Welcome to the Madness

 If you're new here, welcome! 

My name is Tasha and this is my travel blog. 

It is not politically correct, grammatically correct, or any other form of correct-ness. Some of it is immature, some of it complains to much, some of it makes you wish you were me. But newsflash - it's not for you, fool. 

So basically my grandmother gets mad that I don't tell her about my adventures so here she can read my literal thoughts mostly as they happen. If you want to read as well, go for it but as I said it is just my thoughts written out so if you don't like it you can leave. 

If you think I have a cool life (did I mention I'm a professional mermaid?), feel free to give me a subscribe and a follow on my socials: 

@mermaidtasha on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

@tashanicole97 on Instagram and Twitter 

Thanks ya'll! 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Manta Manta

 Omg am I sore! I hurt. Bad. Everywhere. Oh whale, more fun today! 

Because I got the scuba and spa package, I only have 3 dives left, so instead of going on the morning dive I went to sunrise yoga. It was, um, interesting... it was like breathing and stretching and not really what I would consider yoga but more of a warm up for dance class. It was also really windy and the mat kept blowing everywhere and I probably won't be doing it again. I didn't want to stay for the whole thing but didn't have an excuse to leave and it would have been rude to just go. 

I went to my room and jammed out to some music until our jacuzzi/roof photoshoot at 10, with a little breakfast in between. After the photoshoot, we were still in transition so I just chilled. After lunch I got word I could trade 2 of my spas for 6 dives. A little later in the afternoon I confirmed with cruise manager, Max, so now I have 2 spas and 12 dives (was 4 spa and 6 dives). What great news! Unfortunately, I didn't get this until the afternoon dive was already heading out, but I wanted to do the mermaid shoot anyway - we were finally headed underwater! Unfortunately, due to the storms of the past few days, the visibility was just not there so we couldn't do this. I was once again worried about the time as I needed to be back by 4:45 anyways for my sunset dive. So while disappointed, I was also a little relived because they decided we would go back to the boat and hopefully do underwater off the back of the boat instead. This way I would not be so pressed for time because I would already be back on the boat. Sadly, the visibility there was no better so we still could not shoot. After changing into normal bikinis and wowing Branden with how many bathing suits we all brought, Ariane, Karina, and I went swimming off the back platform while we waited for our dive time. 

When we went down for the dive it was daytime, but when we came up it was a dark night. Underwater we observed life switching over from day to night. I saw a whitetip reef shark, eagle ray, turtle, nudibranch, and tons of banana fish. My tank was once again very low, and Katharina and Ariane fixed/lifted it underwater 3 times. It was also the reason I've been having buoyancy issues upon ascend and descend apparently. When I got back on the dive boat, the entire dive team staff looked at it until it was fixed. When I tried it out in the pool when I got it to make sure it worked, I did not put the strap on correctly and my father kept warning me it was falling and I was losing my tank but I was like "it's fine" but it was not fine and it's my fault, oopsie, but it's fixed now. Should work a lot better/easier. When we got back to the boat, people had already left for the beach braai. I was deciding if I wanted to wear what I had put on or change outfits when I heard footsteps of everyone running to the back of the boat, where the dingy that would take us to the island docks. Thinking the boat was leaving for the island, I decided I had to just wear what I was wearing and ran up. But the boat was not even back yet - instead there was a manta swimming off the boat light! Flip after flip, the young oceanic manta performed for us for hours. When the dingy got back, I took it to the beach BBQ and when we got back later that night the manta was still there, flipping for plankton. 

The beach was done up so lovely for our beach party. Tea lights lit the way from the boat to the dinner tables, and the ambience was beautiful. A beach bar was set up as well as the BBQ buffet. The shrimpers were huge, mini lobsters for sure, but they were soggy and not very good. I had a mojito but had to get up several times to have them add more simple syrup to sweeten it up. After dinner there was no beach party, but we all boarded the dingy to go back to the boat for a party on deck. 

However we still had our party crasher on the back of the boat! So instead of a deck party, we hopped in and took turns partying underwater with the manta (while keeping our distance buffer as best we could in the current). Eventually the photographers jumped in with us, and after a while I got out to change and join the no longer existent deck party. After some dancing, it was time for bed. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Mermaids and Sharks

 Hola! Buenas dias mis amigos! Una otra dia en el ScuaSpa en Maldives con las sirenas. Esta manana, me despierto a las sies para mi secunda dive! This dive was to s a shark cleaning station. (also please ignore my inccorect spellings and such as I don't know how to get accents or the upside down ! on my American keyboard) I applied the advice from yesterday and didn't have much problem getting down, yay learning! 

The vis is still ... not... Idk how to describe it, like I can see the sharkies far away-ish, but the colors are not there, but like they are but not bright like other reef dives. 

Anywhos it was a much more exciting dive than yesterday. Tons of whitetip reef sharks, even some pregnant ones, a few blacktip reef sharks, and some grey reef sharks. There were also more schools of different types of fish than I had ever seen, which was really cool. I also saw an eagle ray. In Soddie we saw eagle rays like everyday but they're on the bucket list for these people so I guess they're rarer than I thought so that was special. I didn't see a turtle but another group did. Some of our team had to go up early for air but they let the rest of us stay for longer so that was lovely. It was a good dive. 

Despues del dive, comemos breakfast then Emma did my makeup for our first photoshoot. She did amazing; I want to take her home with me and have her do my makeup all the time. I look amazing. We went to the beach for semi-dry photoshoots. I live at the beach so I wasn't excited for beach photos but these girls are from Germany and Sweden so they rarely have the opportunity for such. We were split into 2 groups because there are 2 photographers so everyone can get done quicker. I was first to go in my group and Lille was a great help with making sure I was posing right for the best picture. After Lydia and I finished, the boat was back to collect us so I felt really bad that I went first and took up the time when I have a beach at home. But the second boat back didn't come back until much later so I think they let the girls finish their shoots as well. It was also really windy so when we weren't being shot we had to help hold equipment so we didn't have any time to swim for fun or GoPro videos. The island was not that great and I hope we go to better ones throughout the week; this one is just sand, coral chunks, and trash. No greenery and kinda painful to the feet. 

My worried face! Scared the night dive would be cancelled again.

Lunchtime was when we came back, then we were supposed to do group drone shoots on a different island but the weather was not in our favor. I am going on the night dive at 5:45 so I was worried about time to get back, then I saw the clouds and was worried the dive would get cancelled again (was supposed to be yesterday but cancelled due to weather). Have no fear; it all worked out! 

It rained too hard for us to go to the island, so we did group photos on the bar instead. I was mostly okay sitting there but then when it was time to get down, my legs were weaker than after 6 hours in tail at MarlinFest. When the divers from the afternoon dive got back, it had finished raining and the sky cleared up for us to do our night dive! 

Off the jetty of a nearby resort, food is dumped nightly into the ocean. Therefore, sharks and rays know to linger at said jetty for their nightly meals. It is an active jetty so divers have to be extra careful for boats. We all took flashlights down and sat on the sand in a semicircle as we watched the sharks and rays play. Dozens of nurse sharks and probably 3 or 4 Jenkins whiprays. The nurse sharkies swam right up/past me! See, I didn't need to spend all that money to go to Bahamas to play with nurse sharks; I can just do it right here in Maldives. Oh wait, this is much, much farther than Bahamas and probably around the same price. Oh whale, at least now I finally got to hang with the nurses. When we got back, buzzing with excitement, it was dinnertime. After dinner, a nurse shark joined us on the back of the boat! I guess she just couldn't get enough of us. It was great. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

The First Dive

 Lol ya'll I am always so out of order with my posts these days. Sorry lol maybe I'll post them in order tho. 

So my resort transfer took me back to the airport to meet my ScubaSpa transfer. I knew there would already be people waiting because at least 2 of them were on QR 676which was my flight the day before, which got in around 7am. According to the group chat, these girls had blue and turquoise hair. So I walked around until I found them but there were so many people with them I thought it can't be right. I connected to the airport wifi to ask in the group where they were and it was the right group! So I pulled up a chair to join them but they were all speaking German and I felt very fumb for not knowing German when they all know English as well. But I just reminded myself that I know Spanish so if this were a group of Latinos instead it'd be a different story. But now that we are on the boat if I am near a group they all switch to English for me which is very nice. Their English is all very good. They said they were taught it since 3rd grade in school and now I am mad at the American school system where my choices were only Grench or Spanish and only for 4 years max. 

But anywhos, we got on the boat and were greeted with a fresh cloth and a coconut welcome drink. The coconuts are orange which is a bit odd I think. We confirmed our dive experience and were taken to our rooms. I got a private room, surprise, so I get to sleep nakey. We had lunch and then Katharina and I went to the Jacuzzi but to our disbelief, it was freezing! The air was also too cold and windy for us to get out. When I asked the guy if he could turn the temperature up, he just laughed at me! At the briefing we later found out it isn't a hot tub as it's only heated by the (so far non-existent) sun. Oh whale.  

After we finally braved it out of the cold tub, I went an took a hot shower to warm up. Then we got our tails and went up to the spa deck to surprise Kat when she got here. We tailed up and waved at passing boats until Kat eventually arrived and joined us for a few pictures. Then i went to get ready for dinner. We had a welcome briefing, then dinner, then I went to bed. First dive 6am. 

Speaking of dives, the Dive Manager, Branden, showed me to my room. My trauma brain is unfortunately no good at distinguishing accents anymore. Anyways, my senses are tingling about this guy. Then he's all like "your air con" and I'm like well I think the Brits and Aussies might call it air con as well? Then he's all like "see you just now" and I'm like he is South African! So then I'm like "hey, are you South African?" and he's like "yes, how'd you know?"  and I'm just like "just now". So then I tell him how I just spent 2 months in South African and he spent 2 years in Sodwana! Of course he knows Grant and Sharklife; he worked at Reef Teach. I'm feeling much more at home now with him here in a sea of Germans. Between Branden and Cruise Manager, Max, who is Canadian, English isn't looking too bad now (even tho Branden probably understands the Germans because Afrikaans, but at least Max is on my side/level). So anyways I'm like what a small world and on the other hand I'm like maybe I really am in a coma somewhere and this is all a dream because what are the actual chances there'd be someone I went to college with in Sodwana with me and someone that lived in Sodwana for 2 years on my vacation; someone please do the math for me. Yes, Maldives is a popular destination for South Africans as well but like really? C'mon. Chris wants to know his last name because Chris has been in Sodwana a really long time, like 5-7 or even 10 years, but I've haven't asked yet because I don't want to seem creepy lol, maybe he'll ask me about it when he sees me in my Coral Divers sweatshirt. 

I didn't sleep very well at night. Up every few hours. Around 2:30 was the last time I got up before finally falling asleep. I was having a very nice sleep when I was rudely awakened by my alar for my first dive. 

Waking up between 5-6 is easy when you're on holiday, or just away from home, especially when it's for a dive. Which is good because most dives are quite early. I get 6 dives this trip (I can pay for more if I'd like). So going forward I don't need to always do the early ones, but all divers needed to do this morning's early dive as it was our orientation dive. At first this made me angry and I didn't think it should count as one of our dives. I still think it would be nice of them to have given us this one for free as it was mandatory, but it was a full actual dive so I also see why it unfortunately counts as one of our dives. We had to demonstrate some basic safety skills to refresh our memories and ensure we'd know how to do them if needed, but other than that it was a normal, boring dive. Okay, maybe Sodwana did spoil me because I'm sure it probably wouldn't have been boring to a normal person, as we saw a blacktip reef shark, 5 lionfish, 2 eels, and even a triggerfish that thankfully did not attack. We were split into groups and my group only stayed down for 39 minutes when the goal was 60, which at first really upset me (especially because I had over 2000 psi left), but the groups that did stay longer didn't see the sharky and I would much rather have a shorter shark dive than a longer no-shark dive. As for the boring part, the topography was severely lacking as everything was boring neutral colors, mostly sandy bottom, just lame. But the goal was for staff to see our abilities and you don't need pretty fish for that. 

The skills we had to demonstrate were mask clearing, regulator recovery, and surface marker buoy deployment. I was actually excited/grateful to practice these skills as I know I will have to preform them at demonstration quality level for my divemaster certification in November/December. Mask clearing and regulator recovery were great as I do them all the time (well I don't need to recover my regulator all the time but like when I take it out to do bubble rings and such). I'd never really used a surface marker buoy before (for it's intended purposes) but we did use them down at Raggie Reef to bring some of the RUV equipment up so I was excited to see that I had in fact used one before and therefore knew how to do it. However I was struggling with my weights and buoyancy (when am I not? A huge concern I have about my DM course but certain Ivana can straighten me out), and when I released my SMB it brought me up to the top quicker than I'd like (not dangerously fast at all, just quicker than the rest of my team). I didn't really have any dive headache afterward like I normally do so I think I must've been coming up at a proper speed. 

This was my very first time diving in my new diving gear. I tried it in the pool to make sure everything worked properly but this was my first dive in it, as well as obviously my first dive in Maldives, so a little getting used to time is to be expected, which also made me more okay with the orientation dive being mandatory. My travel BCD has like floaty pads in it where normal BCD's have the hard plastic so I was having a hard time getting down and Max had to give me 2 extra weights. He then took them back once we were down and afterward he said the weight I started with was good because the extras made me overweight and that to get down, let out all of my air from my mouth/lungs and don't inhale until I'm down, which I didn't know that was okay to do because in my head that goes against the "don't hold your breath, always be breathing" thing but I guess since you're just starting on a long exhale it's techniqually still breathing. Later we had a presentation from Kat and she said the same thing so I'll have to try that tomorrow and hopefully it helps. 

I was really disappointed in myself for having the weight issues to get down as well as surfacing before everyone as it makes me feel like I'm not a good diver and not prepared/ready for my divemaster course, but there are bound to be some hiccups with new gear for the first dive or two and they will have me practice my skills over and over in my DM course until I am comfortable and confident, which doesn't take long once I do it a few times. In Sodwana I was helping just like the divemasters already, so it just takes a second in a new place with new gear but I know by the end of the trip I'll be back in my groove like a pro. 

The diveboats here are also huge and very different from anything I've dove from before. The boat we had on the Great Barrier Reef was similar but that was before I was a diver so I haven't had any dive experience with such a boat. Much larger than I'm used to. They also get all our gear together for us and wash it all for us afterwards. It stays on the boat (which worries me because of the rough weather but they know what they're doing so it'll be fine). The whole situation is much different than what I'm used to, so it's good to get those different experiences but an adjustment period should be expected. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be all better and they'll be like "dang what a good diver!" 

It has been storming all morning. The boat ride back from the dive was really rough and we all had to go to the front of the boat. One lady said it was just like Mozambique and I was like ha I know what you're talking about (I know I talk about Africa too much but it was just so amazing). 

Once we got back from the dive we had breakfast and a bit later we were told we were in orange alert, with winds over 55 MPH, so dives were cancelled for the day and we couldn't move the boat like was planned. Kat gave an underwater modeling/posing workshop and we had lunch. 

After lunch I went to the spa for my first (out of 4) spa "treatments". I got a body scrub. I was worried it would scrub off my tan but I guess after 7 months of sun it's pretty cooked into me. They also used a coffee scrub which coffee makes skin, hair, and teeth darker anyways. I came out feeling like a baby's bottom! I was fine relaxing when they had me on my stomach, looking at a bin of shells and feeling the boat rock. When they flipped me onto my back, my mind went on a jog... what happens next, how do I get the scrub off, etc. I can just make it at home on my own for free, good thing it was included because not worth whatever price, etc. Basically they just rub a sugar scrub all over me which I do at home all the time but okay. 

They gave me tea and peanuts on the deck after but it was ginger tea and I am to ginger like a vampire is to garlic. I tried to just hold my nose, but it's not a taste thing; it literally burns my throat and mouth. 

After spa, Kat was having a breathhold workshop but the boat was moving so it was too loud for a proper workshop so we just practiced some breathing and learned about our root chakras followed by some yin yoga. 

I can't really remember what else I did after that but for some blogging and a nap before dinner. It was a very nice nap. 

Despues de dinner I was awake thanks to my nap. We went to the back of the boat and dangled our feet in the water, watching the fish under the boat light. The smaller fish came to nibble our toes like a free fancy Asian pedicure. I guess my body scrub did the trick because I didn't get as many bites as Lille and Emma did. Even tho I wasn't too tired, my next dive was at 6am again so off to bed I went. This time I used my Carnival blanket and it made all the difference. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Summer Island

 I am already home but lucky you I've decided to make a post about what happened next at Summer Island Resort before my ScubaSpa posts are scheduled to publish. 

However I seem to have contracted some airport crud and am feeling a bit under the weather so this post will not be very detailed and I might forget some parts but oh whale at least you get something. 

So we left off with I had just taken a bath in the jacuzzi tub and was laying on the loungers to write out my blog post. After writing for a bit I went to explore the resort. As I mentioned, there are tons of activities to do on island. Unfortunately I had no time to do them as most required a sign up the day before, such as snorkeling or using the gym (which lol I wouldn't gym anyways but still).

On my wanderings, I found a nice relaxing area in the "jungle" with a wooden tree swing, some hammocks, and a place to just chill. Right around the corner from that was a little garden where I assume the staff grows herbs for the meals and medicine and such. A little around the corner the other way was the bar, pool, and main restaurant/buffet. I swung on the swing and laid out on the hammock for a bit before moving on to the pool. A real infinity pool that really went from pool to reef to ocean seamlessly just like on posters! I had never seen one in real life and I was very excited to swim in it. The weather was turning for the worse, and the pool attendant was closing the pool for the incoming storm. I spent as long as I could in the pool but my bungalow was on the other side of the resort where the storm seemed to be coming from, so soon I headed back to my bungalow. 

The bungalows on the other side of the path seemed to take the worst of the weather and block it from our bungalows. Stepping onto my lanai there was no wind and aside from the dark sky you wouldn't know the wrath that was happening just on the other side of the buildings. However the waves were still slapping quite loud on the pilings. 

For dinner I went to the fancy restaurant that was included for the over the water rooms but extra charge for the normal rooms. I got the fish and it was overcooked but that seems to be a common theme with the fish in Maldives. After I picked at it for a little bit I went back to my room and turned on the floor light to attract the fish. I laid on the floor and watched 5-6 pretty big fish swim under until my eyes were too heavy to stay open. I was hoping for a shark or ray but didn't see any. 

The next morning I woke up for the sunrise, but it was too cloudy and instead of a colorful sunrise the sky just got lighter. I had to have my bags out by 9 and check out by 9:30 so I wasted no time snorkeling around under the bungalow. When I got too cold to continue, I took another warm bath with the windows open. It was so nice that I got to breakfast later than I wanted! Breakfast was actually very good and I even had like 6 cups of hot tea. I had too much tea to make it back to the pool before I had to head back to my bungalow to make sure my suitcases were out on time. 

I walked along the beach on the way back instead of along the path I had taken the day before and earlier that morning. Via the beach I found an in-water hammock that would have also been nice to lounge on for a bit! If I were to do it again, I would have put my resort stay after my liveaboard and stayed for 2-3 days so I could do more activities and get my tail wet with enough time to dry it out before the flight. 

My bags were picked up, I checked out, and was back on the speedboat to take me back to the airport before I knew it. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Morning in Maldives

 Oy. What a rough start to get here. Enhanced by my mood of no sleep in like 36 hours (25 since leaving Dulles, which was at 9pm and I had been up since about 7:30am with the dog). 

I didn't really know what to expect in terms of the airport. I was expecting a tiny little island airport but we had a huge plane and flight and I knew there were others so the airport had to be big enough to accommodate, so maybe I should be expecting a larger international airport? It was the former. We landed, disembarked, and boarded the bus to take us to the terminal. I was proud of my balance as the bus turned, although there was an empty seat near me if I needed it. At the terminal, you're immediately at passport control. Ran into some minor issues here that I'm not going to get into on my blog. Made it through. Luggage took forever - I think that's the slowest and smallest carousel I've seen. But carts were free so thankfully I didn't have to carry my four bags. 

My confirmation email said the resort I'm at for the night before my liveaboard has their own counter. Still, I look around at the loads of people with signs in case any have my name or resort. Tomorrow they will have a sign for me. Today I go to the counter and the guy says he will show me where I can wait because we are still waiting on two more. He is in a teal blue shirt and it seems everyone else but a few are in white shirts but that's all I recognize of him. When I get outside I take off my sweatshirt, switch my glasses for sunglasses, and put my hair up. I worry we will not be able to recognize each other so I watch for Summer Island Resort luggage tags on every couple that comes past me. But I worry for nothing as he quickly finds me when it's time to go. 

We take a boat to get to the resort. The water is very rough and the window covers are all on because the sea spray is so high from the rough seas. The ride is 45 minutes. I have a hard time staying awake.

Based upon the fancy luggage tags (that are actually very useful and not very fancy at all in terms of functionality) and the guys on the boat are wearing the same white shirts we used to wear, I am expecting Sandals quality resort, with at least a fresh cloth and welcome drink. While the walk up to the reception was a bit rustic, my fresh cloth and welcome drink were waiting for me right on cue. They also have WiFi throughout the resort which is v swanky and there are different all inclusive (half or full) packages I could have purchased to make meals and drinks free (or a la carte). They also have free daily snorkeling excursions (that you have to sign up for at least 1 day in advance, boo), a dive center, bars, restaurants, a pool, gym, beaches (duh), watersports, and excursions - some included, some not. How fun!

My flight landed at about 7am. By about 10am, I was already in my over the water bungalow room. The weather is not great. It hasn't started to rain yet but the water is angry. The current is a bit strong; there are actual waves; water keeps slapping my steps so hard I think someone is coming up them. It is much, much louder than I would have thought. I'm so tired. I'm sure I will sleep fine tho. (Hey, now it's raining.)

Because I got here so early and the water isn't ideal, it's still several hours before dinner (my dinner and breakfast are included), and I've already done so much. When I got here, I took some walk thru videos for the TikTok (give me a follow if you're on there - @mermaidtasha). Then I put on my cute new bikini and set up my tripod to test it. It's great and so much fun! But the neighbors were laughing at me. I will never see them again so it doesn't matter but I only took a few then put it away in hopes they'll be gone to bed or dinner later. I went to go snorkeling but could not record my first in water entrance from the bungalow steps because my GoPro batteries were not properly charged. Good thing because although I knew them to be slippery, they were even more slippery than I thought and I fell and it did hurt. At this time the current had picked up so everyone had gotten out already. I saw a crab on the steps and several fish by the pillars under the bungalow. I decided I should refresh my memory of what different types of triggerfish look like before getting closer to them to avoid another attack. I didn't wear my fins and the surge kept pushing me into the steps so after a little bit I got out and sunbathed on the loungers. Okay, truthfully  I attempted a nap (with timer set!0 but alas I cannot sleep when the sun is out. So I took a jetted bath in the jacuzzi tub with the windows open overlooking the water. 

Oh wait! Just that quick I had forgot! Before the bath, I took the rescue ring and floated on it like an innertube until the rope holding it to my steps broke. I must have started a trend because after my bath both bungalows next to me were doing the same. I plan on getting back in to do that as well later on. Now I am writing out my blog and laying on the loungers (although the sun is gone). 

I think it would be very cool to watch a storm from my bungalow deck. Not one that takes my entire time or happens when I'm asleep but maybe just an hour or two before/after dinner. What a unique experience! I also plan on waking up to watch the sunrise tomorrow as my bungalow is lucky enough to face East. Then I can make the absolute most of my ~ day ~ here until the transfer back to the airport where I'll meet the ScubaSpa gang. 

There's loads *to* do but also nothing to do and I'm very excited to be on vacation. Happy relaxing. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Raggie Reef

 Okay so this is on me but because I've been slacking with my writing, my brain is like overloaded so instead of everyday details like you would normally get I'm just gonna do posts on like what we do generally and a few detailed days posts, like for my birthday. Which honestly I'm here for 2 months so it's probably better for ya'll that way anyways but yeah just keeping you updated. And then hopefully I'll do better about writing once I'm caught up but I'm just always so tired after our busy days so we'll see. 

But for this one I guess I'll explain what we do for Raggie Reef, which we do once a week. 

So Raggie Reef is in the Sanctuary which is 40km or 25 miles south of Jesser's Point, where we launch the boat. Nobody is allowed in there except for us with our research permit - no divers or fishermen or anything. It's like an hour and a half boatride one way and we have to bring extra fuel to fill up for the way back. So we stick a hose in the new fuel and the fuel tank then create a seal with our hands and blow into the new fuel to fill the empty part with air so that gracity will then push the fuel into the hose and down to the empty gas tank. Raggie Reef is where the sand tiger (raggie) sharks hang out so we go down to count and ID them by taking pictures of their spots which we then use I3S to match and track the shark. So Grant and 1 intern (we take turns each week) go down on scuba to change out the RUV cameras, which take pictures every 30 seconds for a week. The others can freedive to count and take pics and this is where you can also collect shark teeth. 

This week it was my turn to dive with Grant and I got 8 shark teeth. The other time I got to go I got 3 but there were 3 of us interns so I gave one to Nick and unfortunately lost the 3rd before I could give it to Craig. 

Then on the way back we normally stop at Red Sands, which is just a place in the middle of nowhere on the Sanctuary line to check out the life there. The first time Michelle and Sam saw a bull shark and Michelle's Eckerd-ness kicked in and she got back on the boat and we left. The next time was Craig's turn to dive at Raggie but Grant let me dive at Red Sands and we made friends with a potato bass that followed us the whole time. Grant says those fish have clearly never seen divers before and were super curious. Anyways this past time, we freedove there and swam with a manta, a tiger shark, and the bull shark! Woo hoo! Just need to add in a hammerhead to the mix. 

Once we get the footage on the computer, then we organize by date then I go and delete everything that doesn't have a shark, ray, or turtle, and record all the info (date, time, species, photo number) for the ones that do. We also have them plugged into power banks not batteries for the week so it lasts for 7 days underwater. The more you know. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Who Are You, Who Who

 

Remember when I said I was gonna work backwards to catch ya'll up? Forget that. We're just gonna start at the beginning and move forward and yesterday's post is gonna be out of place in the middle. 

Okay so we left off with diving for a week and finally being able to equalize. Dang, that was literally like the beginning of this trip lol 

Okay so all I've told you about was Nick, hurricaning, I3S, and diving. So if you read my last post you're probably confused about who are all these people lol 

I have introduced Nick - basically South African Kai. 

Craig is the other intern.

Sam is the researcher that works at Sharklife; Josh is her boyfriend and Chidi is her dog. 

Michelle is a manta researcher that went to Eckerd with me. 

Natalie is a turtle researcher. She's super nice and helpful and she's also from South Africa but doesn't sound like Nick or Sam. I think Candice said she's originally from Portugal or Peru or something so that's probably why. Her dog is Dexter. 

Candice and Grant own Sharklife. Dennis also works for Sharklife and is the Zulu chief's son or something. 

Summer is another researcher. She works with Natalie and Michelle. She is super nice too and her voice sounds like Phoebe Tonkin's if you know that actress. 

Matt works at Occi Lodge and EAT restaurant, which are basically attached to Sharklife. He practically knows everything that's happening at all times and thinks I go to Visagies every night, which sometimes I do lol 

That's basically it for Sharklife people and then there's 4 main dive companies I have friends at and of course my bartender friends. Let's start with the bartenders just because there's fewer of them. 

Sodwana Bay Lodge is my favorite. I just really like the vibes there and the staff is super nice. Jared and his wife Samantha are the bartenders there and they've been here for like 5 years I think. There's also a blonde lady with short hair that runs the restaurant but I don't know her name (update her name is Cindy). Alan also likes to hang out at Lodge Bar and he makes the necklaces that everyone here has - he's making me a pilot whale (update I got a mermaid tail instead). 

Robbie is one of the main bartneders at Maak n Jol (literally "Make a Party") but honestly he kinda creeps me out a little. He's harmless but still. 

Carl and Janet are the waitstaff at EAT and Brandon or Brendan, idk, (update it's actually Reyno, how the heck did I get Brandon from Reyno) is the owner and his dog is Sammy. 

Ash is the bartneder at Visagie. She's super cool. Bianca is the owner's daughter and she's really pretty and her dog is Augi (or Auti, I'm not really sure but he's the cutest dog in Sodwana). 

My loves Donno and Laura also worked at Visagie during the fishing tournament to help out but they're Coral people so we'll get there lol 

Fabio's is a pizza place and idk that guy's name but I feel I should mention the dog there is Suntoe. She has a monkey/limp paw. She's technically a stray and Craig wants to adopt her but she lives there. 

Ngunis is a restaurant right across the street from us and idk anyone there but just in case I mention it. 

Adventure Mania is next to Ngunis. This is one of the dive centers. I love their logo because it's like ACDC but AMDC but like with the lightning and everything. Bryce works for Adventure Mania and his brother is Garrett. Also I forgot to mention Clayton. So ya know how Mitch is the "Uncle of Bishopville"? Clay would be the Uncle of Sodwana and his wife is Karin and they have like 4 dogs. They host parties with daisy (BB) guns at their house and like to watch us practice breathholds in the Visagie pool. 

Moving on to Pisces Diving. This is where Chris and Ace and Martin work. Martin is a spearfisherman with long blonde dreads. Ace is really nice and Chris reminds me of Ted; he's really nice too. 

Scuba Center used to be my main group and it's where Nick is going back to once he's back from his weeks with his dad. They're called the Ninja Turtles because their shirts are green. Josh works for Scuba Center and they're normally very nice and let me just hang around them. Ryan, Connor, Chelsea, Keanu, Cam, Liam, Verne, Nix, 3 or 4 Germans (I think one's name is Levin? (update as I'm typing, Levin, Ono, another Cam, and I don't know the tall one's name)) and a bunch of others work there. Ryan just finished, sad face, he's super fun because he's always singing and having a good time but still responsible. Connor, Chelsea, and Ryan are all from the same little town and were friends before Sodwana. Connor and Chelsea go home April 5. Liam's girlfriend has amazing style but idk her name (update her name is Brittany and she's actually also Chelsea's sister!). Cam is super nice and sometimes I wish I looked like her. Keanu likes to play DJ at Visagie and he is a beautiful human and actually pretty nice as well. Oh! Grant (different than Sharklife Grant) also works at Scuba Center and he looks just like Christian from Beach Patrol and he's always smiling and nice. There's also another Ryan and a guy with dark hair that are always actually doing work while the rest are on like beach/boat/scuba duty (which is still definitely work, just a different kind). 

Time for Coral! We spent 3 days diving with them this week so now I feel more comfortable with the rest of them (aside from our little group) than I did (kinda like when NCL was my favorite cruise line til we sailed Carnival a million times. Scuba Center is NCL and Coral is Carnival LOL).

There's tons of Coral Divers, it's run as a school and they'd give you a student visa if needed. They provide housing and meals but it is a lot of work and the most expensive. Some Coral people that aren't necessarily in my little group but that I might mention are Sascha, Amy (basically South African Graceanne), Liam, Tyyrone, Damian, Shannon (boy not girl), Bridget, Kristen, Robin, Montene, and Stef (4/14 update also Dylan). 

In my group we have Ingrid and Donne; they're the best. Ingrid always makes sure I know the plans and am included. Donne is like my confidant and she's great. James is one of Donno's (not to be confused with Donne lol we'll get there) best friends and like Ryan, he's always down to sing and dance and have a good time. He taught me a fun Afrikaans dance (update it's actually Swedish not Afrikaans) and I taught him Cotton Eyed Joe. His dad is in Bahamas so hopefully we can meet up there after this sometime. I forgot to mention Isaac, he's not really part of our group but sometimes he is I guess but he's another Coral guy and he's one of those human sunshines. Always smiling, always in a good mood, always high energy. He has a great smile and it's actually really easy to latch onto it and let his energy increase your own mood until you're having a good time as well, which is super helpful and useful as I normally tend to attach to the negative energies instead so being around Isaac is a welcomed positive change. 

Laura is basically Donno's Nick. I really want a pic of the 4 of us once Nick and Laura are back from their break next week. To be honest at first I didn't really like her but now her and Donne are definitely my Sodwana Bay besties. 

Feb 18 we (Nick, maybe Craig if he was here already, and I) went to Maak n Jol and that's where I ment Donno and James (Laura was probably there too) and I cheered him (Donno) on in beer pong and bam, new friend. He's from Secunda and he's South African but his ethnicity is Polish because Nick makes fun of him for it and his name is Donavan not just Donno lol. Anyways he's my favorite. Oh and he's a cancer (zodiac). 

Donno, Donne, Laura, James, and Ingrid are all here til the end of the year for their dive internship. Makes me wanna stay too but I only have a few months to make money at home for mermaid season and that money goes a long way here, so gotta make the bank while I can then I can come bring mermaiding to South Africa during the off season because wouldn't that be cool? (also update they didn't have a divemaster class starting near when I was done at Sharklife anywayssss) 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

'Cause Ya Had a Bad Day

 Okay, wow, so it's already almost April and I haven't caught up since the end of Feb. I think that I'm just gonna work backwards and maybe when I post I'll post them in the right order and if not, sorry. Internet and time are two commodities that I just don't really have here. So yeah sorry. 

March 22

Today is Monday, March 22. We finally have a day off so I could sleep in and I only slept until 8am but I guess that was good enough because no puking this morning, yay! For those of you that don't know, when I don't get enough sleep, I throw up. It's not the heat or bugs, this bed is just rough and the walls are literally made of paper so there's so much light and noise constantly coming in. But I finally got some good sleep last night so that's very exciting. 

So yesterday we went diving again! Woo hoo. Sam is on vacation and Nick isn't at Sharklife anymore (he'll be back to Sodwana in a week but with Scuba Center). So in the past week we (Craig and I) have gone diving with Coral 3 days and it was my week to dive Raggie Reef. So I've been diving a lot. Glad to get my logged dived numbers up as I didn't even have a dive log until my Advanced (so I'm missing all the dives between open water and advanced) and everyone keeps harping me on not being "experienced enough" even tho I only need 40 logged dives to start my divemaster, which I'm gonna go to Honduras to get after mermaid season.

Sidenote, I turned music on to help me focus but it's doing the opposite and I've been jamming instead of writing for a half hour lol ya'll might never get these blog posts just know I'm having a great time and I love South Africa. 

Anyways, yesterday's dives. So I love diving with Donno. It's so fun when we go diving because I can just relax and we just have so much fun finding shark teeth and booping regs and making bubble rings and such. So whenever I dive with Coral and he doesn't get to come I get a little sad but yesterday's dive was actually SO GOOD and Donno wasn't even on it. I know a lot of the Coral divers because as Matt said, I spend like every night at Vis-agie, the bar/restaurant/resort (they have the best Wifi in town). So we were supposed to go diving with Liam, Craig's old instructor, so I was like "okay at least I know him" but then he got bumped off onto a different dive so we ended up with someone I didn't know, but it was one of the best dives I've had here. 

We got to go to Ribbon, which is on 5-mile, which is so much sweeter than 2 mile AGAIN. I hadn't been to Ribbon so I was actually pretty excited. So our divemaster, Stef, actually has family on Kent Island, of all places! and NoVa and Annapolis, so he actually visits Maryland quite a bit and learned to sail in Baltimore. Interesting. So I should make friends with him (4/14 as I'm typing update I did make friends and have his WhatsApp). But back to the dive, we saw a grey reef shark! I love sharkies! (Duh) and I was working on my breathing because the day before at Raggie Reef, Grant said my bubbles are too loud and scare away the raggies, so I need to exhale slower. So Nat was saying how she breathes in 8 out 16 and it helps preserve air too. I'm already really good at not using air but I need to not scare away the sharks so I tried and I was like very concerned because breathing like that actually makes me breathe a lot more, but it is more controlled and after the 45 min dive I still had 140 bar of air left so even tho I breathed more it used less.

There was also a Scuba Center boat there before us and on our fancy dive I found a GoPro! I figured it came from Scuba Center boat and I'd look at the footage to see who to give it back to but dude our boat wasn't even pulled onto the beach yet when the Coral guy driving the tractor was like "did you find a GoPro it's from Scuba Center" like yes I know that, chill, they'll get it back. So we took it back over there and turns out it's Nat and Summer's manager/friend, Nikki's! I just had dinner with her yesterday. Honestly, not a fan but whatever, she gave me a piece of peanut butter fudge as a thank you and since I was already at Scuba Center, I went to say hi to Connor and them and he was like "go back to Coral" ok fine then, be that way. Whatever. 

By the time I got back over to Coral, Donno had arrived but he was busy with some Caitlyn girl from Joburg that he met on Valentine's Day which is 4 days before he met me and she was just back down to visit for the weekend and they were gonna go spearfishing after her dive. So between the Scuba Center encounter and being replaced, if only for the weekend, had me feeling a little salty, which is sad because I was in such a good mood after the dive and talking to Stef. & ya'll know how I'm not very good at fixing my face and when I get upset it looks like my best friends just died. So Donne and Donno kept asking me if I was okay, oopsie. So then Donno and Craig and I went snorkeling until it was time for our next dive and my dang GoPro was dead! Wouldn't even turn on even tho I thought I charged it all night. The stupid wire was loose, it's fine now but I didn't have it for snorkeling with Donno or my second dive. 

So anyways since I was in a mood I was like "oh wait I'm a mermaid, I can just go chill on the bottom til I calm down" so I go down and LOL I am in a town of divers so Donno comes down too but he's wearing a weight belt and I'm not so he can chill down longer than me so that plan went horribly lol. On the way back up from snorkeling Donno was like "did you have fun" and I was like "sure" and he was like "well if you didn't have fun I just won't invite you again" and I know he was joking but I probably looked like I was going to cry. Then we got back up to the Coral area. He was hungry so I gave him a granola bar and pretzels and I didn't want any pretzels but he kept feeding them to me anyways and with each pretzel I felt a lot better lol 

Our second dive was with Sascha and in the afternoon the winds and current pick up so it was a drift dive over 2 mile. There were only 5 of us including Sascha so she tried to convince Donno to come with us but he had a blister on his toe and his gear was back at camp so he refused but at least she tried. 

The topography was actually really cool and there were a lot of places to swim in/out/below/through so that was fun. I also practiced breathing like Natalie said again and this time over about 76 minutes only went from 225 to 130 bar. Craig is amazed at how little air I use. With Natalie's way of breathing I can't even hold my breath (which you should never do on scuba anyways!). Unfortunately, I really, really, really had to pee and I have 2 rules - don't pee in the tail and don't pee in the wetsuit. So I was really hoping Craig would run out of air soon so we could go up and he did, but it was only like less than 10 minutes before everyone else anyways. 

Then when we got back I saw Caitlyn was using the towel Donno brought which is actually Nick's towel and it put me in a mood again but then My Girl (the country song, not the Motown song) started playing and reminded me of home and my Bville boys and I was comforted. Then we got back to Sharklife and I had a Snapchat from Jacob! 9000 miles away and he still got my ESP. I really love those Travers boys. They always pull thru when I need them. 

So I spent the rest of the night snapchatting Jacob until our CSP scheduling meeting. I was scared Morgana wouldn't book me due to me being in Africa and therefore not vaccinated yet, but the first few gigs are in Delaware/Ocean City so I was the first one offered! I'm pleasantly surprised the internet worked for the whole thing but it did and now my schedule is full and after the call I determined where I can fit in Mermaid Camps and holy poop, it's gonna be a busy summer/fall. Literally no days off because lifeguarding, but I only have those few months to make all my money for the year so bet I'm gonna make it worth it. & the mermaid camps are all client depended of course, I think I need at least 4 per camp to have it run. Then it looks like Nov-Dec I can go to Honduras for my divemaster and be back in time for Christmas. Things are looking bright for a career/future full of mermaiding, diving, and travel. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

February 2021

 March 2, 2021

!Hola mis amigos! 

Let's get this blog writ! I've been trying to write this for hours, actually weeks lol, but then I was distracted by texting my grandmother. So, as you know, my computer and/or the internet is constantly caput. Which makes it super hard to do the business accelerator program I'm in until the end of the month as well, which I should be doing right now to be honest but oh whale. Another thing I don't like about having to hand write my posts than transfer them online is that my handwriting is super sloppy so I hope I can read what I'm writing bc my hand already hurts which makes my chickenscratch worse. 

Anywhos, it's now March. March 2nd. I've been here since February and have updated ya'll on nothing but sucky internet. Oops. So I guess I'll just start at the beginning and along the way we'll see if it's a big summary or lots of little detail posts but the more detailed posts will come after Nick leaves because he leaves me tired lol he's only here for a few more weeks, sadly. Not sure if I mentioned it in my other post or not, but Nick is like South African Kai, like they are carbon copies of each other (except Kai is skinnier and older with blue eyes) and it is so nice to have friends that are like family and just like idk what I'd do without Kai at home, idk what I'm gonna do without Nick here. I've been trying to make other friends too of course but it's just not the same as having a "brother" here with me. Nick is coming to school in America tho so that's cool, maybe we can go diving in the States. 

So that's not the beginning lol. The beginning is I arrived at Sharklife. I already told ya'll about the room and food. So the first day, we got up at like 5 and were supposed to go out on the boat so we take the boat to the beach (they do beach launches here) and the water was super rough and we came right back and didn't even go out. Nick's mom and girlfriends and friends were here for Nick's mom's birthday so she took us to lunch/breakfast and I got a banana milkshake and it was actually kinda gross but now I get the Oreo milkshakes and those are great. Anyways, so since Nick's mom was here, he got the day off and Sam showed me how to do I3S, the database system we use to match raggies based on their spots so we can track when we've seen which raggie shark where to track their migration patterns and movements. Then, since Craig still wasn't here, Grant said I could have the rest of the day off too to rest. But like these walls are literal paper (bamboo paper) thin and I can't sleep during the day so I was just laying here wishing I was better at making friends, snapchatting my friends back home and then Sam needed help finding her dog, Chidi, so I helped them look and poor Nick, I haven't left his side since lol.

The next few days it was tropical storming so we just stayed in the office doing I3S. At first it was really easy because the matches came really easy but it gets frustrating because the quality of the photos aren't the best and it's hard to see the spots and I'm already like blind so sometimes it's hard. Lila suggested I print the pictures and highlight the spots to match but I can't because there's literally thousands of pictures and it needs to be in the database system. Eventually Craig arrived and we did I3S and had some lessons on the boat and how to set it up and take care of it and all that, but Nick already showed us so we already knew a bit.

Eventually, it stopped hurricaning, but it lasted for a solid week and stretched all the way from Africa to Madagascar (which is another place I want to go - these South Africans have me wanting to explore all over. I've already told Avnish for years I'd come visit him in Mauritius and now let's add Mozambique and Madagascar to the list as well).

So on February 18 I went on a dive and I had a hard time equalizing and was freaking out. Madison said the storm pressure was probably affecting it and Lila and my dad said I just needed to practice but I was very upset because I didn't want all my dives here to be so awful because dives like that are why I lowkey hated diving. Hated past tense because now I love it, bring on instructor, but we'll get there lol. So anyway, it was still hurricaning so then we didn't go out again until Feb 23rd, with a girl I actually went to college with! 

Michelle is getting her PhD and doing her thesis on Manta Rays so she came to Sharklife to do some research for that thesis. Turns out she was a senior at Eckerd when I was a freshman! I didn't know her, but we do have a few mutual friends and I was like Sharklife would be a great winter term for Eckerd and she was like "yeah I'm already talking to Grant about it" lol so yeah. Anyways, before we went down I was like "it might take me a bit to get down because sometimes I have equalization issues" but BRO. MY EARS EQUALIZED ON COMMAND! For the first time in my entire life, including all my dives and rescue diver and all the planes I've flown and everything! So that's amazing. It only took almost 24 years, tons of scuba and freediving classes, and countless plane rides but I can FINALLY equalize! Woo hoo! I was so excited to call and tell my dad but he was working.

I then went out diving every single day until our day off on Saturday and haven't experienced equalization problems since. Woo hoo! Happy days. Now I love diving and will definitely advance to dive master and even probably instructor. 

Okay, Nick is saying we're going out in 15 minutes now so I guess I'll end this post here and catch up with ya'll next time. Just keep swimming ya'll! 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Computer Struggles

 Okay so I've been here for like two weeks but like clearly I have not been properly blogging. First off the internet here is very sketch. Second off, my laptop is bugging out. Like every time I turn it on it says it wasn't shut down correctly? And it needs to be plugged in to use but when it's plugged it it doesn't even say it's charging? And it's taking ages to open anything and half the time it opens it then closes it right down and it's being super slow and nothings loading so idk if it's the heat or if the housekeeper accidentally dropped it or the plug for the charger is overloaded and not strong enough (I have 4 things plugged into one major adaptor which is plugged into an African adaptor which is plugged into a South African/Sodwana Bay adaptor which is plugged into a 2 plug which is plugged into the outlet so yeah the electric current is probably just like not sustainable for my laptop to use it proper). So I'll probably just like write out my blog stuff on a notebook then transfer it to here once I'm home or on the plane. I also don't have Microsoft Word so when the internet is down I can't do anything on here anyways bc I need internet for either Google Docs or straight to Blogger. 

Speaking of blogs tho my girl Felicia just started one about sustainably living so go check it out and give her a follow too. https://www.feliciawfins.com/felicia-with-fins-professional-mermaid/for-fins-eco-friendly-blog/ 

I have scuba dived every day this week and today I woke up with an ear infection in my right ear. I took my earache tablets and put in drops so hopefully it is better by tomorrow so I can go diving again.    

Yesterday our dive was for 76 minutes and I had the most air left when we were done woo hoo 

So obviously I need to give ya'll proper updates but like my ear actually really hurts right now so you can look for those updates later lol 

Like I said, probably once I'm back in better computer territory. Hopefully it's just the outlet is overloaded bc I don't want to have to need a new laptop. 

Okay ttyl 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Green. Cow. Hill.

 I made it to Africa. 

It is very hot here. Not really, it's not that hot; it's only in the 80s but it is very, very, very humid and there is no air conditioning in my camp. 

I am supposed to be doing the work right now but the water was too rough to go out :( and the other intern guy isn't here yet bc his flight was delayed and the other intern gets the day off because his mom is here visiting for her birthday so they said I was probably tired and could just go chill. I am very tired. I am exhausted. This blog post will probably suffer because of it but oh whale. 

Actually I will write this later when I am less tired and hot. I would go take a shower but there's only one knob to turn it on/off and it is very, very hot too. Hot is good when it comes to showers but like it's burning hot. Maybe I'll try it again anyway. 

Okay so it's been a week but the internet here is poop.

Okay so my original flight was on Emirates from Dulles (Washington DC) to Dubai to Durban (South Africa) but a week before I was supposed to leave my flight was cancelled because Emirates decided they no longer wanted to fly into South Africa because of the rona. So I rebooked on Qatar which was cheaper anyways. So we stopped at Applebee's on the way to the airport then I used my Clear and TSA precheck to skip security and then I had to take the tram to the B terminal. Internet on the fight was only $10 for the whole flight so I got it to watch Amazon Prime but the show I wanted wasn't available outside the states so I just watched it on Putlocker. 

Then I had a 9 hour layover in Doha and they have a pool there but it was closed for the Rona too. I had lounge pass so I went to the lounge but they only had 5 lay down chairs and I didn't know you needed to put your name on a list so I kept checking every like 30-40 minutes to see if one opened and of course it never did and they only had one shower but at least I did get to take a shower and then I just sat in a regular chair so like nothing special about it. I got some juice and water and a couple plates of chicken rice. It was only $50 tho and everything else except Duty Free was closed in the airport so it was fine. Oh I also didn't see any blonde people until I went to my boarding gate bc the flight next to me was headed to Germany. So everyone was staring bc I was blonde. I guess that's uncommon in Qatar? 

My flight from Doha was straight to Durban but we had to stop to pick up more people in Mozambique. Just like on the flight to Doha, I had a row on the way to Mozambique and I did get to sleep but only for a little bit because that was a pretty short flight, only 7 hours with 2 meal services. Then from Mozambique to Durban there was someone on my aisle. But anyway in Mozambique it sounded like people were speaking Spanish and after sitting in Qatar for 9 hours it felt so good to recognize words being said lol so I googled it and Mozambique was a Portuguese colony so they were speaking Portuguese. Nifty. 

Then I got to Durban and I couldn't find my pick up guy so some Uber driver called him for me. Then I was like I wonder if they tip here and then I realized I didn't do any research or prep or anything coming here and I know nothing about Africa lol so I googled and yes they tip like 10% but for good service and going to the restaurants and stuff they just charge like the price so if you want to tip you have to tell them before they do it not after but Nick says if you want to tip to just give them money because otherwise it takes too long on the cards and they don't really get it. 

So. If you remember, my New Zealand album is called Green. Cow. Mountain.. Well. Bruh. I would've thought I was back in New Zealand. I had absolutely no idea South Africa looked like this and we're back to the I clearly should have at least googled South Africa before coming here 😂 I did look up Sodwana Bay but it just showed me pictures of like the marine life so like yeah... anyways. These "mountains" are a lot smaller than the ones in New Zealand, hence Green. Cow. Hill. But it is so green and there are cows literally everywhere and they call them Sodwana Bay Robots (traffic lights) because they'll just stand in the middle of the road. I like cows. Cows are chill. 

Anyways so South Africa is quite green and quite hilly and full of cows. The drive from Durban airport to Sodwana Bay is like 4-5 hours. And the car needs a break in the middle because the tires get tired so otherwise it wouldn't make it. Sounds fake but okay. But it's a good thing Craig's flight was delayed because myself and my luggage barely fit in the car. I had bags sitting on my feet. We also passed a lot of gum trees planted in straight lines and Christmas trees and sugar cane plantations and pineapple plantations. Reminds me of Jamaica or Dominican Republic but with less trash on the streets. Also there's a lot of hitchhikers and people sitting on the side of the road to sell bananas and pineapples. 

So they obviously speak English in South Africa but they also speak Zulu and Afrikaans which is a mix of Dutch and Zulu. The Afrikaans is actually not that hard to understand if they speak slow enough sometimes because it just sounds like I'd guess German? to English (not quite Portuguese to Spanish easy) so like just be smart and you can kinda get it sometimes. But sometimes it sounds like I'm in Jamaica and they're speaking Pigeon being like "awe why can't you understand when we know we're speaking Pigeon and you speak English" ugh, Jamaicans. I don't know why they hate so hard on Bahamians when in my mind/experiences the Jamaican stereotypes of the two (Jamaicans and Bahamians) should be flipped. But anyways back to Africa lol 

So then we finally got to the camp and there's a few things that I'm like "wow they must've watched my interviews" then there's somethings I'm like wow ok who dis. So. They put me in the whale shark room woo hoo I love whale sharks. If ya'll read my whale shark post from June 2016 you would know that whale sharks' spots are like unique finger prints so if you see a whale shark with the same spot pattern, it's the same shark. I swam with them in Coral Bay in Australia in 2016 and I saw them from the boat in La Paz, Mexico in 2018. Love whale sharks. They're the biggest fish in the ocean and they are a shark not a whale. 

Moving onto food. In Tahiti I ate oodles of noodles and peanut butter sandwiches every single day; that's literally all I ate and I loved it. French Polynesians make the best oodles of noodles and I am coming to realize that like coconuts, oodles of noodles are different in each country too. For example, the ones in Africa are no bueno. No mal either but no bueno. But anyways so they got food for me and they got me oodles of noodles and peanut butter! Like broooooooooooo. How did you know! But then they filled the whole fridge with vegetables and no meat and like I eat meat not vegetables so it's like 😒 but Nick makes me his chicken nuggets and gives me some biltong which is meat so it's fine. Plus honestly normally we go out to eat bc they didn't give me any good food and the store here doesn't have anything in it either. Remember those starving kids in Africa you had to eat all your food for because they were starving? Still actually not me but if I had to just eat what they got me then it would be. Also people waste a lot of food here so like where's the starving kids? 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

PS I know the starving kids are in "typical" African countries like Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, etc so don't come at me that was just a cute line to end my blog post on, k thnx. 

Viva Las Vegas

 

Normally I would make a separate post for each day, but, as I'm finding out, boys only like to do one thing per day so those would be really short posts. Additionally, the pandemic has made me lazy and so therefore I'm just gonna make one post for my entire week in Las Vegas. Again, commenting is off bc I don't need the hate for traveling during a virus. 

Day Uno 

So my only friend from college (sad face, what happened to Casey?) joined the Airforce and now lives in Las Vegas. (Peep the cute then and now pic below of Jan 2017 to Jan 2021) So after months of begging (probably not but we gonna pretend there was begging lol) I finally decided I can come visit despite me not doing well in mountains. 

We get up at the buttcrack of dawn, jk it was still black out, to go to the airport but my mother loves me so I didn't even have to pay for parking because she just dropped me off. How lovely. Of course I got some Dunkin on the way because Tasha, much like America, runs on Dunkin even tho I don't even drink coffee! Anyways, the sign at the gate said the flight was only 65% full and I was like heck yeah ain't nobody gonna sit with me! But then I boarded and I was like there's a lot of people on here and the pilot was all like "this is a completely full flight!" and I was like 😑😠. But there were a lot of families with kids so there were a lot of like babies on laps so there were still a few empty seats and at first I had the middle open and someone on the aisle but then the flight attendant told the row in front of mine that the front row was empty but those fools were like "we don't care" so then the guy on my aisle moved up there with his girl that was sitting like 2 rows back bc full flight so then I had the row to myself and I was like yessss go me but then about 45 mins-1 hour in the guy from the row in front of me came back and sat on my aisle and of course I was spread out it's a 5.5 hour flight so he almost sat on my foot! RUDE! 

But we flew over Lake Mead and I was very happy to see there actually IS water near/around/in Las Vegas. So that's a plus. Then I witnessed some girl going OFF while I was waiting for Zach to come get me because my flight was an hour early. Then we got some Cane's chicken because he "knows me and didn't want to deal with a hungry me" okay ya'll my b, sorry. Then we watched the Mandalorian and ate salmon and rice and that was it. 

Dia Dos 

On the second day, we went to the Wynn. I think I offended Zach by comparing it to Atlantic City but like I thought it was common knowledge that AC was like a smaller, East-Coast, knockoff of Vegas? Whatever. Anyways they had a cute little flower path walkway thing and a carousel and hot air balloon made up of flowers. It was cool. We had drinks at the Parasol bar where the ceiling had these like parasol lamps that spun and moved up and down, which was entertaining. They charged $3.50 for "rocks" (ice) in Zach's first drink and I got the Lychee martini and it was so good so then next round we both got lychee martinis. Then we went down to the SW Steakhouse. We got there just in time for the first show; every half hour they have a 3 minute show on their lake and waterfall with special effects. First one was a floating snowflake that talked to us, then there was a mermaid one that I'm pretty sure was Veronica or Venessa or one of the LA mers (it was recorded not live), and there was eye balls and a shark fin to the big song in 10 Things I Hate About You, and singing parrots with lyrics on the waterfall, and it was fancy. I liked it. It was nice having entertainment again in a world where everything is closed. Oh they also had standing heaters all over the place because we sat outside because waterfall and lake, duh, so that was nice. It was supposed to be the best steak I've ever had so let's just go with that because idk if Zach reads these or not so yeah, steak was banging lol 

(Idk why these are posting vertical and not next to each other but here's a photodump for you) 

Okay, Day Three! Halfway there. 

The third day was supposed to be the coldest day, so I picked then to go to the aquarium! I love aquariums, if you wanna come at me, just don't. You're fine to not like aquariums but that's a whole other post that you can find on my mermaid YouTube eventually because I'm sick of getting hate for also going to aquariums when they're "so bad for the animals" (actually they're not but again, another time another place for that). 

So this was at Mandalay Bay, the Shark Reef aquarium. First we went to the House of Blues for lunch because apparently Zach is like legit scared of hungry me LOL I don't think I'm that bad but okay.
House of Blues is also inside Mandalay Bay. The casino was legit empty, like not a soul. (Check the pic at the top of this blog post.) Every restaurant/store/Starbucks we passed walking to House of Blues from the parking garage was closed so we were like "omg it better be open" and thankfully it was. They had a tree growing in the middle of the restaurant! Our waiter sucked but I got the brisket and it was good but Wawa's is better. 

On the walk to the aquarium from the House of Blues because Mandalay Bay is huge, we could see what was supposed to be the pools but they were totally drained and there were guys working on the big pool. The lazy river still had water in it but it was closed off because of the work. So with all the restaurants and stores closed, nobody in the casino, and the pools drained of water it felt like a ghost town. 

So we finally made it to the aquarium. When you go in there's a picture taker guy to take your pictures so you can buy them when you leave if you want but we looked at ours and honestly we got the same picture taken on our phone for free thanks to a nice couple, and yes, I took their picture for them too; I got manners. And yes, we wore our masks in the aquarium the whole time but we pulled them down/off for pictures and even the official picture taker guy at the beginning told us to take our masks off for pictures so don't come at me for that either. Oh I was also wearing this turtle sweatshirt my mom got me for Christmas and I felt like I belonged in the exhibit but aquariums are my thing so I dig it lol

It's a much smaller aquarium than the one in Baltimore, but that is to be expected I think. After all, it is called Shark Reef Aquarium unlike the National Aquarium or even just any full aquarium. But we got Nevada locals discount so at least there's that lol but it was still a nice aquarium. 

Did you know Komodo Dragons binge eat (but that's not what they called it they called it something else but I forget) because they're unsure of when their next meal will come so that way they gorge out some days and eat nothing other days? I was like, me too, dragon, me too, but I always know when my next food is coming because I am fortunate in that area but I still eat literally everything some days and literally nothing other days. So that's a fun fact you now know.

I also learned that when fish open and close their mouth (check out my mermaid insta for a vid), they're pushing the water back to their gills so they can breathe. When the fish are swimming, the swimming motion is automatically pushing that water back, so they just keep their mouths open, but when they are floating in place, such as when they are looking at humans through the aquarium tank, they need to manually push the water themselves by opening and closing their mouth. Isn't that interesting? 

Then of course they had the shark tunnel as seen in the picture above! Normally they have dive encounters you could do but not currently due to Corona. Oh before the shark tunnel they had this floor to ceiling tank and the fish were coming straight at us; I felt like Aquaman. After the tunnel was a big ray tank, a jellyfish tank, and a tank with an octopus and tons of huge starfish - bigger than Zach's head! Next there was another shark area but they made the human part like a giant wooden ship which was very cool. There were saw tooth sharks and even a sand tiger, which I was excited to see because I will be spending lots of time with the sand tigers aka raggie tooths in Africa. 

After the aquarium, we went over to the Luxor hotel, which is the big pyramid one. Honestly, I think we were looking for a Starbucks but they were all closed. Lame. But the pyramid hotel looks like a pyramid on the inside as well and even has a sphinx inside near the food court. Mandalay Bay also had a sweet smell, like Australian Gold sunscreen, and I was like oh that's probably the gambling air, like in Percy Jackson but there was nobody gambling so I was like maybe I'm imagining it but the Luxor didn't have that smell and going back over to Mandalay Bay it was very strong so yeah. Personally I think the Hard Rock cookies have a better lotus affect than the Mandalay Bay smell but I know nothing, so. 

On the way back we finally got our Starbucks and I tried a iced peach green tea (venti with light ice) with vanilla and heavy cream instead of water. It was like a more liquid smoothie! Would order again. Thanks, Pinterest. 

Day Four

On this day we went hiking to Red Rocks. It was cold and cloudy and turns out I do not like hiking, which I already knew but then I really knew. I thought I was dying. It felt like I had covid again! (Last year I went to the doctor 3 times because I couldn't breathe and I couldn't even keep up with my mom shopping and she's a super slow shopper and the doctor just kept being like "it's been two weeks it must be almost done" and two weeks later I'd come back and he'd be like "well it's been another two weeks so you must really be almost done" and whole time I was straight up dyingggggggg and then like a couple weeks later 'rona was a thing.) 

So we went on this scenic drive and there's all these trails that branch off of the drive. It's a one-way road. So I picked the trail that said that it had wildlife sightings, donkey and bighorn sheep and tortoises. There were only like 2 trails that said they have wildlife on it and that's where we went but did I see any animals? Nope, just a couple people walking their dogs. I did however see two very distinct poops, so I'm thinking one was a sheep poop and one was a donkey poop. I took a picture of the donkey poop to be honest lol. 

We walked for like 2 miles on this trail to "La Madre Spring" and there was no spring. No water. We eventually did make it to a concrete slab tho, and then we turned around. The way back was a lot better. Going up I couldn't see; I couldn't breathe; I was dying. But going down I was fine! We made it down probably like 4 times, if not more, faster than we made it up. Then instead of going back to the car we went down this other trail that Zach and his roommates had gone on before because there was a big rock I could climb so I could get that classic hanging in a canyon picture. 

This second walk/part was also a lot better than that initial one so maybe I just needed to get acclimated to mountains because I am no good in any elevation. Did you know the Delmarva Peninsula is the flattest part of the entire continental United States? Even flatter and lower elevation on average than New Orleans. The highest point is only about 107 feet above sea level and that's all the way up at the top of Delaware in the Newark/Wilmington area. 

Dia Cinco 

Leave it to the mermaid to find the water! On this day we went to Arizona Hot Springs! About 30-40 minutes from downtown, about an hour from where I was staying, right near the Nevada/Arizona border but actually in Arizona, is a hike to the hot springs. Alternatively, you can take a boat from the Colorado River and then it's only like a 5 minute hike but I didn't have a boat so hiking it was. 

So it was supposed to be 5-6 miles roundtrip depending on which path you took. It ended up being 8 miles, up and down actual mountains. The return trip was rough, and afterward I couldn't walk for 2 days. But overall I think it was easier/better than Red Rock because the ground was more sandy whereas Red Rocks was, you probably guessed it, rocky. Apparently the sandy material is harder like physically, but I live at the beach so I'm all about the sand and definitely much preferred it to Red Rock. 

The path was like crazy at the beginning like there seemed to be tons of possible paths because of course nothing was labeled and if it was, we missed it. So we ended up going on a path that wasn't a path and left us at the dead end of the bottom of a mountain. But thankfully even tho I am blind I would be a marvelous hunter because I can spot movement so I'm not sure which one of us actually spotted them first, but we saw humans in the distance so I kept track of them and we were able to track humans back to the actual path. Which, I was not expecting so many people to be hiking on a weekday but I am very glad that this seems to be such a popular spot because otherwise we would have never found the springs. We had to ask for help a lot on the way there, but on the way back the path had arrows and green stickers and was a lot more clear and I have no idea how we didn't see literally any of it on the way there but I get why everyone was treating us like idiots for continuously getting lost on the way to the springs. 

We finally made it to the springs. There are 4 springs - the first one is the hottest, and the most shallow. The third is the largest and deepest. The fourth was coldest and also small but right next to the waterfall that would lead to the longer trail by foot or short path by boat that's right on the river. I kinda wanted to go back via this path even though it was longer because one of the people that make this journey often said that it was flatter and more of the sand rather than up and down the mountains. However, there was no way I was going down that waterfall ladder. So we went back the same way we came (kinda, we didn't get lost nearly as much).  

We got back as the sun was setting but made it back just as it was getting dark, perfect timing. 

Final Day Six

On the last day I could not walk due to the previous two days of hiking. I could barely stand and was so wobbly it looked like I was drunk. So I took a boatload of medicine in hopes that I wouldn't look too drunk for them to let me board the plane home. It worked! I could walk again and got wobbly after it wore off, which thankfully seemed to be when I was in my dad's truck on the way home. 

On our way to the airport, we stopped for Habit Burger and my cheeseburger was nothing to write home about but the milkshake was good. It still wows me that there are slot machines all over the airport in Las Vegas. How interesting. 

Anyway this flight was truly empty. I'd say less than a dozen on the entire flight and I'm very surprised they didn't cancel it for too few passengers, but my grandmother said they must've needed the plane in Baltimore for the next flight. Additionally, this flight also landed an hour earlier than expected so that was lovely! 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha