When the Costa Rican National Park Service asked if I could join a group of American tourists on a cruise on a Swedish schooner to Parque Nacional Isla del Coco, I just couldn’t refuse. The Park Service always required that a representative join groups to the Island and my name came up on the list.
We set sail from Puntarenas and for a couple of weeks, I was aboard the Victoria and we travelled to Cocos Island … fully pampered by the Swedish crew and British cook.
The Americans came for scuba diving. I was not certified so I spent the first couple of days onboard while they did their dives. But on the morning of the third day the divemaster, a British man named Kevin, through the PADI scuba manual to me and said ‘study this and tomorrow I’ll take you down’.
I spent the day reading the manual and in the afternoon Kevin showed me how to set up regulator and all about timed ascents. ‘I’ve been watching you,’ Kevin said. ‘You’re not the type to panic so I reckon you’ll be find underwater.’
And I was. I joined the group on all subsequent dives and took some pics with the Nikonos underwater camera the Park Service lent me.
The Americans were having too much fun and we had plenty of food with fish being caught, so they extended they stay a few more days. And that was perfectly fine with me.
