Pemba
It seems as if on our foreheads were written a warning to keep out who try to do boot-kissing. It does not make easier his task for Hotel Nautilus" boss who, in spite of what he is used to do with guests, chooses to vanish off our menu. This way, without disturbances because of a ridiculous institutional savoir être, we taste a delicious dish of marlin, immersed in a moment when reliefs are being adulterated by sun fleeing towards the depths. The Wimbe beach is then a link between the sky afflicted by the coconut trees and the endless nocturnal condition of the water. …the delight of marlim!
A morning when Brenda announced "I will take you to the depths", the preparations for the departure are similar to a liturgy. The prelude of the previous day, sizing up dives, supposed only a quite insipid appetizer in spite of that we have enjoyed them. Arranged in the boat. Staring at the gear. Scared? We moved only a little away of the coast. The anchor in an accurate place. Verifying pressure. Brenda's telling-off Omar. Changing the cylinder means to return to the dive center. It takes very little to cast the anchor again. Current. I visualize the dive briefing. A platform at thirteen meters and then… Three control breaths. Into the water. I follow Brenda as she swoops. The in crescendo whisper in the ears. Excitement. Impatient ardor. Bewitching lightness of being. Calm! It is a song of silence, a spell of the crystalline blackness from beyond a big wall of about eighty meters. Heartbeats upset, need for breathing, mortality. I would sell myself out to the devil for a one more moment. Escorted by gigantic wings of sea whips we must be given back to the land. To live it once again is the sole reason to return under the sun. We go up reaching forty meters to cross The Tunnel - a fascinating Hades, the access to the The Garden of Eden. Here we let ourselves be captivated by all the unimaginable. Catched by the ceiling of the security stop, in ironic way, we affirm to belong to this liquid world. An essential quarantine before emerging is the tribute we must pay in order to return to the land condition.
We will celebrate our tenth dive on the Ibo island.
