Certified- who us?

So here we are four years of living in Belize and then there was a year of living in the Cayman Island and still not certified! Well not for long as after a silly bet with a certified owner called Racquel Phillips I had to do it sooner than later so as slow season is here it seemed the perfect time to kill two birds with one stone.
Luckily for me Olivia from our dive shop at Banyan Bay Bottom Time also wanted to get herself certified as did Victor who works in the Bottom Time in town so it all worked out that on this lovely Thursday morning we all donned wetsuits and got down in there with the underworld that we have heard so much about.
Another person that I have been hearing about for years is our instructor Mr Silvin, as you can see from all the smiles below he is not only knowledgeable but very entertaining too.
Check out those smiles and bright faces not knowing the hard work that was to come.

Here he is Mr Silvin himself having no idea what a handful he had with us two on board.

Victor was on board waiting for us and happy to pose at the start of our first day.
Ok so far so good all on the boat and still smiling and not a shark in sight!
After alot of talking (on Silvins part not mine for a change!) we were ready to put some things in practice like getting our equipment ready. Smiling as we all have plenty of air in our tanks, I wonder if you can talk under water? This may be a harder challenge than I first thought!
Bye bye Eli off we go and hopefully we will all see you later on this afternoon.

One very happy Shazza with an equally happy Silvin as he was so hungary and needed to get home for some lunch. Those of us being healthy and super keen just wanted to keep on going therefore we didn't get back until 3pm.

All good and knowing much more than we did a few hours ago, day one over apart from the homework we were all set. We have a dvd to watch and a book to read and a test tomorrow, it is like being back at school.
Umm thanks to Eli for wanting this natural shot of Olivia and myself walking down the dock of Grand Colony, do not check out the hair as it is scary!

The hard work is still not over as after all that you still have to wash your gear out! I was happy to keep the suit on as it would save some effort for tomorrow, Olivia still smiling and giving it 9/10 for the day. I went from a 6 to a 7 but we still have two days to go to get my score up there. I have to say that once you get the hang of breathing etc and start looking around you there are some spectacular sights down there to see and I look forward to all the new things we will experience. Fingers crossed that all goes well and by Sunday we will be 3 new divers in Belize.