Cozumel Mexico - November 30, 2010 - La Francessa - Day 2 - Dive 4

Max depth of 70 Feet for about an hour

There were even more turtles!  Who could believe our luck?!  even though we weren't all that deep, there were gorgeous fans that were clearly very healthy and eating all that passed by them.

 

The anemones were abundant with little bubble shrimp playing hide and seek within the tentacles.  The yellowline arrowcrabs were hanging in sponges.

The angel fish were posing.

The schooling yellow fish were hiding in the coral troughs. 

 Even lobsters and crabs were out in the day time with the sun shining so bright; very unusual! 

 
Towards the end of the dive we saw a giant grouper laying on the bottom fast asleep.  Just as we were rising up to decompress at 15 ft, there were two puffer fish.

 Enjoy!

Cheri & John

Cozumel Mexico - November 30, 2010 - Palancar Caves - Day 2 - Dive 3

Max depth of 84 Feet for about an hour

It had been a long time since we had dove the swim throughs at Palancar Caves.   Even though the word caves is in the title, it's a misnomer.  This area is filled with coral pinnacles that have big gaps in them.  Advanced divers, who are good with their bouyency, can swim in and out of the gaps and often see a world rarely seen.  The insides of the tunnels are filled with a kaleidoscope of colorful corals; pinks, reds, greens, browns, oranges, and vivid yellows.  Big fish like to hide in them.  

Sometimes you can surprise a shark of a ray.

Eagle Ray!  Until you've seen one it is hard to describe the magic you feel when you do.  These are magnificent, shy creatures with 8 to 10 foot wing spans.  Their bellies are white, but their backs are black with hundreds of iridescent circles.  Their faces literally look like an eagle, hence their name.  As we came around one pinnacle there it was! When she saw us, she pulled up short and turned to retreat to the deep.  In those few seconds we all felt blessed.
 

Enjoy!

Cheri & John

Cozumel Mexico - November 29, 2010 - Day 1 Dive 2 - Dalila

Max depth of 60 Feet for about an hour

The sun was again high in the sky and the turtles were eating away.  For years we wanted to see turtles.  Invariably we'd get onto the boat only to hear that the other divers had seen them.  Well the turtle curse has now been broken for quite some time, but we had never seen turtles like these turtles!  Nearly everyone we saw was sitting on the seabed munching away with a flotilla of angel fish snacking on scraps.  They were nonplussed as we shot their image and then video taped them.

Enjoy!
Cheri & John

Cozumel Mexico - November 29, 2010 - Day 1 Dive 1 - Palancar Bricks

Max depth of 77 Feet for about an hour

The light was wonderful with sun streaming down the whole dive.  Not once was it interrupted by clouds above.   We were overwhelmed by the health of the reef.  We'd been living in London for the past two years and found it too difficult to get to Mexico.  So now were were back in the US and back to Cozumel!  In the time we'd been away, the reefs had begun to flourish. 4 years ago a massive hurricane sat and spun on the island for 36 hours.  Now it is as if the hurricane had been a master gardener, pruning away the dead reef and allowing it to become way more beautiful than it had been since the early 90s.

Enjoy!

John & Cheri

Cozumel Mexico - November 29, 2010

We always start our trips with a dinner at Coconuts!

It's been six months since we sunk into the blue and as it always is when it's been a while, there is a bit of trepidation and wonder at that first leap into the deep.  Checking all the gear, getting your head in gear, thanking God for the chance to dive and to be one with nature and that Nitrox was invented!

Then Roger is saying,"ready Cheri, ready John?". And we am.  So baby steps to the edge and splash.  I'm in! 

Feeling my ears crackle and pop.  Stopping every foot to clear them.  Wishing they would clear faster so I could be down near the coral more quickly and then a few minutes have passed and i am exploring, hunting, and finding critters I've never seen before!  Yah!  This is what I am here to do.

John and I gave up diving in groups a few years ago.  When you dive in a group, it's always a kick fest where the divers think that the more reef you cover, the better!  We on the other hand think that sitting and watching is a whole lot more fun.  Nature quickly goes back to doing what it was doing before you dropped in blowing bubbles everywhere!  So for a mere $50 a day more, we can have our own dive mast and go at our own pace.  Heaven!

This trip John is diving with 2 cameras of his own; a far cry from camera caddy!  In the early days he used to carry a spare camera for me.  That was in the days of film where you had one lens on a camera per dive. Today we have moved to small, unbelievable Canon SD 780s that fit in tiny housings. 

We both carry a 'big camera'.  Those include the camera a Canon SD 780, housing a Canon WP DC31, an Inon S2000 strobe, and a video light.  John has decided yo experiment with lighting and has outfitted a second camera that is just housed with a red filter fit into the inside.  Using the cameras custom white balance feature he is trying to create the natural look in his images.  By the end of the trip he's getting some excellent shots.

Cheri Returns to London to complete her assignment - Oct 2010

After the last week in London together, Cheri and John returned to the US together. A week later, Cheri was back in London for to complete her assignment while John stayed in the US.

The 2 weeks flew by as had the last 2 years. There were lunches at Middle Temple, dinners at various scrumptious locales, and over night stays. A big thanks to Greg and Liz for their hospitality! There were fond farewells from her mates. There was a night of photography with her photo buddies and finally there was the leaving do.

The leaving do was at Champagne Charlie's, a wine bar located in the Arches between Viller's Street and Northumberland. The party was wonderful, the gifts 'spot on', and many of Cheri's pals turned up for one last drink and one last story. Steve had a gap in his schedule and came to tip a glass and tell some stories. It's a night that Cheri won't soon forget as memories were relived and new memories were made.  The night made her realize even more, if that is possible, how special 2 years it had truly been.

There are really no goodbye's forever, just goddbye's for now. Both John and Cheri hope they see their London mates soon, but rest assured that they will forever have a place in our hearts.
John & Cheri

The last day Living Large in London - take 2

And here we are, leaving London for the last time as expats.   Even the airplane seemed reluctant to let us leave...it took an extra 40 minutes on the ground deciding whether we could leave, or not.  In the end we trundled onto the long Heathrow runway and up, up and away we've now gone.

It was a grey and blustery day in London.  Again, as if the city was saying I'm gonna be grim if you really do leave me behind.  For our last full day, we had sun and wind.  We thought a lot about this last day.  What do you do on the very last day, do you repeat favorite haunts or do you take one more exploratory venture into the unknown.  Well knowing us you might expect it was the later and you'd be right.

The Queen generously opens her working palace to the public for 2 months each year.  We were in luck, it was September 25th and Buckingham Palace was scheduled to be open until October 1st.  So after striking off for Leicester Square to try our luck for the elusive Mamma Mia, which we scored big on, but that comes later...we wound our way through the back streets finally ending up at Trafalgar Square and to the Mall.

We tried to enter a little upstream of Admiralty Arch, but we were met by a woman with a squeaking radio who informed us that the Mall was closed at the minute because filming was in progress for Johnny English 2.  Well that was something to deter our steady progress to the palace.  We scampered up Pall Mall instead until we could once again rejoin the Mall and get an eyeball on the action.  We were in luck, it was actually quite easy to get very close.  The film crew was setup with a camera truck.  The actors were down near the arch and we were at the first junction into St. James park. 

With a 400mm lens, not all that far at all.  So we stood and watched and waited.  All of the sudden the camera truck, which had a long boom camera in front, wrung into action and roared forward to where a mini went screaming around the center of the Mall in a fast U-Turn.  A police car came flying from no where and all the actors ran in.  All in all  the filming probably captured about 30 seconds of action, but it took at least 20 minutes to film.  So now that we'd seen it, we thought they will do it again.  We got positioned and sure enough they did it again!  This time we shot it.  

Once satisfied with the images we started back down the Mall to see if we could get tickets to see the State Rooms. As is often the case in Warren's World, we were in luck.  We queued up in typical British fashion and got our tickets.  We sincerely hope that the monarchy lives for ever in Britain.  There is nothing quite like it in the world and the British people are richer for having it.  Seeing the rooms where the Queen and staff work, entertain, and live was truly impressive.  It's the largest working palace in the world.

At the end of the tour your are turned loose on the Gardens where the famous garden parties take place each year.  They have a cafe set up and by this tie it was about 2:30pm. We decided to tuck in.  Ham and cheese sandwiches followed by the most scrumptious pastries we'd had in a long while.  And of course a cup of tea!

We strolled out of the gardens at a leisurely pace just enjoying the beauty of the place.  Once back onto the street we re-entered the real world.  From that tranquil setting we were destined to ruin the mood quickly by foraging at John Lewis on Oxford Street.  Crowded, packed, wall to wall people barely begins to describe Oxford street on a sunny Saturday.  We squeaked into John Lewis, grabbed the pillows we needed, and then began the long walk back to Marylebone.  Whew - made it and a nap was in order.

We quickly dressed and headed into Picadilly Circus for the long awaited performance of Mamma Mia!  We'd talked about going for the whole 2 years we'd lived in London, but hadn't made it.  So that day when we waltzed into Leiscester Square at noon, we thought we'd have little chance of procuring tickets to this often  sold out phenomenon.  Alas, our luck held and we scored row M!  As we went into the theatre that night we we're hoping for good seats, but were most impressed not only with the location, but the seats themselves. For you who often go to theatre, you know that most seats are not comfortable and there is very rarely any room for your knees.  Imagine our delight when not only was there leg room, but the seats had built in lumber support!  The performance was worth the wait and the whole audience was on it's feet for the last 3 numbers!  Joy at being alive and at having had the chance to live in this glorious city!

We finished the night with a night cap at the Albernach, a wonderful Scottish bar known for it's vast and varied whiskey offerings.  We stuck to our usual G and Ts. John had a Tanquery10 and tonic.  The Scottish waiter talked Cheri into trying a Scottish gin, Carnon.  It was yummy and comes with slices of green apple designed to bring out the apple blush highlights.  So one final perfect day was had....

Last Day in London -September 25, 2010

Hey everyone....sorry we've been silent so long! Life has been flying past and I think we've been moving much faster than the speed of light these last few months. We are way behind on our blogging. Hoping to catch up once we find some semblance of normalcy again.

Today is our last day living large in London. Bittersweet for sure! The moves are all in progress. Yes -you read it right - moves. The Albany goods made it already. From London there is both an air and a sea shipment. And whilst we are both flying home tomorrow, Cheri only stays for a week before she returns to live in the Company flat for the remaining few weeks of her assignment. Complicated for sure!

Cheri started doing two jobs on the 8th of August. Yikes! Sleep is for the weak!

So on our very last day in the city we come to love so dearly how do you choose what to do? Well we opted for something typically British...a tour of Buckingham Palace. It's only open to the public from July 27th to the 1st of October each year. We queued up like good Brits always do and got in to see 19 of Her Majesty's state rooms. Wow! There really is something about British royalty!

Tonight we will see one last show. Finally Mama Mia!! We've wanted to see if for quite some time, but kept hoping it would come to the half price ticket booth. No such luck, so we've gone for it anyway.

So with that we'll sign off from Britain and sign on back in the good ol'USA.

Cheri and John