Day 5: Island of Great Complexity

Vela Luka, Croatia

I came to realize really fast that this 3-month internship won’t be much of a “holiday.” I was escaping from my 5-day 9-6 job in the States to a 6-day 7-7 job! And instead of sitting on my arse in front of the computer drawing pretty pictures I’m now working all sort of manual labour: sweeping, mopping, boat tying in the middle of the rain, carrying tanks, tidying the dive shops and whatnot.

During my down time I will have to study and do my written diving course work. I think it will be a couple of week before I will get into the water and dive. Bobby told me that by the end of the month, when the weather warms up, we will be having around 70 client divers a day! Oh boy! I suppose what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger eh? And all this manual work will put me in a better physical fitness for my future backpacking.

Sean told me today about this big cave half an hour away that houses either pre-historic human remains or artifacts called “Vela Spilja,” literally translates as “Big Cave.” We decide to check it out when we have our days off.

Another interesting bits of info that I picked up today was that Vela Luka used to be the hide out and operating center of a rather big drug cartel in this part of Europe. The police cracked down on them a few years ago and now the town is supposedly clean. You wouldn’t have guessed judging from the looks of the town. It seriously looks like a half forgotten old fishermen town. I was told things will be different though comes summertime. Tourists will be here making it a much livelier place.

By the way, I met two fellow American client divers today: LaShae and Tonya. These ladies work in Germany and they told me I’m more than welcome to visit them when I pass by the country and they’ll be happy to show me around. Winning!!!