PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

Well as you would expect I didn’t sleep and just went out all night long for the last night on Long St. I knew Andrea had gotten back sometime throughout the night and figured she would be down there and went looking for her. I never found her but found plenty of trouble anyway. I had plenty of drinks and before I knew it I was on a sail boat with some random guys named Cory and Antony that were from the UK down here learning how to sail. We sat around and talked about the sail boat. I think it’s weird that in 5 ports, I have managed to get on 2 private sail boats for an after hours party. I hadn’t seen Anna or Tina since much earlier and they happened to be standing by the ship with Cory and Antony (whom I had met at a bar earlier that night). The guys were trying to persuade the girls to come back with them and since I was there, now it was ok for us all to go. It sounded like a good idea so Wendy, Jessie, Anna, Tina, and I went for the adventure. Mind you this is 4am. I had to leave about 5am so I didn’t stay long and Anna and Tina came back with me. Wendy and Jess stayed with them and apparently had much more fun including getting pulled up the mast for a sunrise later which I obviously missed out on. They were genuinely nice guys that just wanted someone to chill with. They had no intentions which were nice and not like what I would expect from someone in America.
So there I was, getting back on the ship, grabbing my swim suit and getting ready to go off in a bus to jump in the Indian Ocean and going fishing for Great White Sharks! The guy told us about rough waters and to make sure we ate before we went on the water. Breakfast and Lunch were included and being that we left at 5:30am, they had better fed me. I never realized that going out the night before and not sleeping would be the biggest mistake of my life.
We get on this shark diving boat about 2 hours later and set out to see. It wasn’t long before we shut off the engines and starting “chumming” the water for sharks. Basically we just dump a shit ton of tuna in the water and wait for them to come up to us. It didn’t take long, within 30 minutes there were Great Whites all around. It was cool when they would grab onto the bait and make a big scene crashing into the cage. They were quite the large animal and I can understand why they can kill people haha. If I had teeth like that, I think I’d do the same.
Well, as cool as this was, I had to add some of my own entertainment to the day. The captain told us that vomit would only help the sharks, so I felt I had to do my part. It didn’t take long to get sick rocking back and forth on a small boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I figured I was just getting the party started and before long everyone would have their head over the side throwing up. This was not the case. I threw up 9 times… and yes, I threw up on a shark as well. I showed him who was boss. The thing that I have to point out is that although I was losing anything in my body for the remainder of the day, I didn’t let it ruin my day. I took it on like a pro (or so I thought) and got in the cage anyway. I gave those sharks hell. I think I could have jumped on a few and rode one for awhile if they would have let me.
While it was extremely fun, I was bored not long after. It was just another animal after 10 minutes of looking at them that I needed more than just a shark in the water to look at. I’m a people person, and although I’m glad I went shark diving, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I turned out to be the only person to throw up, I was disappointed in the British lady that kept trying to throw up but couldn’t. There was something cool about someone from England vomiting all over the place considering my stereotype of them is that they are all stuck up and proper. I guess, in the end, she is still as classy as ever.
I will admit I have never been more happy to step foot on land in my entire life. I actually hugged it when I stepped off the shark boat. It was that great. South Africa was coming to a close and I knew I would be sad to see it end. I sent some postcards and then sadly watched the boat pull away (or so we thought, damn fuel bunker) from a place I was close to calling my home.