When I first met Capt, in 2017, one of the things he told me was of his desire to eventually end up in Bocas del Toro, Panama. I didn't know squat about Panama, other than it was warm, there was a canal, and in the 1970's-80's it had political issues. Thanks to the Internet and all it's glory, I did some reading up and discovered it is a Tropical Paradise. Ok, I thought...lovely idea! Having been in the Caribbean as a teen, I knew what that meant and knew it was a good thing to want to live there.
Move ahead 3 years. Capt convinced me to learn to scuba dive. I've snorkeled before, and thought being able to go underwater and stay there long enough to actually look at creatures would be fun. So in January of 2020, I signed up, and in February actually started with the lessons. In March the world (and scuba lessons) shut down, with no assurance of when it would start back. Eventually lessons started back and I was able to earn my Open Water and Nitrox certifications. Capt earned several advanced certifications and went to Sea School to formalize his boat captain licenses. He'd been diving for close to 15 years.
The Lockdown of the World gave him plenty of time to do all this schooling (most of it being online, and if you think about it, SCUBA is the ultimate in Social Distancing because you have your own air source), and gave me plenty of time to Research Where. After roughly 18 months, he had all the important things, and I had lots of information.
A few weeks ago, once everything was fully finalized and Pro numbers recorded, job hunting commenced. One of the things learned was that there's more availability via word-of-mouth than what shows on the marketplace/pro channels online. But still...where to go? Crete/Greece? Maldives? Indonesia? Lots of work there. I opined that staying closer to home would be my preference. Maybe not Florida....not THAT close. Frankly, I wanted to be somewhere that took more effort than normal to get to, in order to ensure no one would "just drop by". Not so expensive to get to that no one would ever visit, but far enough that planning was required. More research. Someplace we could afford to comfortably live on a boat captain/dive instructor's income, maybe (hopefully) I could also find work in a shop or a restaurant or something.
Plenty of places were considered. We started with the HELL YEAH places...you know the ones...they are sung about in songs by Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown, and Mac McAnally, and involve "toes in the water" lyrics. A little digging and we determined that one had to be independently wealthy, of the Kenny Chesney and Mac McAnally sort, to live there. (looking at Y'ALL, St Thomas and St John!). Once those were eliminated, we went to the HECK YEAH places, like St Croix, Roatan, and Bocas Del Toro. St. Croix (a US territory) saw a couple of job offers. One was investigated further and determined to be insufficient, Another is in the process of further investigation so has yet to be determined. Bocas was looked into, but tourism has fallen off so sharply (looking at YOU, COVID!) they aren't wanting to hire anyone new right now. Roatan is very promising but we haven't met anyone in person yet....which brings me to our upcoming trip.
Back in December 2020, the shop through which Capt trained for many of his certifications planned a trip to Roatan and asked him to consider coming along, as there would be several new divers going. It was a good price for such a thing, all-inclusive, and apparently the diving there is spectacular. It would also give him an opportunity to meet in person the owner of a dive shop, that he'd been talking to about working there. So we paid for the trip, made plans, and I started thinking "shorts or sundress? Do I want to get a new skin* (not literally. Back off, Buffalo Bill!), a boob job? a haircut?" Capt continued scouting the job postings.
So now, the trip is 6 days away. I didn't get a new skin, a boob job, nor a haircut. I got a decent tan and a couple of string bikinis because nothing shouts self confidence (or maybe self delusion) more than a 56 year old woman in a string bikini. Capt has a job interview, and since there are myriad dive shops on the island, and we learned the power of the Dive Shop Grapevine on St. Croix (more on that later), the potential on Roatan is fairly robust.
Research into the cost of living there is very encouraging. Lots of American and Canadian expats live there. We'd have to learn Spanish, which I can read fairly well but if a person is talking fast I'm lost. People eat fish, fruit, and vegetables. Deodorant is nearly impossible to come by. We're going to check it out whenever we aren't underwater or eating.
So right now, our lives are in this sort of holding pattern. We are investigating. We spent several days in St Croix, scoping out the situation and getting 2 offers, one of which was firmly but graciously refused, another of which will possibly be investigated pending the results of the Roatan trip. The cost of living is much higher in St Croix, but it is a US Territory so moving there would be much less complicated. Worst case scenario, we got to spend 3 weeks in the Caribbean this Summer. Best case, we have our choice of where to go. The whole point of Capt getting all his certifications was to make himself marketable, in a career path he'd been dreaming of his entire adult life....and that was successfully accomplished.
In his words, he wants to spend the rest of his life "making people happy."
So now the question is this: Where am I in all this? I have a skill set that is also useful. I have a degree in business management. I'm adaptable. I'll find my niche as I always do.
*a skin is a long sleeve rash guard and leggings made of swimsuit material, excellent protection against jellyfish stings, and available in all manner of prints I normally usually wouldn't be caught dead in but oh so pretty.
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