The first night we were there, we found a tiny rock climbing shop down from our hotel, the Haleeva (which I’d recommend, though a bit up from the beach, but we didn’t care). They took us on their boat to Railay Beach, a peninsula accessible only by  boat since the top is bordered by large mountains. We climbed for the first half of the day, ate lunch on the beach with two girls from Germany (we met so many Germans on this trip) that we met rock climbing and walked over to West Railay Beach where it was filled with people enjoying the beach.

Our goal however was to find a cave that was recommended to us. A bit of a ways up the beach, we found more rock climbers and eventually found a cave with fixed ropes and ladders inside. A flashlight was definitely needed (one was lent to us by a local climbing shop) as we traversed back and up inside this cave. It eventually came out 50 feet above the rock climbers we had previously encountered with a gorgeous view of one of the beaches.

Railay Beach, Thailand

Top of the climb in Railay, Thailand

 

 

Ana at the top of the route

After a little while, it started to get crowded

 

 

Low tide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the boat back to Aonang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aonang Boardwalk

 

Sunset

Railay Beach, Thailand is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. City of Rocks
2. Beach Diving
3. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Laberinto Scuba Dive
4. Isla Fuerte, Colombia

City of Rocks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City of Rocks is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Railay Beach, Thailand
2. Colombia
3. Welcome, Willkommen, Üdvözölek, Bienvenido!
4. Medellín Colombia

Some might think I’ve spent all this time opening a dive center here in the New River Valley. In fact, I think I’ve only spent about 10% of my time doing that.

iPhone Apps

We have two that are completed and awaiting final testing. This is usually the longest part of creating any application. We haven’t had any of our live apps crash yet, and I prefer to keep it that way. So, we do a lot of testing. And when we think we’re done, we test some more.

Lab Work

One must think I’m getting my PhD in Environmental Engineering. I do have a degree from the College of Engineering (Computer Science), but Environmental? I would never have thought. But Ana is finishing up and I’m helping out. That means preparing batch reactors, measuring gas production and writing a thesis. Luckily I’m only helping in small quantities and the lab work is completely done. Now it’s just data analysis and finishing off that thesis. I guess it’s science, and we use a computer, so it’s kind of what I went to school for.

Businesses

As I mentioned, we opened a dive center in Blacksburg. But we also created a state of the art website for it that’ll allow the company to grow into something much more than a dive center. We had the awesome team from HellowYellow design us the site, and they did an amazing job. We’re working on a ton of new features to the site like class registration, videos, etc. How hard can all that be? Well it’s part of a much larger picture, so a little harder than you think.

Part of that larger picture is this: It’s not about opening a dive center and sharing our passion for scuba. It’s about taking a business, any business, and making it the best at what it does. Most dive center websites look like theirs were created in 1996, by a dude with 10 minutes of html experience while sitting on a beach, drinking coronas.

So we started something. That something has grown to include several businesses, several partnerships, several clients and a lot of change. That change will upset a lot of people, namely those on the other side. How many, will be our measure of success.

Dive Centers, iPhone apps and More is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Avalon Dive Center – Blacksburg, VA
2. First Dive 2009 – New River
3. Mobile Application Development
4. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Scuba Dive

We’ve realized that the usual way things are done are: scuba instructor opens a shop, creates a website and attempts to make a living doing what they love. The problem is, these people are usually not business people, they’re not designers, they’re not programmers, they’re not using the latest technology. Take business people, programmers, designers, marketers, and influential people who all use technology on a daily basis and have a passion for scuba diving and combine them into one package. That’s what I feel the Avalon Dive Center is. We’re many people with many talents getting together to share our passion with others in the best way we know how.

Avalon Dive Center – Blacksburg, VA is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Dive Centers, iPhone apps and More
2. About Mike
3. First Dive 2009 – New River
4. What’s Wrong with this Scuba Diver?

I got the opportunity to spend New Year’s Day in Colombia, which is better than any fourth of July celebration in any American city. In the US, where there’s an hour of fireworks displays, in Medellín, Colombia, the fireworks last the entire evening, night and into early morning. If one didn’t know any better, you’d swear you were living in a war zone with constant gun fire. It was truly amazing. The same thing happens on Christmas.

I also got married in Colombia, so that was kind of a big deal. We rented out a extremely fancy club and  partied until 4AM; then, we went to an after party. Also, my family got to see the amazing landscape that happens in no other place in the world except Colombia.

Too many things have happened since, so I have to keep this short, or not post it at all

Enjoy the photos:

Colombia is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Colombia for Christmas
2. Medellín Colombia
3. Christmas Eve Morning in Colombia
4. Isla Fuerte, Colombia

When we started LTZ, our mobile and web app development company, we didn’t need any venture capital funding. We didn’t need a fancy office to rent. We didn’t need to do the whole fancy company launch. We just sat down at our computers and started coding. And when we finally had a product to ship, we did all the legal paper work and got ourselves a little LLC.

Sure there were risks. The risk of becoming single again was always there. Sure there were long days. 16 hours seemed to be the norm. And sure there were a few new technologies that we created. But when it came down to it, we just had a simple plan: work really hard and make some great products.

The business model we had, seemed like a great idea: become an authority and gateway for indie developers to develop their apps with. Sort of like a record label for mobile app developers, but without the whole ripping them off bit. We’d mentor and direct them to a finished product and take a minimal cut from the net profits. Any programmer can attest to the numerous projects that never make it to a finished, polished, tested app. But that’s exactly what separates the professionals from the amateurs: finished products.

Now, we’re looking at things differently and adjusting our model. We’ve found out a little more about what works and what doesn’t in this new space. When you’re such a small company, the saying, “If you want things done right, you gotta do it yourself,” turns into, “If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself.” It’s really hard to concentrate on writing good code when you’re the tester, the project manager and the client manager all in one.

I’ll talk more about the new direction we’re heading soon. In the meantime, we’re still working on the details and we’ll update everyone as soon as we finalize everything.

I am not an entrepreneur. I just create stuff.

I Am Not an Entrepreneur is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. iPhone Pricing
2. Mobile Application Development
3. What I’ve Been Up To
4. Dive Centers, iPhone apps and More

Photos of the Week – Pets is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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1. Photos of the Week – Motion and Speed
2. Photos of the Week – Food
3. Photos of the Week – Summer
4. Colombia

Instead, we found Kiara in a cage outside, scared to death of the other barking dogs around her. She wouldn’t even come out, but instead cowered into the corner. Ana climbed into the cage and Kiara instantly cuddled up to her. Kiara had actually been returned to the shelter two days before by a women with health problems who couldn’t handle the activeness of a collie puppy. Real intelligent. She was also infested with thousands of ticks, which the humane society had over looked because of her fluffy hair, the fact that the vet was on vacation and that she had only been there for two days.

But she’s adjusting well and Ana has already begun training her in various things and taking her on long walks.

Photos of the Week: Living Things is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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1. Photos of the Week – Pets
2. Photos of the Week: Faces in Places
3. Photos of the Week – People
4. Christmas Eve Night in Medellin

Petition for a Family Member

It’s kind of strange to call someone you’re going to be married to a relative, but that’s what it’s referred to. Any legal resident can petition the government to allow immediate family to join them in the United States. This is the case if you’re an immigrant or a citizen. Upon marrying someone, a citizen can request that the government allow the spouse to enter, live and work within the US. The spouse, if already in the US, can update their visa from, in our case, an F1 student visa, to permanent resident status. The law gets really tricky if you enter the US on a non-immigration visa, in other words not intending to immigrate, after having filed a Petition for Alien Relative. And yes, they call them aliens.

The form, I-130, is just a form stating who I am, how I’m legally in this country (through birth), and what my relation is to the person for whom I’m petitioning. Pretty straight forward.

Changing Visa Status

At the same time, we file an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, form I-485. This allows Ana to update her F1 visa to a Permanent Resident visa. After having filed this, she can not leave the country and return on her F1 visa. The reason is, upon entering the US under an F1 student visa, she is stating that by entering on a non-immigration visa, she is not intending to stay in the country, which would be false, since she has filed for permanent residency. It makes sense, but is something people need to be aware of. To get around this, there is another form I-131, Application for Travel Document, that we would need to file until she’s approved for a green card so that she can travel to Colombia or somewhere else on our honeymoon.

Additional Forms

There are a few more forms to file, such as an Application for Employment Authorization, form I-765, biographic information, form G-325A and my favorite, form G-1145, E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance, which will send me an email and/or text message when my application has changed status.

The process is pretty straight forward, but we consulted with a lawyer first to know what we were getting ourselves into. The tough part is understanding each form that needs to be filed, how to file it, what you need to file it properly and gathering all the other information and supporting documents that are needed. We can hire a lawyer to do all of this for us after we get married, but we don’t have the money right now. But we’re confidant we can properly do all of this. The trick is just taking a bit at a time and a lot of reading. Each government form has accompanying instructions to follow so it makes the process a lot less daunting.

Immigration is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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1. Colombia
2. Bike Training with the Garmin Edge 705 GPS
3. iPhone Pricing
4. Naming Conventions – Why Your Code Sucks

The Beginning

As far as we could tell when we started the BarNinja iPhone app, there weren’t any other apps like it on the Apple App Store. That was back in April of 2009. While I was in San Francisco back in March, I got a Facebook message from Jason asking if I was interested in doing an iPhone app. I had done a bunch of Mac development and even independently sold a previous application. I had also attended Apple’s developer conference (WWDC) on two separate occasions so I was quite comfortable with developing for Apple products. When I got back from California, we sat down at a local bar in Blacksburg and wrote down our ideas for the app he wanted to make. That was prior to iPhone OS 3.0 being released and we were counting on some key features in that release for our app. In the end, we ultimately failed when the features didn’t work out exactly as we expected. Luckily, only a little code had been written and that was enough to get me up to speed with the current iPhone development platform.

Instead of quitting, we got BarNinja, another local Blacksburg startup involved in another app idea. We wanted to leverage the shake feature (iPhones can detect when you shake them) that was relatively new and make a mixed drink app based around that.

Soon after we started, a few other apps starting hitting the app store with exactly those features. But the competition didn’t deter us, but instead pushed the bar higher for us. We now knew we couldn’t just make another mixed drink app with a shaker feature, we had to make the best mixed drink app with a shaker feature. We were also creating a 730+ recipe database (including ingredients and other drink information) that would hopefully give us an added advantage. Luckily, at the last WWDC (2005) that I attended, they announced a technology called CoreData which allows developers to place small databases easily within their applications. They also included it in the iPhone OS and I ran with it.

Problems and Solutions

The problem with having 730+ recipes is that it becomes nearly impossible to find a drink in a list. The list view we had, took minutes to scroll through and even tired out your finger having to swipe so much! We added an index on the side to quickly scroll through the list alphabetically. We also added a search to find a drink by name and even added a filter to sort out if the drink was a “mixed drink” or a “shooter.” But that still wasn’t good enough.

I could find drinks like “Vodka Martini,” but what if I wanted a drink with vodka as an ingredient? So we added in a search that would find ingredients too. That worked out well, but often times vodka isn’t named vodka, it’s also names just “Absolut,” which everyone knows is vodka, but the iPhone doesn’t, so we had to teach it what kind of alcohol those products were.

More progress, and we were rolling right along until we tested it out on the actual device; it was painfully slow. The user would hit a key on the virtual iPhone keyboard and the key would get stuck in the “up” position until the search was done and only then could you hit the next key. Searching 730+ recipes is easy, but searching on average 6 ingredients for 730+ (~730 x 6 = a lot) takes 4 or 5 seconds on an iPod Touch 2nd generation. So we had to get a little creative.

My solution was to split off the search into a separate thread (a simultaneous process within the application) and perform the search in the background. This introduced a few other problems that I had to fix but the responsiveness improved dramatically. Then, using Apple’s performance tools, increased the search algorithm by about seven times. Thanks to all those boring Computer Science classes I took at Virginia Tech I was able to speed it up and also make it appear to speed up.

Updating the table view, after finding each recipe that matches the criteria, is slow (thanks to the performance tools for reminding me of this). So I returned the first 5 results instantly because those are the only ones you can see initially on the screen and then the rest were updated in a decaying frequency as they were found until the search was done.

Iteration

Early Search

Icons, glass name and index

Early drink details view

The Final Product

Initial Screen

New search screen

New drink details view

Results

They say if you’re happy with your 1.0 version of your application, you didn’t release it early enough. While we definitely have plenty of work yet to do on this application, we didn’t release it soon enough. It did not take a year of programming to get this done. The programming was the easy part, it was all the other stuff that got in the way, distracted me and things I had to wait on that took the longest. Back in the day, when doing my Computer Science homework, the motto was “Start early, and start often.” That rings true for every long term task.

We didn’t run any real usability tests. This upsets me a bit, but we never really got to show it to too many people. Now LTZ has a few more developers working on more apps, so we have a larger pool of testers, but in the end, we still need to test it out on real human beings and put all those Human Computer Interaction (HCI) skills I spent a lot of time learning, to use.

I did try to apply those skills with the layout of the app. When the app launches, the first screen is the random drink screen, which you can tailor to your tastes in the options. We wanted to give the person using our app something to do right away. We didn’t want to over whelm them with a list of 730+ ingredients; it doesn’t impress anyone. In our limited testing everyone figured it out and got a kick out of the shake feature. With other apps, we noticed, they presented a huge list of options that just left you wondering what you should do next. It’s that classic “uuuuh” moment. With ours, right after the launch of the app you can start enjoying the functionality.

The next screen is the raw list of drinks, plain and simple. Our search is straight forward and easy to figure out and the index on the right helps users navigate down the list quickly. We also stuck to using as many user interface elements from the standard set of Apple iPhone as possible. Many other apps try to be creative and diverge from the standard set of UI elements and consequently from the Human Interface Guidelines that Apple has set forth. The result is a poorly designed, clunky looking application that takes time to figure out how to use. Since we’re using a standard search bar, people using our app know right away what that means and can start right away in using the search feature.

We also chose a dark theme for our colors, not because it looks cool, but because most of our users, we assume, will be using it in a bar, or bar like conditions such as a party, etc. But we also didn’t want to give it a depressing theme since it was suppose to be fun and helpful, so there are a few bright colors in there. The design will most likely change and be updated, but that’s the rationale for the initial release. We’ll see what our users think and how they use the app.

We know our app isn’t perfect, but we’re confident we know where to go from here to improve it and fix some of the problems we know exist in it. Through additional usability testing, we’ll slowly improve upon BarNinja to make it the best drink application on the app store. We know we’re not there yet with the initial release, but we look forward to adding great functionality that people will love.

BarNinja – An iPhone App Postmortem is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

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1. NetRef – New iPhone App
2. iPhone Pricing
3. I Am Not an Entrepreneur
4. Handling Your Initial View Controllers for iPhone

iPhone Development

We started a company last year to allow independent iPhone app developers to make the transition from “wanna-be” to published developer. The model works similar to a record label, where LTZ provides the leverage, so that developers can concentrate on coding rather than the logistics of getting apps out. We wanted to start small, get a few early successes and then use that momentum to gather a pool of developers. We’re also planning a Code Kitchen, which is a class to teach iPhone and Mac programming to anyone interested for free.

Most of our early time was spent on logistics, even though we had our first app idea right from the start. It was a lot of waiting; we waited for resources (copy, data, images, feedback), we waited for Apple, we waited for the lawyers and we waited for contracts. So in a year’s time, we finally had an application ready to release. But thankfully, most of that work won’t have to be completed again since the contracts, setup and other logistics are taken care of. I’ll post a longer article on the whole process (what it took, what we learned, etc), but as I type this, our app, BarNinja is “In Review,” waiting to go up on the Apple App Store. It still might get rejected (one never knows with these processes), but we’re hopeful that it will appease the Apple review gods. We’re also more hopeful that the app will actually sell well and we can get some money into the business so we can buy “test” devices, like the brand new iPad for all our people.

Scuba Diving in Blacksburg

As many already know, scuba diving is a relatively new thing for me. However, I instantly fell in love with the sport and have tried to progress as quickly as I can. It’s been a lot cheaper than flying.

I got my Open Water (OW) certification in November of ’08 (with dives in Cozumel, Mexico in December), my Advanced Open Water (AOW) in July of ’09 (with dives in the Florida Keys and on the US Coast Guard Cutter my grandfather served on in World War II), my Rescue Diver certification (that required another certification of Emergency First Responder) and now I’m working on my Divemaster certification, which is a professional level diving certification. As you can image, this has been a long journey, with a ton of training, reading, and diving. The diving part was especially difficult due to the location. Blacksburg is not known for it’s amazing scuba diving, but diving in the local river, which has a maximum depth of 41 feet, has made it a bit easier.

We should be able to finish up the divemaster certification in May of this year. That’ll allow me to help teach some classes with Scott, who runs Avalon Adventures here in Blacksburg and the New River Valley (NRV). He’s my current instructor and I’ve helped him out with his website. The plan is to serve Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, and the surrounding NRV to provide classes, dive trips, dive refreshers and other adventures. Hopefully, we’ll also make some money in the process.

Music

I’ve picked up my guitars again. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve picked them up in at least six months, but I’m at it again. Luckily it only took me a few minutes to remember what those six months made me forget. I am also helping my old Computer Science instructor with his business at Rocket Music. It helps me get back into music, even though its on a strictly computer programming level. Just talking about guitars, buying guitars, customizing guitars and everything guitars reminds me to go pick up one of my guitars and practice, if for only 15 minutes.

Our Foster Dog

Our foster dog Petunia has really adjusted well with us. When we first got her, she had some problems with other dogs, being generally nervous, crying when we left her home alone, etc. We weren’t surprised, since her previous owners abandoned her and she spent a long time in the shelter. Now all she does it try to cuttle up with us and never leaves us, even if that means following us from room to room.

Ana is getting attached to Petunia and I don’t think we’re going to get her adopted. Being a Pitbull mix, people are afraid of her. However, everyone that’s met her has loved her, which is another reason we don’t think we’ll let her be adopted. She never barks, is great with our cat, loves to play, never complains, and is so adorable. She’s gathered such nicknames as Petu, Petufilese and just Perrita. Dogs are a lot of work, but I think in this case, for her, she’s worth it.

Apartment

My girlfriend of about a year, moved in officially a few months ago. She still has her old apartment, but the rent there is taken care of by a sort of sub-lease. Previously, we were always together anyway, cooking food, studying together, grocery shopping together. The only difference was, she wasn’t paying rent or the massive electricity bill we seemed to rack up with her presence. I have an extra bedroom in my condo, which I gave to her for all her stuff. We moved in her tredmill into that room (producing some of the first small scratches in my new hard wood floors), her desk and a bunch of other things so that she has her own space. It’s worked out extremely well and while we’ve had our fights about stupid apartment and living stuff, you don’t truly know a person until you lived with them. That goes for friends and girlfriends.

Spanish

As a result of living with a native Spanish speaker, I’ve picked up a lot. I never learned Spanish. It was always the language of poor people where I lived. Instead I studied German, the language that’s most understood in Europe. While living in Hungary, I learned Hungarian so picking up Spanish was probably the easiest thing for me. With Spanish, for example, just add an ‘O’ or an ‘A’ after any English word of more than 2 syllables and translate word for word and you have a pretty good, understandable sentence.

Before I met Ana (pronounced Ah-na, not Anne-uh by the way), I probably knew less than 20 words, and that’s after having spent two weeks in Mexico scuba diving. Before that, I probably knew around 5. Now I wish I would have learned it sooner, but I’m glad I learned German since Ana and I are planning a trip back to Europe. Ana has never been, so I’ll take us around Hungary, we’ll visit Italy (which is a language both of us have studied, but she understands a lot better) and she can take us around Spain since they almost speak the same language as she does.

We have a savings account set up that we’ve been putting money in since last summer. It’s not a lot, but it’ll at least pay for the plane tickets out there. Then we plan on staying with friends where we can, and since we both have friends all over Europe, it shouldn’t be an issue.

What I’ve Been Up To is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Avalon Dive Center – Blacksburg, VA
2. First Dive 2009 – New River
3. More Photos of Petunia
4. I Am Not an Entrepreneur

Max depth: 51 feet
Avg. depth: 37 feet

This was the second dive on Bushnell. Our dive boat was so tiny that it only held one tank per diver, so a support boat had to follow us out to Bushnell to exchange tanks so we could do a second dive there. It was 50 minutes away, so there was no way we could have gone back to the resort like with the other dives. We had a 36 minute surface interval, which barely gave us enough time to do a 45 minute no decompression dive. By the time we got into the water however, we had enough time to do a ~50 minute dive to 60 feet, but since we only went to a max of 51 feet, we were well within the limits of no decompression diving.

The Labyrinth  was full of canyons in the reef, most of which were big enough for one person to swim through. The reefs were high and filled with some beautiful fish. Three barracudas swam by to check us out.

Bushnell – Laberinto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ana

 

 

 

Juanca hanging out

 

Our 3-minute safety stop 15 feet below the surface

Hanging out on the anchor line

 

Our divemaster taking a nap

 

 

The resort as seen from the wate

Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Laberinto Scuba Dive is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Scuba Dive
2. Isla Fuerte – El Planchon
3. Isla Fuerte, Colombia
4. Florida Scuba: Pleasure Reef (06/28/09)

Max Depth: 36 feet
Average Depth: 23 feet

We spent the night at Moñitos, on the coast of Colombia, before  taking a ferry from Paso Nuevo with Just Elena, Juanca and Ana. The morning water was too choppy for diving so we waited until the afternoon. We made sure everyone was ready and equipment was setup properly since everyone except me hadn’t dived since Florida, which was about 6 months prior.

The dive boat we dived from was small and only held about 10 tanks. We entered the water with mask, snorkel and fins and were handed our scuba tanks. We then descended along the anchor line to the wreck which was a former lumber transport that sank off the coast of Isla Fuerte. It was 150 meters long, 10 meters wide and the deck was 8 meters high.

We saw squirrelfish, French angelfish, rainbow parrotfish, a lionfish and two creole wrasse trying to mate.

Even though I had 9 lbs of weight, I, as well as everyone else, was under weight.

Isla Fuerte Dive One

Ana

First dive we encountered a sunken ship, used to carry cargo.

Juanca and Elena

On top of the cargo ship

Lion fish are relatively new to this area of the Caribbean and started showing up after a hurricane swept through.

The top of the ship has rotted away

 

 

A latter to go down into the ship

 

Squirrel fish swimming on top of some brain coral

Top corner of the ship

 

Juanca

Isla Fuerte – El Planchon is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Laberinto Scuba Dive
2. Florida Scuba: Pleasure Reef (06/28/09)
3. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Scuba Dive
4. Florida Scuba: Captain Tom’s Ledge (06/28/09)

When we got there, we had to park our car in a poor little town with muddy dirt roads and garbage all over the place. It wasn’t my car, so I wasn’t worried, but we also parked in a fenced off area where other divers had parked theirs, so we weren’t too worried.

We then took a 30 minute boat ride to get to the island in a tiny little boat that would later become our dive boat. No one spoke English so I pretty much was on my own to figure out what was going on, which is a really good way to learn a language, but not a good way when it comes to important things like how not to die on the ride over.

When we got to the island, our cabin had no hot water and no electricity; the water they did have was undrinkable, but they put a 2 gallon bottle of drinking water in our room. Electricity ran from a generator from 6PM to 6AM so that you could use the lights, charge any devices, but most importantly to have the fans on in the room.

Every meal was something that was locally grown or caught, so we ate a ton of fruit (new fruit I’ve never even seen before but terrifically delicious), fish and vegetables. It was an amazing experience and a real eye opener to how you can have really delicious food, electricity and water and still be sustainable on a tiny island like that.

Luckily for us, it only rained a little bit and was well after our scuba dives. Otherwise the temperature was perfect, as it is year round. Enjoy the photos below!

Isla Fuerte

About 30 minutes outside Medellin

 

At the SAME exact time, my friend took this picture of my car.

The cabin we stayed at on the mainland.

We stayed in a cabin on the coast of Colombia before heading to the island.

 

View from our cabin

The cabin where we stayed; complete with hammocks.

 

We took a walking tour of the island and saw this massive tree, estimated to be over 500 years old.

Some houses on the island

 

Isla Fuerte is 11 miles off the coast of Colombia, but there are sloths on this island.

 

 

 

 

More sloths.

Yet another sloth.

He noticed us and started to climb a bit higher

 

 

 

A little gift from our tour guide/divemaster

 

 

 

Water was very limited. This is how it was gathered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bathroom was awesome.

When it rained, the rain water drained into the shower.

 

These guys were all over the place eating the sugar and any crumbs we left.

 

Juanca and Elena

 

 

On our way back to the States, we flew over Isla Fuerte

Colombian coast next to Isla Fuerte

Isla Fuerte was 11 miles from the mainland

 

Isla Fuerte, Colombia is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Isla Fuerte – El Planchon
2. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Scuba Dive
3. Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Laberinto Scuba Dive
4. Our First Cozumel Dive

Ana and I had gotten everyone a basic gift of candy from the US. It wasn’t much, but I had never met anyone and she has a bunch of little cousins. Besides, the suitcases were full of gifts for everyone, even my suitcases, so mostly we just said things were from both of us.

Later that night we set off more balloons with candles in them. The sky over Medellin was filled with at least 4 or 5 other balloons that had be set off nearby. Some were obvious what they were while others looked like large stars twinkling in the night.

Christmas Eve

The Gingerbread house Ana, Elena and I made

Not bad for our first attempt

They also release balloons with a small flame in them. We saw at least 5 other ones when we launched this one.

 

 

Ana and Elena

Time to open presents

Ana's grandmother gives out gifts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even got a gift, though this wasn't exactly it. I got a bottle of wine and Medellin Rum

The aftermath

 

Christmas Eve Night in Medellin is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Related posts:

1. Christmas Eve Morning in Colombia
2. Colombia – Ana’s House
3. Photos of the Week – Food
4. Sting Rays, Eels, Sea Turtles and Night Diving