Winter Break - Puerto Rico Edition!

After the beach in North Carolina, I headed down to Puerto Rico for our diving training trip. Now in year's past, I've dreaded our training trip. We typically go to Florida, which is great and fun, but we die while we're there. It is extremely mentally hard and physically exhausting. And honestly, this year, even though we were going to Puerto Rico, I was still dreading it a little bit. I knew that it would be fun to be there and the weather was awesome and it is a great time with the team, but thinking about the pain, just made it hurt. I wrote earlier about all the complications of the team getting there and everything that happened. It was all crazy, but as a whole, it was by far the best diving training trip I've been on.

We stayed in a five star Marriot hotel that was right on the beach. It was SO nice! They had a big pool outside next to the beach and great service. There were people standing outside next to beach chairs and you would ask them for one and they would carry it over to where you wanted to sit and set it up for you. I didn't even have to lay out in the sand! It was awesome. The beds were really comfortable and everything was so nice.

AAAAMAZING!

The pool we dove at was awesome as well. They had a tower, which is always fun to play on and do drills off of. One of the reasons I think I enjoyed this training trip was because I didn't have to do three meter. I don't do three meter anymore because of track, and that took away so much stress and anxiety. I basically did all of my dives everyday, which was great to get the reps in. We practiced from 6-8ish in the morning and then 4-6 in the afternoon. It was early, but we had all day to hang out, nap, eat and play. It was a ton of fun.



Diver pyramid! (yeah, I used to be at the top of pyramids...)

Nothing like jumping off a ten meter tower at 6 in the morning!

We did a couple team excursions that were lots of fun. Our first one was that we went to the Bio-luminescent Bay. It is this bay where all these little organisms that glow live. When you move the water around, it glows. It was really cool and a lot of fun. We weren't able to go as a whole team because there wasn't enough room, so the majority of the team went one night and all the seniors went the next night. It was really fun to do something with the thirteen of us since we don't really ever get to hang out as a senior class. We went at night and kayaked out to the bay. It was a really fun trip.

All the seniors out to dinner while the rest of the team was at the Bio Bay! So great to all hang out together.

My roommate Gillian!

The next day was Sunday, which we had off, and it was amazing! Most of the team took the local bus into Old San Juan. We split up into groups and walked around. I went with my roommate Gillian and Ross. We went and toured an old castle, walked around and got some lunch. The castle was sweet and had some gorgeous views. It was really hot that day and I got some bad blisters from my shoes, but it was still fun and we enjoyed it.

Me at the castle!

Roomie Picture!

The water was gorgeous!

Our last full day, in between practices, we went as a team to the rain forest. We hiked around and took pictures at a waterfall. It was really pretty and actually reminded me of the hike we went on when I was in Africa. Everything was so green and pretty.

Sam and I on our way to the rain forest, with lovely Brianna behind us :)

Casey and I at the waterfall!

As a whole I had an absolutely amazing time on our training trip. It was awesome to go to Puerto Rico and see San Juan. I got some good training in as well and the Lord walked me through each day. It was all because of him that I was able to mentally get through all of our practices. After a while, it just gets daunting, but by his grace I didn't have a single terrible practice. We had amazing weather and I would definitely recommend a trip to Puerto Rico if you ever have the opportunity!