Monday, June 11, 2007

Finally...good diving pictures!

We went out for a couple of dives this weekend with some friends who are leaving the island. I finally got some good photos so I thought I'd share a few.
This dive is called the "Cheese Caves" by locals. This is due to all the caves in the rocks that make it look like a big piece of Swiss cheese.
Here I am at the beginning of the dive...And looking very sleek if I do say so myself :)

Now, I know this isn't the most amazing fish picture you've ever seen...but those little buggers are FAST, so I was impressed that I was able to capture it at all!
Cisco was definitely enjoying himself in this dive. Everytime I looked over at him he was upside down playing.
This was a super cute little starfish...talk about great natural camoflauge.

Cisco had a school of small fish swimming around him for a while. They didn't seem concerned by the giant man flipping his fins near them.
This is a fire worm. The have been pretty common on our dives, but this is the first really good picture I've gotten of one.
There were lots of urchins on this dive. I thought this little urchin community was pretty awesome with all the different colors.

Again...it may not look like much, but these fish are dang hard to capture on film!

Here's another cool urchin bed with some funky corals. The grey one looks like an underwater beehive.

This was forsure the coolest thing we saw on the dive. It's a nudebranch...no kidding...it's name sounds like nudy-branch. Anyway, it was REAL pretty and has a super cute little face and poofy tail. I am continually mistified by the variety in nature.

Cisco says, "It's all good!"

Friday, June 8, 2007

Avakas Gorge

One of the few places we had yet to go in Cyprus was Avakas Gorge on the Akamas Peninsula.
So last weekend we took a trip to see it. The gorge is about a mile from the beach through a walking trail. It has a lovely (in some parts...in other stagnant areas it's filled with algae) creek running through it.
And at one point the rock cliffs come together to form a very cool gorge. It was a really beautiful place. We're glad we got to see it before leaving Cyprus...in just 2 weeks!