Final day of the IE today, the PADI instructor exam and I am sitting outside the Cabinas in Coco whilst my students finish up their preparation for the final part of the exam, the knowledge review presentation. This is definitely one of the least stressful parts of the exam so already everyone is starting to celebrate. The IE as I have mentioned is fun, believe it or not, but in this particular amusing episode in playa del coco I have never laughed so hard. The adventures of the three intrepid instructor candidates from Manuel Antonio (Go Pro Costa Rica) with partner in crime Angus (one of our divemasters) have been particularly hilarious. The car journey up was amusing to say the least with various renditions of 20 questions, in which I don’t even think we ever got one that was within 20 questions. The IE, which is moved between our 2 locations throughout the year, during january and April we hold them in Quepos and later in the year we have them here in Coco. Good excuse for a road trip! Anyway, The first part was the exams and orientation, good to get out of the way, as that helps you relax a bit. I do feel that nobody loves physics more!!!
The second day I left them as they bravely headed off into open water. Everyone was successful but narrowly survived dive bombing by a pelican through one of the rescue practices, and also enjoyed a visit by a random duckling. Yes really, apparently swimming up to the group and then deciding to climb all over one of the students who are now discussing the fact that he clearly looks more motherly?! On finishing, its relax time , off to a nice bar to grab some food, but even that can’t be uneventful. On ordering and the food arriving, "someone" decided to get over enthusiastic with the mustard bottle, which resulted in a complete explosion of condiments over both himself, his plate, the floor, the table next to us...do I need to go on?! I will say one thing, it is good for the soul to laugh! Whilst sitting here writing these musings on paper(not quite I know) and listening to someone rapping to snoop dogg in a fab english accent, whilst a discussion on how mustardy someones clothes might be I can only imagine what the journey back will bring. You have worked hard guys, you completely deserve this and in less than 2 hours you will be official PADI open water scuba instructors, so well done! You are awesome! Okay, as I am listening to them trying to harmonize a random tune outside I am starting to wonder about the final comment....