One of our differences has been frustrating for both of us; the fact that I am not a swimmer neither a diver has been like a poisonous Lionfish sting. She has always been sad that I could not share her moments.

Lionfish

Maiku decided to go diving when we were in outstanding Aqaba, where diving sounded like the national sport of the town, and every visitor has to experience the Red Sea and its marvelous creatures – the sea life is just outstanding.

As a very young Sasi, I had an awful experience with the water that created a bit of phobia of water but, during this trip, I surely became more and more defying my fears since we are spending so much time in coastal areas.

When you fear something, you have to fight it to get over it, that was the simple theory of human nature, and seeing Maiku having all these wonderful experiences and hearing her stories of the colored fishes and the sea life down there, we decided to take the risk and go snorkel with her hand in hand.

Snorkeling requires some knowledge of swimming you would say, but thanks God for the 2 main things that helped me discover the underwater heaven: the innovation of the century – yellow, blue and green striped life jacket – and having the reef so close to the shore, and we simply did it…

Maiku’s patience is one of her virtues, she isn’t the person that is going to let you be a wimp and give place to your fears, in fact she pushes you hard and she is good at that but, after talking in Aqaba with few professional divers, we came to the conclusion that a close person that you will give you the feeling of trust is not the perfect match to teach you swimming. So we decided to wait for our next destinations after Egypt; maybe we will find a good swimming instructor.

Thinking now that even though I went through some terrifying moments when I went into the deeper water and when I didn’t feel my balance, I still managed to get going and discover this beautiful underworld and it felt so good afterward.

This underworld where all seemed like if you were in heaven, it was a different world, a different planet or even a different galaxy for me, all what blue, colored, black and then clear.

The colors of this place, the beauty of it, the sea-urchins hiding under the corals and the jeweled-color fish swimming, and the small tiny fish here and there and the corals and there is so many more that I had no clue that they existed below there. The overall experience was a pure joy!

Snorkeling became one of my most beautiful experiences during this trip, a hard task for a non-swimmer, a defying one and a life changing experience in my case, at least mentally.

My post today is dedicated to the memory of the old Sasi who never dared to get even in the water, the Sasi that was terribly scared of the water. An accomplishment is that today I am much more trusting the water, I am much more willing to be part of that experience of seeing the sea life, but – don’t ask me to dive, I am a still bit paranoid about that!

Sasi, a fan of the Red Sea life.

The Big Blue

Red Fish

Maiku is very sorry about the bad quality of the photos. Borrowed film camera and Egyptian photo print shop is a dreadful combination. Cheap underwater camera for sale, anyone?