Category: Cyprus

  • Finding my place to stay in Larnaca

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    I finished the day at the dive center, then it was time to drive back to Larnaca and find the apartment where I was staying.

    The drive is quite nice on a quiet new  two and three lane divided freeway and is only about 50 km driving at 100 km/hr.
    I drove into Larnaca and was trying to use my fancy  telephone GPS but it doesn’t have very good maps of Larnaca. So I aimed east towards the sea and ended up finally by the marina and found Makarios road which is the last road to the east parallel with the sea.

    Then I stopped and asked directions and the people were helpful even phoning for me on their mobiles to get better directions.
    I wasn’t able to find my destination so I stopped the car on the side of the road by a shop sign that said no parking. I was standing next to the car looking out over the street to see if I could see where to go.

    Then I saw a full size motorcycle coming towards me going the wrong way on the road. A large guy wearing a dark t-shirt and with some black pouches on his waist stopped by me and indicated aggressively that I couldn’t park there. I said I was merely stopping to look for an address.

    Then moments later a black SUV pulled up and at least four men got out and came over to me aggressively saying where are you from, what do want. I said, I’m from Canada and I’m just looking for an address.  They were not being nice that’s for sure.

     
    Well it had been a very long day for me. This was after flying to Cyprus the night before and not getting much rest. I was tired. So I got back in my car and moved on and they left.

    So  did I get to meet the local mafia?

    I have a photo of the business I discretely took a couple of days later but I will not post it as  I’m not risking libeling the mafia!!!

  • First full day in Cyprus

    Arrived at Dive-Tek. It took a bit of searching as the place is set back from the road. But I enquired at another dive shop and they pointed the way. So the course started with the usual paperwork, looking at my dive certifications and dives I’ve done. There was some concern about how many deep dives I’ve done but the nature of diving in Kuwait does not allow many and I do all that I can. Well, no worries in the end.

    So the classroom sessions went on for the morning and then in the afternoon we went out to dive. It is about a ten minute drive from the dive center to the dive site.

     

    Diving at Cyclops

     

    The people above are not diving with us. They are doing a shore dive. I didn’t bring the regular camera gear, this is taken with my phone camera. Yes that’s a boat pulling a parasail with a couple of tourists on it in the background.

    The first dive to get the weighting right and get used to the tanks and carrying an extra tank for decompression on my side and for them to see if I’m any good at diving. The diving was easy, no currents or waves to speak of and 40 meter visibility. In fact the instructor told me I was diving too closely to him and I said I’m used to only a few meters visibility so I had to give more space.

    There is not much to see only a few small fish. This is because they over fish and even fish with dynamite to get everything in the water.

    The dive went OK despite it being quite a while since I’ve dove in my dry suit. On the dives I did my first valve drills. That is where you reach back and turn the valves on and off to the regulators to practice in case some day you have a leak or a free flowing regulator you can shut it down and isolate the tank so worst case you would only lose half your air, and you normally plan for such an incident. Safety first. Then it was time to drive back to Larnaca by the fast way on the freeway.

  • Arrival in Larnaca

    Cyprus

    I flew to Cyprus via Jazeera airways. Jazeera is a private low cost airline operated out of Kuwait using a small fleet of A320 airplanes. They have a good online booking system which enables you to change flights easily. Though they do sneak in a credit card charge for any changes you do. Their fares start very low well in advance and then go up as the flights fill.

    The flight left Kuwait around midnight and I arrived in Cyprus at about 2:30 am. I had prebooked a rental car online at Advantage. I use Expedia normally to check who’s the cheapest and then go directly to the car company’s site to book as Expedia is the same price.
    I was met by the Advantage representative at the airport. He said I was upgraded to a better car than what I booked. I had booked the lowest priced automatic with air conditioning. I did not what to try to shift gears with my left hand while learning to drive on the left side of the road. So I got a Ford Focus with about 40,000 km on it. It was a nice car.

    Ford Focus

    Aside: I did realize a few days later on that I was driving a car with no paperwork. Maybe that is standard for rentals as they do have special license plates?

    So in the middle of the night I headed out to drive to Protaras about 50 km to the north of the airport where the diving center is located to start the course at 9:00 am.  I kept thinking left, left, left as I was advised as I’ve never drive on the left hand side of the road. And also, to remember left when entering traffic circles which are frequent in Cyprus. What a delight to be in fresh humid air, no dust and seeing the stars!

    My plan was to take my time driving and pull off somewhere quiet and sleep a bit on the way there.
    Cyprus has a well developed freeway system which I followed and then pulled off on the way there into Agia Napa out of curiosity and as I had the time. Regarding driving on the left side of the road, I did notice that after passing a parked truck on the left of the road I realized that I amost ripped off the left side of the car being too far to the left as I was being very cautious about going to far to the right into the oncoming traffice. After over thirty years of driving sitting in the seat on the left side of the car, it is a change to the space perceptions.

    Well, at 3:00 am, all the young partiers in various states of inebriety were walking, on motorcycles and quads were making their way home. That is, making their way back to their hotels. Agia Napa is a party place to say the least.

     
    I pulled off near the beach and tried to rest but there were quads and cars coming and going so I moved away from the beach and got a bit of sleep.

    Upon waking I was hungry so on the road I stopped at a bakery for some food. I was parked around the back and as I went to the car I noticed a young foreign couple seated closely face to face on a quad bike looking overly amorous and though they aren’t going to do that are they. Well yes they started. I should of taken a photo, but better judgement said just leave.

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    p>So that’s Agia Napa for you. And later on I asked a Cypriot and they said all of this is typical for that area.
    Arrived at the dive shop after a bit of driving around and enquiring at another dive center. There are many dive centers in Cyprus but Dive Tek is the only dedicated technical diving center in all of Cyprus.

  • Larnaca Beach



    Larnaca Beach, originally uploaded by Mister Ian.

    Note: You can click on the photo to see the full size version on flickr. I’m getting ready to start blogging the full story of my trip to Cyprus complete with photos and exciting stories! Really it will all be true.

    It certainly was nice to get out of the heat and dust of Kuwait and spend time in clean and humid air, postcard blue skies and clear sky nights. I only went to this beach once to take some photos I was at the other end of Cyprus most of the time diving in the clear waters. More later.