Fifteen hours of PADI e-learning. Eight pool dives over two Saturdays. It all came down to this: stepping onto our dive boat (the Ballena, which I hoped would be a good omen) and steaming off through Drake Bay toward Isla del Cano National Park and the first of our open water certification “checkout” dives.

There was a whole party’s worth of adventurers on the boat: four scuba divers (Steve and me, and our new best friends Garry and Donna), two couples planning to snorkel, the boat captain, a guide for the snorkelers, and our PADI-certified divemaster and instructor, Quique.

Quique’s relaxed demeanor put us instantly at ease – he clearly knew every inch of the dive sites we’d be visiting, and he was friendly and calm. I liked him immediately, and breathed easier knowing we’d be in his charge for our first dives. In addition to guiding us around the dive sites, Quique would be testing Steve and me on our dive skills and deciding whether or not we’d pass our checkout dives and become officially certified open water divers. I hoped I’d impress him – at least enough to pass.

Suiting up and ready to giant-step into the water. Begin (BCD), With (Weights), Review (Releases), And (Air), Friend (Final Check) – and we’re ready. I left my camera on the boat for the first dive – wanting no distractions and no extra gear to keep track of. I figured if the first dive went well, I’d take my waterproof camera down for the next dive. And the first dive did go well. I calmly flooded and cleared my mask – a skill I was worried about, since I wear contact lenses – and demonstrated retrieving a loose regulator. The skills and the dive were over before I knew it, and we were reuniting with the snorkelers for a surface interval on Cano Island. As Steve and I sat on the sand in a carefully selected spot (Quique was much more nervous about us being brained by a coconut than he was about losing us underwater, for some reason) we agreed – we could definitely see how people could get addicted to this.

The surface interval (necessary so our bodies could clear nitrogen before we headed back underwater) felt like it dragged on forever – but it ended eventually and we were back on the boat, and soon, back under the surface.

Is it just me, or does my hair look freaking amazing?

I made it my mission to never, ever, EVER lose sight of Quique.

Quique led us expertly around the dive site. I felt like I was never quite where he wanted me to be. He had such perfect buoyancy that he could hover an inch above sensitive coral without touching it. Me, on the other hand? Not so perfect buoyancy. The last thing I wanted was to hurt a coral or damage sensitive seafloor, so I was erring on the side of swimming higher above the reef. Quique kept motioning to me to come down. Eventually I did get my buoyancy more consistent.

In addition to guiding us around the dive sites and testing us on our open water dive skills, Quique was invaluable in blowing bubble rings (seriously so impressive) and pointing out wildlife. See what’s down there below my fin?

How about now?

I love sea turtles, and I could barely contain my excitement. I thought I’d be hyperventilating with panic at the idea of a fish brushing up against me, but the closest I came to hyperventilating was out of wild joy. Swimming alongside a sea turtle was – hands-down – one of the coolest experiences of my life.

Oh, and there was coral too.

And my dive buddy!

The visibility wasn’t awesome – apparently it can be a bit variable and this was pretty much as bad as it gets – but the cloudy water was the result of a lot of plankton and other tiny creatures that the fish and other animals fed on. Can’t begrudge them a meal! And honestly, cloudy or not, our first ocean dives were such an incredible experience that we couldn’t have wished for anything more.

Only thing that was a bit scary: a few stingrays, including one that definitely did not like us being there. He flicked his tail up in a definite GO AWAY, and we skedaddled.

(It was not this guy; it was one of his cousins. This guy was much more chill. But still – I gave them a wiiiiiiiiiiiide berth.) Kind of surprised myself by being as anxious about the rays as I was; we were surrounded by fish and even saw a few reef sharks, but it was the rays that really unnerved me. Go figure.

Absolutely incredible experience, being in this alien and yet familiar world.

We went through a few more skills and paused for a safety stop under Quique’s watchful eye. (He had an iron grip on our BCDs during the safety stop. As Donna quipped later, “He would have had to do so much paperwork if you’d gone popping up to the surface…”) And then before we knew it – and definitely before we were ready for the dive to end – we were breaking the surface of the water and switching from regulators to snorkels.

And already so stoked for our next day of diving!

Next week: a surface interval at Isla del Cano National Park, one of the most beautiful spots on the planet!