Although we had originally planned to spend a week here, with all the recent bombings and political unrest in the country, I decided a long layover on the way to the Maldives would be more my speed. I must admit, I do regret that decision to a certain extent after meeting some of the nicest and welcoming people ever. However, the strong military presence did make me feel a little uncomfortable, highlighting the fact there truly is concern of tiger rebel attacks throughout the nation.

We basically had from 5pm on Friday, until 8 am on Saturday to soak up what we could of the country. Staying in Negombo, a beach town north of Colombo was a perfect launching pad. Our lovely resort was right on the beach, from which we watched the most gorgeous slowly sinking sunset into the ocean. The colors in the horizon were some of the most intense we’ve ever experienced.

A tip from a local guy on a great restaurant led us to Choy’s and some of the tastiest seafood delights we’ve ever eaten, including a whole cuttle fish. If that meal was a true example of Sri Lankan cuisine, we are big fans of all the fresh fish and tasty sauces they use in their food.

In our tuk-tuk ride back home from dinner, we had an eye opening conversation with our driver about how the country is being affected by the tiger rebels. It was quite sad and heart wrenching to hear how the low tourist influx has greatly upset all of their livelihoods – this also explained his eagerness to show us around town. This fact made me feel a tinge of guilt for being yet another tourist nixing Sri Lanka off our list because of my likely irrational fears of attacks.

Our departure was bitter sweet, leaving behind this rich culture and beautiful land that we barely got a taste of, although our next stop along the way was the Maldives -- that certainly eased the blow!

I spent a lot of time trying to think up ways to describe how unimaginably beautiful and perfect this place is. I still haven’t come up with anything. To say we are feeling really lucky and fortunate to even be here is an understatement. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime week for us. The Maldives are a tiny island nation located off the southern tip of India. It is, quite literally, the middle of nowhere. The very first tourist set foot here a mere 30 years ago. In that time this strictly Islamic nation of 88 islands has managed to transform itself into the premier resort destination on the planet. It can be pretty tough to get to, particularly from the States. We first went through Sri Lanka, to the Maldivian capital island city of Malé, and then by chartered sea plane to The W.

Thanks to a great person in our lives we are staying at The W Retreat for far, far less than the normally outrageous price. Known for its super trendy big city hotels, The W has somehow managed to capture that feeling in a resort environment. It inhabits its own island staffed by over 250 people to cater to the 30 guests that are here at the moment. The island is surrounded by what is considered to be the finest reef in The Maldives, which are considered the finest reefs on earth. Therefore by the transitive property the reef that is 10 feet from our back door is perhaps the finest in the entire world. Each morning we just throw on our snorkel gear that is sitting on the back porch of our beach bungalow next to our private splash pool and walk down the white powder sand into the crystal clear turquoise water and start snorkeling. Which at 88 degrees feels like stepping into a bath.

There’s plenty of other stuff to do besides snorkeling. We have already gone on two of the most amazing dives of our lives, including a 60ft deep “drift dive” in which the current took us about a mile along a solid wall of reef. We’ve seen baby sharks, turtles, and every kind of fish imaginable. Often in schools of thousands. Tonight we are going night fishing, where I am hoping to catch one of those beautiful fish and eat it for dinner. Tomorrow we go on an “eco adventure” with a marine biologist to teach us about the marine life around here. We’ll wrap up Friday with our first “night dive” as lots of creatures come out then that do not appear during the day. It’s probably going to be a little crazy being that far down under the water in the pitch black night but it should be amazing.

The restaurants are quite spectacular as well. More for ambiance than food, frankly, but how often can you eat at the end of a pier with a DJ spinning tunes to a night sky with more stars than I thought could possibly exist and not be happy? There’s a bar dug deep into the center of the island called 15 Below that has every imaginable kind of vodka, a restaurant where you can eat lunch in the pool (as we did today), an amazing gym which Joy used while I stayed in the room and played video games, and a nifty area called The Living Room with lots of different games. I’ve already been plotting ways to extend our time here, but unfortunately there is one major down side – a terrible internet connection. And since internet connections are like air to us, I’m afraid a week without a decent one is all we can take.  Check out the pictures!

Believe it or not, one thing that Jason had never done before in his life was to go fishing. What better place in the world to try our hand at it, then in the beautiful Maldives. His dream of catching a fish and eating it came true this day. In fact, between the two of us we caught about a dozen fish during our night fishing excursion – they were all snapper except for one barracuda that Jason wrangled in the last minute. Dinner that night was a plate full of snapper sashimi and a whole grilled barracuda that the chef prepared for us – both delicious. Jason can now cross catching and eating his own fish off his list (since unbeknownst to me this was something he had always wanted to do)! Check out our cut throat fish catching competition in the video clip.

Scuba diving in this region of the world is like nothing we had ever experienced. The array of coral and range of tropical fish is tremendous, not to mention the water is so crystal clear it makes the visibility perfect. Throughout our three dives, one being a night dive we saw turtles, reef sharks, octopus, squid, a sting ray, lobsters, puffer and lion fish and hermit crabs just to name a few of the highlights.

The night dive was especially an amazing experience – the scariest part is getting up the courage to jump off the boat in the middle of the ocean, while it’s pitch black outside. We used a high powered flashlight to illuminate the reefs, and saw some very different things then during the day. It was especially exciting/scary swimming through some caves and overhangs, which was something we had never done before. Although I had a brief “Open Water” freak out moment when we surfaced after the dive and the boat was quite far away – but, they eventually saw us and picked us up.

One thing I’ve always had was a complete fascination with the ocean world and marine life. So, we were all over the opportunity to go on The W yacht with the resident marine biologist to learn about the local sea life, and then have a snorkeling eco-adventure. This proved to be one of the most beautiful and interesting snorkeling experiences I had ever had. It was great having the trained eye of the marine biologist who was able to point out so many things that we would have never seen on our own, for example two mating octopus.

Our time on this little slice of heaven in the Maldives is about to come to a close, but not before one last night fishing excursion. It’s sad to think that these beautiful islands and atolls are slowly getting swallowed up by the ocean, and it’s estimated that within the next 20 years there will be no more islands (global warming of course). This is my plug to everyone to save up your money, and figure out a way to get to this slowly disappearing place in the world – it’s like no tropical paradise we’ve ever seen and truly magnificent!

Dubai redefines the term “melting pot”. Every race, shape, color, creed, and breed are represented by a trip to the mall. Which is primarily what there is to do here since it is 110 degrees. And since this entire city is brand new with no history or museums – not that I’d go to them anyways. Standing in the 45 minute long taxi line to get a cab back from the mall to the hotel on Saturday night, I couldn’t believe how many different nationalities were in one place. Only 30 percent of the population are “locals”, the rest are workers that come from all corners of the world to try to cash in on the development boom going on here. And what a boom it is – there are more cranes in Dubai than everywhere else in the world combined. Entire skylines are being erected all across the desert. It’s like Las Vegas meets Scottsdale with a bottle – no case - of steroids added to the mix.

As I said, there’s not a ton to do here. Besides shopping that rivals even Singapore. The Emirates has taken the concept of shopping mall to a whole new level. We went to the largest mall in the eastern hemisphere, which has an actual ski slope inside of it. And I don’t mean a bunny slope. This thing is the real deal, chairlift and all. It also had a Carrefour in it that makes Walmart – even a Super Walmart – look like a little boutique shop. It’s like a Walmart swallowed a Costco and then gave birth to a Sam’s Club all under one roof.

It’s a strange mix here of Islamic and Western values. Restaurants are separated into four sections: smoking and non-smoking, drinking and non-drinking. If you choose to down the booze, it is generally done on the other side of a black curtain. There are also lots of men walking around in the full white robe getup, complete with black clad harems of women in tow. This is an idea I would like to explore further, but I have been assured by Joy that will not be happening, even though I do look Arab.

Our hotel is also pretty interesting. It’s not your average Park Hyatt. It’s a sprawling compound straddling the “creek” that separates the two halves of the city. I don’t understand why it is called a creek since it’s larger than most rivers and has a yacht club that could harbor a cruise ship, but that’s what they call it. Check out the video of us walking to our hotel room. It’s officially the longest video clip we have ever uploaded.

There is no doubt that the desert safari is a classic activity that must be enjoyed while in Dubai. Yes, it’s tailored for the traveler, but certainly gives you a good perspective of the arid region at the same time mixing in some of the schmaltzy touristy stuff that we secretly all love.

The adventure got off to a very slow start when our “no personality” driver picked us up from the hotel in our 4 x 4, and literally didn’t say one word for the 45 minute ride to the “safari site”. We had no idea where we were going, how long it’d take, nothing. And to top it off, the other 4 passengers in the car didn’t say anything – kind of that weird awkward silence, where at a certain point it would be even more uncomfortable to break the quiet and say something.

When we arrived to the edge of the vast desert land our driver took some air out of the SUV’s tires, since clearly we were about to get down and dirty with 4 wheeling it on the dunes. It was a blast high tailing it up and down the sand dunes, coming very close at times to either tipping over or getting stuck in the sand (we saw a bunch of stalled cars stuck in the sand) – it was an absolute thrill. Jason and I were even the lucky recipients of the back seat where you could especially feel every bump magnified – definite sore on our tush’s.

We made some scenic stops along the journey to take in the grandeur of the barren region, as well check out some camels, and my favorite was watching the sun slowly set over the desert. This funny couple was really into taking our picture as the sun set, so we got some killer pictures of us as they directed us to pose in silhouette positions – it was kind of strange, but all we cared about was getting a good picture.

The final destination of the safari was to a campsite setup literally in the middle of the desert. Here, we got to ride a camel, although we basically just went around in a circle in a little area (this was more about the photo op!). When we entered into the actual interior of the site, it was amazing to see the sprawl of carpets and pillows blanketing the sand, which is where we enjoyed a delicious traditional Arabic dinner. We also got to smoke the hookah underneath the stars in the open desert –that certainly hasn’t happened often in our lives. Lastly, we enjoyed an amazing performance of a belly-dancer who was absolutely incredible, pulling off some very unique moves. It was certainly an action packed evening that will be emblazoned in our minds.

If you’re like me, you probably have no idea where Bahrain even is. And the “h” is not silent. In fact, it is very aggressively pronounced. The Kingdom of Bahrain is a tiny island connected to Saudi Arabia by a 15 mile causeway which happens to be the world’s most expensive bridge. Let’s just hope Bush can keep it in his pants for a few more days about this region until we’re out of here. Really though, it’s completely safe. Not exactly Western, but not an Al Qaeda training camp either. It’s an interesting mix of traditional dress, values and culture with capitalism, growth, and massive construction.

There’s not much to do here. We’ve asked countless people to give us some ideas of ways to fill a few days, but they all just stare back blankly at us with that “why are you here in the first place” sort of look. I managed to let Joy talk me into going to the National Museum (since it’s air conditioned), although there were no exhibits about food so my attention span started to give out a few minutes in. We were going to go see the old Portuguese Fort on the way, but our driver insisted there was no such thing since he didn’t know quite how to get to it. There’s also an oil museum with the feature highlight of the region’s first oil well, but we decided to skip it since there was no gift shop.

Like Dubai, the primary means of entertainment is going to malls. It’s REALLY hot here – the kind of hot where walking even a few blocks is completely out of the question. Which is a real pain because taxis do not use meters here. Each ride is its own unique haggling situation, often heated, until a “reasonable” price is agreed upon around halfway through the ride. Threats from our side of “We will get out of this cab right now” and threats from their side of “I will turn this cab around right now” abound. Luckily English is spoken widely, making this delicate dance more tolerable.

The best part about being here though is that I look like I belong. Granted I’m not in the head to toe white sheet thingies that all the other guys are in, but if I were I’d completely blend in. I even went without shaving for two weeks to heighten the effect. It was nice finally being somewhere that I couldn’t immediately be pegged as a tourist. It kind of makes me wonder why I’m not stopped in airports more often.

Watching the sun slowly sink into the ocean, palm trees swaying in the slight breeze, radiating colors reflecting off the Indian Ocean and the faint sliver of the moon beginning to show, was like no sunset we had ever experienced– it truly seemed like we were gazing out at a beautiful painting sprawled across the sky.

There is no doubt Mauritius is a stunning paradise. Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 300 miles east of Madagascar, which is 300 miles east of South Africa, this island is in the middle of nowhere. It has become the holiday getaway for many travelers, especially Europeans (few Americans). The sprawling mountains, expansive sugar cane fields, palm trees, and long stretches of beach are very reminiscent of Maui. However, the ever present French influence and language used in the country is the main thing that gives away we’re in a foreign country.

Although our resort is a luxurious hideaway tucked along the east side of the island, much of what we discovered of the country seems to boast a very different picture of a deprived population. It seems that recent bad weather and declining sugar prices have slowed economic growth leading to some protests over standards of living in the Creole community.

Driving a rental car for the first time in 3 months (since Australia) gave us the freedom to explore and get a sense of the Northern part of the island. We decided to just get lost following the coastal road up north, which yielded some breathtaking views. We circled down to Port Louis, the very “not” happening capital of the country, and got some fresh squeezed juice at the harbor.

It feels like we just can’t enough of island living, realizing at this point in our travels what a disproportionate part of our trip we’ve spent on the beach, in the pool or the ocean. We do realize how fortunate we are to have these opportunities -- when we get back to the “real world” we know we'll look back longingly at this moment in our lives.

Jason and I have always been a couple to spend a lot of time together – him working from home, and me working part time allowed for that. However, nothing prepared us for the amount of concentrated, one on one time we’d have with each other on this trip -- many days talking to no other people except ourselves. So you could see how 5 months into our travels we are itching to meet new people, and trying not to kill or smother each other in the mean time.

Often times we have the name and e-mail of someone to contact in a country from friends and family, however we never quite know what we’re going to get. It really does feel like a blind date, meeting up with couples or an individual after exchanging a couple e-mails, and wondering "what will they be like or will they like us?".

This is how we felt sitting in the lobby at Le Meridien waiting for our “dates” of that evening, Nicky (a family friend’s, first cousins, daughter, who just happened to move to Mauritius 3 weeks prior – a random connection) and her husband Trevor. Each couple that walked by we’d slightly make eye contact with, wondering was that them. We were so happy when a young couple our age walked into the lobby, and came towards us.

It’s amazing how one dinner out with a fun couple can recharge us for a long time. Not only does it give us something interesting to reflect on (as do you’re update e-mails so keep those coming), but it also validates that we can still socialize with other people (at least we think we can!)

So, thanks to all of our "blind dates" throughout this year, who have made many of our evenings so much fun!

Before arriving in Johannesburg, South Africa, we had heard many conflicting stories as far as what to expect. Some said the reputation for how dangerous this city is was overrated, others said don’t plan on leaving your hotel without bodyguards. In a nutshell, I think it falls somewhere in the middle, perhaps leaning a little more towards the dangerous side. It is not safe to walk around outside in the vast majority of the city – day or night – particularly the downtown area. However there are some places where it’s ok to go for a short stroll. Provided you are very aware of your surroundings and on guard at all times. I think the Wikipedia advice sums it up well (see bottom of entry under Stay Safe).

We decided the best way to see the city would be to hire a driver/guide for the day. Patrick turned out to be an amazing resource for showing us areas we otherwise could not go into, giving us his views on Apartheid since he has lived here his entire life, and giving us a real perspective on life in such a strange place to live. The tour started innocently enough with a trip through the wealthy northern suburbs, including where Nelson Mandela lives. It was then time to “roll ‘em up and lock ‘em” as we went into the center of downtown. We went through some of the pretty bad neighborhoods, riddled with gangs, drugs, and prostitution. And that’s just the stuff we could see. The CBD (central business districts, which is what “downtown” is called everywhere except America) is actually seeing a small revival. All hotels and business had been completely closed down due to excessive violence, however a few are now beginning to move back in and there is even a hotel scheduled to open in a few months.

Next stop was Soweto, which stands for South Western Townships - perhaps the most interesting part of all of Johannesburg. This is an area where many blacks were displaced to during the beginnings of Apartheid. It is now a mix of somewhat respectable homes and complete and absolute poverty. Patrick took us through areas where there is no running water or electricity. What few places have electricity are stealing it by running a precarious line through dry brush to their shack.

We drove into what looked to be the poorest and scariest part of all when the car was mobbed by children of all sizes and ages. I must admit, I was thinking to myself “Get us the hell out of here fast”. But Patrick had other ideas. He stopped the car, opened the semi-armored doors, and told us to get out. And so, I finally felt what it was like to be Oprah. We were literally swarmed by the most adorable and friendly children I have ever seen. We flowed down this river of children into Grandma Elizabeth’s shack, the old lady who makes bread to feed them all. There we got a chance to talk with her a bit (she was very shy) and spend some time with the kids. It was truly one of the most amazing and moving experiences of my life. They say once you go to Africa, a little piece of it will always stay in your heart.

We ended the very, very long day with trips to the house Nelson Mandela grew up in, the museum commemorating the Soweto uprising of 1976, and the Apartheid museum. If ever in Johannesburg – and that’s probably a big “if ever” - I highly recommend going to the Apartheid museum. And that’s saying a lot since I generally don’t like museums. It really is extremely well done.

We'll be roughing it at Arathusa Lodge in the Sabi Sands game reserve for the next 4 days, which means this is the first time on our entire trip we will be completely out of touch.  Expect some exciting animal pictures and safari updates on June 26th!

We just returned from our 4 day safari in the Sabi Sands, a game reserve connected to Kruger Park in South Africa. Unsure of what to expect from Arathusa (since we’re not exactly the roughem’ type), we were pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful lodge equivalent to hotel like accommodations (minus televisions and internet). The main difference here was the position of the site perched on the edge of the most amazing waterhole in the middle of the bush, a spot where tons and tons of animals would gather to drink. Often times we’d just be lying in bed relaxing, and look up to see outside our window groups of elephants or impala or hippos gathered around the hole.

Upon arriving to Arathusa, we were immediately ushered out on our first game drive with our fellow lodge goers; this would be our first of the six, three hour game drives throughout our stay. These drives were conducted in open air 10 seater land-rover vehicles, which gave an incredible vantage of all the surroundings. Our driver Jaqcue, was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all the animals we’d find, and our tracker Morris, seated on a single seat that jutted out from in front of the vehicle, had eyes like a hawk. He had this incredible ability to trace animals’ tracks, and eventually lead us to groups of them.

My first impression of a safari was that there would be animals running around all over the place, never quite understanding quite the expedition we’d have to go on to find the little creatures. The discoveries were definitely worth the wait though, as our adrenaline would mount the second we happened upon a sighting.

You don’t realize how scary it is to be so up close and personal with wild animals, sometimes just several feet in front of you. The elephant sightings were especially intense, since often times we’d find them in large groups, snapping trees left and right, directly in front of us – they could easily have tipped over our vehicle. By far the most exciting spotting was the male lion that had blood smeared on his face and leg, probably from a recent kill he made. I was scared he’d mistake me for a fellow lion, since my fake fur hood definitely was mane-like.

The big hype in the safari scene is spotting the Big 5 -- these are the animals classified as the most difficult and dangerous to hunt by foot. They include elephants, water buffalo, leopards, rhinoceros and lions. AND, we were lucky enough to spot them all!!!! Although spotting the animals was always a thrill, just being on the game drives was an adventure in itself, and also really gave us time to be in our thoughts.

On top of the amazing animals and surroundings, we met some really neat people at our lodge. Sharing meals, our long game drives, and relaxing moments gave us time to connect with others in the most amazing environment, something I was so sad to leave.

Although I thought that going to a zoo to see animals mights be similar to a safari, these experiences aren't even in the same league -- no bars, no windows, and no protection from the wild animals, which makes the safari such a thrill.  I am definitely turned on to the whole safari experience, and am already trying to figure out a way to do one more before we leave Africa.

One of the ways we entertain ourselves while away is to have little missions. Yesterday, one of our longest missions finally came to its triumphant conclusion. I have a bit of foot trouble and there’s only one shoe I’ve ever found that feels good and doesn’t cause it to act up. The Asics Gel Evolution II. I also was cursed with freakishly wide feet, and normal tennis shoes just don’t fit right. And no, it’s not true what they say.

The thing about Asics is outside of the US they can be relatively hard to find. I was able to pick up a new pair in Australia with relative ease, but hadn’t seen them since. Around Malaysia I started to get pretty desperate, since we’re not exactly traveling with a closet full of shoes. Any time we were out and about, we always had our eye out for sporting goods stores where maybe I would get lucky and find them. A few times we came oh-so-close, actually finding the exact shoe. But alas, the size US 11 eluded us each time. Foreigners apparently have much smaller feet. Eight countries and over a month later we finally found them at a Foot Locker in Cape Town, South Africa. The highlight of the experience was the shoe salesman saying “I don’t mean to toot our own horn, but we have the best Asics selection around”, and then beaming like a proud father for the rest of our time with him. I’ve since been in a post-coital mission success bliss and can’t stop looking across the room at them.

We were informed that during slow season in Cape Town, we’d have no problem walking up and getting on a tour to Robben Island. But, when we arrived at 9am to the ticket office we were told we could only get on the 1pm. The only good thing about this is we had time to wander around the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront; this is the very “touristy” area, equivalent to Fisherman’s Wharf in SF. We did however manage to find Jason’s Asic’s shoes he’s been on the hunt for, so it was a blessing in disguise we had to wait.

At 1pm, we boarded the “Sea Princess” ferry and set sail on the 30 minute ride to Robben Island. The views of Cape Town were magnificent from the back of the boat. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the visit, since the whole ferry process was quite hectic and unorganized, not to mention we were informed that the main attraction of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell was under retrofit and we would not be able to enter it.

The main attraction to Robben Island is similar to that of Alcatraz, as it served as a prison primarily to political prisoners during apartheid. It only closed as recently as 1995, and now is a popular destination. We began our tour of the island on a bus, guided by a very knowledgeable Yolanda. She showed us the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela served 18 long years doing hard labor, prison cells, some of the incredible wild life that occupies the island, as well the amazing views looking onto the Cape.

The next portion of the tour was more interpersonal. We were greeted by an ex-prisoner who led us through some of the barracks, sharing with us his experience serving in the prison as well telling us some of his political views. His passion and commitment to his beliefs and hopes for South Africa were incredibly moving. In fact, I was so moved by his story that I left my hat in the cell he was talking to us in. Amazingly, the girl sitting in front of us on the ferry (out of 150 people) happened to find a hat and low and behold I was reunited with it.

We’ve managed to meet up with lots of different people on our trip, but so far none of them have been people we’ve known from our lives BTJ (before the journey). Finally, nearly six months in, that has changed. Josh is a friend of mine from my days back at Jack Nadel, and his girlfriend Sarah is shooting a documentary here in Cape Town. Josh and Sarah like to eat and drink, and therefore are close friends that we were very excited to see. Our first dinner was at The Vault, a restaurant in the basement vault of an old bank. It started out innocently enough with a five course tasting menu and wine pairing. The trouble started when the “wine pairing” turned out not to be a sip from the bottle, but the entire bottle. Thus five bottles of wine and several very elaborate shots (see video) later we were pretty toasty. But, as usual, things didn’t end there. We made buddies with the overly verbose chef/owner who then introduced us to a very strange man at the next table over who apparently owned a local winery. Conversation led to more drinks, which led to a round of Cuban cigars upstairs in the smoking lounge, which led to an Apartheid pow wow that ended at 3am.

Luckily for us we had nothing to do the next day. Unluckily for Josh & Sarah they had an entire day of shooting planned starting with a 9am boat trip on very rough seas out to Robben Island. Sucks for them. Last night we went to Moyo, a rather touristy “authentic African” restaurant in Spier winery that boasts local dance and music. Mostly I felt like I was on a cheap Caribbean cruise, complete with buffet and face painting, but it was fun enough.

There are certain activities we do along our trip we know not to tell our parents about until after we’ve experienced them –- cage diving with great white sharks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean certainly falls into that category.

Our friends Josh and Sarah were gung ho to do this adventure, something that hadn’t really been on our radar mostly because it’s winter here in Cape Town and the oceans are freezing. I can barely handle the temperature of tropical bath water without getting goose bumps, none-the-less the Atlantic Ocean during winter. However, somehow Jason convinced me I should do it!

The ungodly hour of 5 a.m. rolls around and we’re whisked away on our two and a half hour drive to False Bay to begin the adventure; this early hour was set to try and avoid the bad weather that was supposedly rolling in – that’s always a settling thought when you’re about to go out on the high seas to go cage diving with sharks and a storm is impending!

The boat journey was quite choppy, as we barreled over large surges; all four of us required a second dose of Dramamine. It’s at this point, while Jason and I are huddled together for warmth, that Jason looks at me and concedes it’s just way too cold to even think about putting on a wet suit and getting in the water. Gotta love those “I told you so” moments.

I too was apprehensive as the stinky chumm of anchovies and fish guts was being ladled in the water, the bait was being tossed over, several people were blowing chunks over the railing, and low and behold the great whites were beginning to circle – not the most inviting scene. Then, the cage was dropped in and the first divers made their way into the contraption, the thin bars being the only thing separating them from the powerful snapping shark jaws. All four of us at this point began justifying to each other that being on the boat was just as cool as being in the water, and there was no need to risk catching colds in the frigid waters.

Something in us snapped after our little rationalization session, and we decided to put the wetsuits on and just do it. We made the plunge into the freezing water, and immediately my toes went numb from the intense chill. The hardest part in the surging current was ensuring your limbs didn’t slip outside the cage, which we all struggled with as our bodies flailed.

Suddenly we hear “down” yelled and we instantly jumped into action, immersing ourselves in the water to view the sharks directly in front of our eyes. The captain used bait to attract them directly in front of the cage, giving us the most intense, up close image of these powerful creatures. At one point a shark came for the left side of the cage, lodging itself literally inches away from Jason, and even biting off some of the protective foam from the cage (check out the video clip). The last shark of the day just about gave us all a heart attack, categorized as a Beta 2– not exactly sure what that means, except that the experienced captain seemed blown away by its over 14 foot length!

At least we can say we lived to tell the tale . . .