Palancar, the very start of Palancar Reef, made famous by Jacques Cousteau. It was absolutely crystal clear, and filled with fish, turtles, and a hunting green moray accompanied by a Grouper! I actually took a short video of the eel, which I will try to post. I’m not sure I can, but I will try.

We dove with an older couple (70s) and their granddaughter, delightful people, but after the first dive the older man had a rough time of it and stayed out the second dive. I was worried when we surfaced from our deep dive as they seemed to be struggling. All turned out well.

Tonight Randy and I were treated to a delicious meal, Felix cooked for us. He even made his own tortillas! While in Mozambique I stayed way out of the kitchen….I was absolutely floored by the culinary abilities of Felix and Patty, a woman from San Francisco who flambeed pineapple….incredibly wonderful. Since I have trouble making toast, I kept a very low profile in the kitchen. Tonight we enjoyed shrimp tortillas with guacamole and Mexican potatoes…Felix found a recipe and off we went to Mega, the grocery. Excellent meal, Felix even bought us Mexican white wine. Delicious!

It seems a funny thing, really, to consider that Felix is the same age as my son and his friends, and yet the experience in Tofo bound several of us together regardless of age. Tomorrow Marcel (Switzerland) and Dani (Munich) will join Felix (Cambridge, UK) and I (USA, originally from Ohio) here in Cozumel. We have a night dive scheduled for tomorrow night, their first! I will be sure to tell you all about it!

Ocean Safari in Mozambique

July 12, 2013 By Tam Warner 1 Comment

Ocean Safari may10

Marcel, Ben, Pieter and I went on our first ocean safari today…sadly, no whale sharks. But I did see my first ever Hammerhead shark and Black Fin Reef shark. We also encountered two pods of dolphins, both bottlenose and humpback dolphins. I was not in good position to take photos of anything. The water is full of plankton, so in order to get a good photo you’d need to be within 6 feet, I think. It was my first time in a zodiac (a sort of rubber boat), well not the very first time, the first one was when we went to look at elephant seals in Great White Shark infested waters, so obviously the goal was to stay IN the boat. Getting in and out of a zodiac has its challenges. Also there are no piers here, so the boat has to be driven to the beach, pushed into the water by the passengers of the boat, you then jump into the boat and ride over the waves to get out of the bay. An adventure, for sure! There were twelve people on the boat, so you can imagine the rush to get into the water. I went in twice but quickly decided it was too many people to get close to the animals anyway.

I sat out a couple of times, waiting for the whale sharks who never appeared. The energy it takes to roll off the boat, swim in the swells, then get back in the boat is enormous. Fortunately for my sugar levels I took a peanut butter sandwich with me. And yes, you are allowed to dive with diabetes, as long as you have it under control. I have it under control.

The area where the whale sharks feed is a four kilometer stretch just outside the bay, quite different from the 22 miles plus you have to go from Cancun or Holbox. The dive sites aren’t far off either. I am diving in the morning, at Manta Reef (MANTA RAYS!) and the “Office”. The fish are so differently marked and colored here, I cannot wait to start taking photos. There are a couple of dragon eels on the Office, I hear, and I’d love to photograph them!

Our coordinators, Ross and Katie, are back now, apparently Mozambique’s border guards are a bit power hungry and love to refuse visas to people. They had to go to South Africa in order to get a Mozambique visa! Crazy, right? They are both very likeable. I’ve spent part of the day learning how to put data into the fish databases, and I took my fish test this morning (I passed). So…ready for surveys.

There is another young man I’d like Ally to meet: Darren, a whale shark researcher from the Seychelles. Lovely young man. His passion in life is whale sharks, and he even has whale shark tattoos. Crazy!

I have settled in. Ages in the house range from 21 to 52, most in their 20s but a few in their 30s and one woman in her forties. I love Tofo….it is so beautiful. From the boat today I saw areas outside our bay, cliffs and huge sand dunes, beautiful homes high on the hills. One area is powered by a wind turbine. If you want to buy in Mozambique, do it now, I predict you’ll triple your money in 5-10 years. The town is filled with Aussies and South Africans, the research base at Casa Barry is a major hot spot. Scientists and interns and volunteers are everywhere. I’ve seen several tourists, none American so far.

I highly recommend Tofo to the mid-life crisis crowd, I am so glad I came. I am on my own, away from everything familiar, and I feel energized by the freedom I am experiencing. I love my family with every cell in my body, but you know we all play roles during our lives…I have always been someone’s daughter, sister, mother, spouse; taking responsibility and putting everyone’s needs ahead of my own. It is refreshing to just answer to myself, to do what I want to do when I want to do it, without taking care of anyone or being fearful of hurting someone’s feelings. The people here just accept me and make no demands. Maybe we all need an experience like this at some point in our lives. It is giving me space that I have never felt before. I am resolved to enjoy every opportunity. Tonight is a talk on sea turtles at Casa Barry, I plan to go over an hour early and have a nice dinner. The volunteer house is not a culinary delight! I’m already sick of pasta.

travels with tam

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