Hurricane Ernesto

So it’s been a while since we’ve last posted on here. Our apologies. We’ve been really busy and diving a TON but our new year’s resolution is to put a little more effort towards the blog so here’s a toast to a new year and more posts!

We were in the middle of hurricane season when Hurricane Ernesto decided to creep up on us. Projecting to be a category 2 hurricane coming straight for Playa, we did the best to protect the dive shop from any major damage. The waves were getting bigger and stronger and the clouds were rolling in. We had all planned for a hurricane party and were ready for Ernesto’s debut. Marc and I were both working at Paraiso that day and were doing our daily demos in the pool. There was no diving because of the waves so that meant pool demos ALL DAY (can you hear the joy in my voice). When we finally came back from our demo, we noticed everyone except our base leader and his wife had gone home. No one had decided to come get us and tell us we could leave. Our ride had left so we were going to catch a ride home with our base leader. The only problem was we had to wait for our big boss to come. He soon came and saw that this might be much worse than he projected so we needed to move the kayaks and catamarans more up the beach, tape up the windows and move everything to higher ground. By the time we finally got out, it was dark and we were starving.

The boys waiting for Ernesto!

That evening, everyone from work had planned to meet at The Roof Bar, our local hangout. We started the hurricane party there and proceeded to bar hop the rest of the night. Hurricane Ernesto’s path had changed since we left work and now was going to hit a little further south of Playa. After the bars closed, Marc and I decided to walk home on the beach and check out the waves. As we were walking, the rain started coming. By the time we got to our street, it was pouring rain and we were drenched. The streets were completely empty and all you could hear was the sound of the rain coming down. We walked slowly home and took in every bit of it.

The aftermath of Ernesto wasn’t nearly as bad as projected. A tropical storm per say. Diving was bad for the next couple of days but that’s pretty much it. 

Ernesto's aftermath...