Falling in Love a Dozen Meters Under the Sea

I have news you’ll be excited to hear: I’m in love.

He’s shy; my dive buddy Marcel says that he would hide in the reef too if he were that ugly. I think he’s the cutest thing in the sea. He’s fierce; he has a back full of spines, has organs full of poison and “inflates if molested,” my fish books warn. He has big, dark, round, protruding eyes I could get lost in, and a goofy smile with full lips that can make me laugh even when everything else makes me want to cry. He has little pectoral and dorsal fins that flutter away in a flurry when I flash a heart-shaped hand signal. He’s playing hard to get, darting away, hiding behind coral, but I am patient, one tank of air at a time.

Yes, I’m in love with each and every puffer fish in the sea, but particularly the Caribbean Porcupinefish. And a spotted burrfish? Be still my beating heart – must conserve air to chase him down!

“Onegaishimasu!” (Please!) I plead. “Kawaii!” (Cute!) I squeal.

Yes, I speak to myself in Japanese underwater. (Luckily, no one hears me, because Japanese is my least strong foreign language.) It’s the language I fall back on to describe all things other-wordly and astonishing and magical.  Think Japanese anime, enunciated. Healthy coral? “Kirei!” (Beautiful!) A big fish? “Okii!” (Big!) A little one? “Chiisai!” (Little!)  No other language communicates the sheer joy and wonder of scuba diving. “Tanoshii!” (Fun!)

It’s easy to fall in love dozens of meters under the sea.  At depth, peace surrounds, wonderment returns, maybe a little nitrogen narcosis overwhelms, and you absorb this completely foreign world through the eyes of a five year old girl. At depth, the water is becalmed, even if the sea is surging and the wind is howling at the surface. The only sound is your breathing through the regulator, slow deep yoga breaths. If you listen carefully you might hear a parrotfish crunching the coral with its beaklike mouth. At depth, you are weightless, suspended. You twirl your body around in summersaults, hover in full lotus position and (in the case of my friend for life Sarah) glide in full Superwoman extension. I would stay forever if not for decompression limits.

I’m looking for love in all the right places. The Pacific Ocean has been really special diving grounds – full of sharks, manta rays, turtles and colorful fish.  Next up:  Great Barrier Reef.  But still Bonaire has a very special place in my heart as the most beautiful diving and the best porcupine fish chasing grounds.