*01.05.2002 - 10:03 p.m.*

Happy New Year all! I'm back from the Panama Cruise...and it was unbelievable. My family took the Sun Princess boat from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. to Cozumel, Mexico to Grand Caymen, Caymen Islands, to Limon, Costa Rica, to the Panama Canal (which we went through two times), then to Catgena, Columbia. After that, it was 2 days at sea back to Florida.

So, in Cozumel, my family went helmet diving...well, me, my brother, my Dad,and my Mom (kinda) did. My lil' sister chickened out. Basically, you climb down a ladder into the ocean, and right before you're all the way under, they put a 70lbs helmet on your head. The helmet lets you breathe and see and stuff underwater. I was the first to go down...it was incredible...these big white fish were everywhere. They have safety divers go down with you, to make sure you don't freak or drown or something. The safty diver also attracks fish for you to watch...and you can take pictures. So, I had these big (and by big I mean 8 inches long) white fish about 5 inches away from my face...and they were beautiful. Then the safty divers walked us around along the bottom for awhile, showed us areef and some more fish...then they brought us up. For the longest time, I had been scared to swim in water that had living things in it...for reasons that I won't get into now...but that one dive pretty much cured me of that fear, because I learned something...fish respect personal space! It's true! They won't swim up and rub against you or anything...unlike sting rays...but that's another story.

Tomorrow, I write about snorkling and stingrays in Grand Caymen.