Utila – Week 3, Day 6: Squid Game
UTILA
Week 3
Day 6: Squid Game
December 02, 2022
I woke up feeling a little bit impish. Seeing Amelia sound asleep like an angel, I decided to take out relationship to the next level. I had been pondering it for quite a while, and finally, I had grown the courage to just go for it. And so, I grabbed my toothpaste and applied some to her forehead – something we’d always do at sleepovers back when I was a kid. She didn’t speak to me all morning.
I was too busy myself to be torn apart by this sudden turn of events. Together with Adah, I’d be mapping the Black Coral Wall as part of the divemaster training programme. In theory, this sounds very simple. We’d descend, find the wall, go down to eighteen metres, and after choosing our starting point, one of us would navigate in a vertical U-shape pattern all the way to the top, whilst the other would draw the configuration of the wall and any prominent features – like large barrel corals or potential hazards such as fire coral – on a slate.
Knowing that my navigation skills weren’t quite up to par and that my drawing wasn’t so fly either, I was extremely anxious about the whole ordeal – mostly ‘cause I didn’t wanna bring Adah down with me. She reassured me that we’d both be fine and that, if worse came to worst, we could repeat the exercise on the second dive.
From Squid Squads to Squiggles
And so, we hopped on board the Miss Tamara and headed towards the Black Coral Wall. With a giant stride and a whole lotta uncertainty, we jumped in and started our descent.
We agreed that I’d start off with the navigation part. The first part was easy. After descending on a sand patch, we quickly found our way to the wall and went down along it. Then I set my compass to one side – which, to be fair, was practically unnecessary considering it’s just a straight wall – and, after sixty kick cycles in one direction, we’d go up two metres and repeat another sixty kick cycles the other way. Like this, we’d be doing around 5 U-passes, covering around 10 metres of depth.
I felt like I was doing quite good. Despite my multitasking skills being decent at best, I was managing to stop every twenty kick cycles so Adah could catch up with her drawings and the stuff I pointed out. Right at the end of the dive, we even saw a squad of squids that made it all the more fun! We did have some trouble finding the boat, but all in all, we had done it.
As soon as we got back on the boat, I looked at Adah’s drawing and, after a couple of minutes trying to decipher the scribbles, I felt quite confident about it. In fact, when I approached Catherine and explained the site to her, she said it sounded just about right. Meanwhile, Adah was freaking out because she couldn’t understand her own drawing and thought it sucked big time.
For the first time since I started diving in Utila, I felt like I was the confident one. Up until then, I never thought I’d be the best at anything diving-related, but this time round, I felt like I could go places. After reassuring her that we’d done a good job, we proceeded to enjoy our second dive at Moon Hole.
Andreas Reappears
Back at Underwater Vision, a surprise was waiting for me. As soon as I got to my room, I saw a familiar face walking towards me – it was Andreas! The very same one I had met in El Salvador. We’d been in touch ever since we went our separate ways and, after promising to meet again, he rearranged his entire schedule to visit me in Utila and finally get certified as a diver.
Though I knew he’d eventually come, I had no idea when – mostly cause he had broken his phone and was off the grid for a week or so. And so, his arrival was a complete and total surprise. The second I saw him, I dragged him to my room and practically jumped him. One long, deep, hot, passionate kiss – and I couldn’t have felt any less turned on. The last time we had been together, it was just fire. Now? Now it felt almost forced.
Admittedly, ever since I started my divemaster training programme, romance and sex had been the last thing on my mind. I was still embracing my newfound celibacy and focusing on this new goal. As elated as I was to to finally see him again, it felt as if our relationship would be platonic from then onwards. Luckily, it wasn’t just for me he had come to Utila – meaning I didn’t have to feel so bad when I broke the news that I was now revirginising.
He quickly hit it off with Amelia – the two of them mouthing off in German from the very first moment. Having been on the road for days on end, and without any food since the day before, we quickly forewent all pleasantries and headed to Mama Rosa to get him some good grub.
As Amelia and Andreas chatted, I found myself wondering how I had fallen for him. I had forgotten how much he talked. I had also forgotten his compulsion to recount his life story to anyone and everyone he’d meet. It hadn’t even been an hour since we reunited, and I went from over the moon to under the sun in a matter of minutes. Hearing him talking without a pause, I found myself irritated and, quite frankly, bored. In fact, I could tell from Amelia’s side eyeing that she was thinking just the same.
I had no idea what the hell had happened since El Savador. I had felt such an incredible connection to him – and that had been just about a month before! Not to mention, we’d been chatting throughout, and I’d genuinely been looking forward to seeing him again. All of that – gone, shattered, vanished into thin air. I could hardly explain it. Had I moved on? Did I want to have fun with other people? Was he intruding on this new life I was building? I had no friggin’ idea.
As I was pondering this crisis and trying to subdue my frustration, he suggested moving into our room. I quickly used Matt as my trump card, saying it’d be rude to ask him to swap. Of course, we had another free bed, but giving him that one wasn’t even an option for Amelia and me. She used it as a shelf for most of her stuff and I’d steal the pillow every night for extra comfort – much to the cleaning ladies’ chagrin.
Sleepy Singer Turned Party Pirate
That night we went to La Tranquila to introduce Andreas to Utila’s nightlife. By this time, I had gotten kinda used to telling the kids to go out, have fun and not make too much noise when they came back, whilst I lay in bed writing and feeling like an old man – a happy old man.
Then I’d shower while belting out some pop favourites, brush my teeth while admiring Underwater Vision’s terrace, tend to my knee abrasion, and read myself to sleep. I think a few years’ age difference does make a difference – with me being on the older side of the dive shop’s clients. I felt like partying once or twice a week was more than enough – unlike most people there who could never get enough. Maybe it’s cause I partied all the time back home. Either way, I had to make an exception that night mostly cause of Andreas.
It was good fun – I can’t say otherwise. Amelia would be sleeping with Louis, and, coming back to an empty room, Andreas and I found ourselves alone. All I wanted was to sleep and embrace my pillow. He, on the other hand, had something else in mind. He kinda pushed himself on me. I caved. It was okay. I still couldn’t believe this was the same guy I almost fell for a few weeks back.
Stay wild,
Marius
Post-Scriptum
Clive rented a whole island to celebrate his 31st birthday and invited me. On the group chat, he wrote we could add whoever we wanted, so I invited Amelia, Louis and Tim. Turns out, that message was meant for the “inner circle”. I apologised – profusely – but Amelia still had to pay an extra fee. The others, for some reasons, didn’t have to. Dra-muh!