Diving with Ama

I said, “It’s the reason I got in the game.” 

She said, “You are just like a true Scorpio.”

It was a dream beyond what I expected in life. 5 years back, I recall reading about the Ama. Female Japanese free divers that would gather pearls and other sea treasures. It is a tradition that is believed to go as far back as 2000 years ago. And not so far back in the day, practitioners were mostly young women who would dive topless with only a loin cloth on. Now they wear wet suits and the tradition is primarily carried on by middle aged and elderly women. 

I might have been born in the wrong era. But on the real, these badass oba-chans easily dived into the cold waters. The visibility was low and the current below the surface was strong enough to ping pong me from one rocky crevice to another. It was very difficult to navigate and follow them underwater yet the Ama were able to do several dives with a genki attitude through and through. One breathe and not one complaint. 

When we finally got back on the boat, I was hanging on by a thread from the exhaustion. My body was wet, not from water, but full on sweat. Meanwhile, it was just another day in the bay for the Ama ladies who cheerfully began wrapping things up for a return to shore. 

Snot nosed with heavy breaths, I hung on the side of the boat and meditated on what just happened. A year ago, I began a quest with expectations on how it would change my life. I could not swim. Yet the journey, the challenge of learning how to swim put me on a path I could not have imagined. 

As life had it, one thing lead to another. I went from barely swimming laps in a 2 meter pool to facing my fear of open water. Through the months of successes and failures, I am looking at you Indonesia, I found myself 365 days later swimming with Japan’s angels of the sea. Ay dios míos.