Not much news lately! What is David doing?

Well, I have been in Dahab for a week now. This part of my trip is more like vacation and hence there is not much going on that is worth writing about ;).

I have been diving in the morning and windsurfing in the afternoon almost every day.

I took a refresher dive (10th dive for me) on Monday. I was able to perform the drills easily and remembered most of what I learnt in the past 2 years. Once underwater, I was not ready for what I saw. It was amazing. A very nice coral reef with school of red and silver fishes, parrot fishes, sand fishes and so many others that I had trouble knowing where to look :). Oh, and I almost forgot, the water is so much warmer than in Monterrey that even if it is not as warm as say, in the Caribbeans, it felt like taking a bath ;).

I went on a fun dive on Tuesday and realized I had some troubles with buoyancy control and kicking underwater so I took a 2 day class the following days to fine tune my understanding and practice with an instructor.

The dive on Friday went way better and I also feel way more comfortable under water. I still use a lot of air so this is what I plan on working on the next dive.

Diving is omnipresent in Dahab. Just walk down the promenade and you will see tens of dive shops that offer all kind of services. Diving is quite cheap too. I pay $21 per dive with all rentals and air as well as transportation included.

Dahab’s second attraction (or is it the first?) is that it is usually quite windy and hence it became the hot spot of the red sea for windsurfing (and kite surfing). I found a nice protected lagoon and a cool school (Surf and action at the Coralia hotel) where I have been continuing my initiation to windsurfing. I had taken a weekend class at Shoreline lake last year so it was not all new. It has been going very well and I made my first beach starts and jibes after 3 days :). I then started using the hook the following day. I will take the intermediate class starting as soon as the wind picks up again.

I really love windsurfing. It has been a very rewarding water sport so far. And all of you kite surfers, I am sure you would love it here!

During the rest of the time, I met a lot of people at the hotel coming from all over the world. Also, Crystal, Alex and Andy were in Dahab for 2 days and we hooked up for dinner both days. It was great to see them again. They told me about their trip to upper Egypt and how Crystal and Andy sadly got food poisoning in Aswan. They are now back to Bulgaria. It was too short. We will have to meet another time.

Life in Dahab is great. I understand some people never leave!

[Edited on 5/19/2006 to add related pictures]