Have more fun under water

Since my very fist dive 15 years ago in the Red Sea in Egypt I already knew it!

I want to do diving as long as its possible and also one day go pro!

Lui going pro

Never before I had the fantastic feeling of being able to breath under water. And giving yourself this experience is so great, because you can start to explore a completely new world.

And when I started diving I couldn’t stop anymore!

Having the feeling of being completely balanced under water and being able to move in all three dimensions adds a lot of fun, too! And the more you dive the more you start to recognize the differences and uncountable details of the marine life.

fun dive with dive staff and DMT’s

With the diving I also developed a passion for the vast varieties of the marine life.

And you never know when it happens!

Always when you don’t expect it you meet a turtle, dolphins or sharks or something else spectacular.

always having fun underwater

Because it is not a zoo you cannot plan anything! You go down as a visitor in a world thats not made for us and always come back with remarkable memories!

Dive saver

Usually you would think the more dives you did the more safe you are. Because of more experience, the possibility of having a dive accident is reduced, but the opposite is the reality! Most dive accidents happen with more experienced or pro divers, because they underestimate the siuation.

my instructor explaining the dive board for DMT’s

In my own experience I can tell you that whenever I dive in a new dive spot I feel like a beginner!

In the same time thats a big advantage for diving, because its never the same!

Whenever you dive in a lake, ocean or river, everything changes. And all conditions can change within a couple of minutes.

Thats why I do guided diving when I am in new and for me unknown places.

Even as a pro its important for me to be connected to locals!

They know their dive spots, the water and weather conditions very well. After I dove a certain location a couple of times and know the place I feel saver and able to guide at this spot!

learning from a local Divemaster

As soon as I travel in a new country or a new dive place, the procedure starts all over again!

The good thing is whatever dive organsiation you choose e.g. PADI your dive instructors (=teachers) are going to make sure to practise all important things for save diving.

Whats different before and after my DM course

For sure after my Divemaster course a lot of things changed for me! Because I choose a very poor maintained dive center I had to dive with very old equipement and sometimes the parts didn’t work properly.

Before I always dove with my own and very good maintained dive equipement.

happy after a good dive

Now I feel much saver, because I learned to handle different situations with e.g. a regulator that didn’t give air! I had a dive guest on 17 meters having a panic attack because the tank was still filled with lot of air, but the regulator didn’t release any air.

As a well trained Divemaster I have all the skills to handle the siuation as a pro!

Cancel the dive, inform other divers and calm down the panicing diver. Until we had reached the surface you give your dive partner air from your alternative regulator. And the situation was easy and save at the end. For sure I gave the failing regulator into maintanance.

Building up experience as a pro

And also some personal things have changed to positive! Like I reduced my air consumption and reduced the amount of weight I need to go down. Due to the intense training I can control my lungs easier and have also much better balancing.

busy days as a DMT: sometimes up to 4 hours in the water per day

After finishing my Divemaster training in Honduras I did more dives in Nicaragua, Cuba and Thailand.

And the experience doing dives as a Divemaster is awesome!

At a dive shop in Cuba I got offered free dives for helping an instructor with his OWD course (Open Water Diver)! At other dive shops I got good discounts. Some dive centers give between 10 and 25 % off the regular price! Because as a pro diver you don’t need the attention like recreational divers.

proud to have finished my Divemaster

And the shop knows that ususally you are going to help whenever your help is needed! When I arrived I Thailand I was really surprised how easy it is to work as a pro in diving! Especially when you speak many languages like I do!

How I am continuing

My intention in the beginning was to reduce the pressure on my travel budget during doing a lot of dives.

And it worked out well!

I already had many situations where I was able to save money. And still do a nice amount of dives during my trip around the world.

easy and save diving

Now that I am a Divemaster I am already thinking a step forward!

I have the idea to do my Dive Instructor course somewhere in Southeast Asia. And right now I am choosing a nice place for it!

In Thailand I already visited some islands where I can imagine to do the further pro step to a certified Instructor. Koh Lanta and Koh Chang are fantastic islands, just to name two of them!

But I am still traveling around and I might also choose another place

Thanks for your visit at Traveling Adventures and for sure I will keep you updated!

travel & dive – life & food

Watch me fun diving during my DMT:

Bye for now!

Lui

If you want to know more about how I changed my lifestyle before traveling, get my free E-Book. “3+1 Power Recipes” is now available for downloading on this website. All you need to do is to subscribe with your E-Mail below this post down here or in the side bar.

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Then you have to confirm an E-Mail you will receive from Traveling Adventures. After that you will be directed to a Welcome page with more details about my personal change. There you can download your free version of my E-Book 3+1 Power Recipes in german or english.

Have fun and C U soon on Traveling Adventures!

Even the same dive spots can be tricky in different situations.

Therefore its my personal task to do save diving and respect my limits under water!

Now I dove in more than 20 countries around the globe. And for sure during my world trip I am having the great possibility to dive in more countries and explore more of the marine world in the oceans!

when I dive, I am in a different state of mind

But diving is an expensive sport!

Thats the reason why  I decided to start with diving on a professional level!

In conclusion I am able to do more dives. And instead spending lot of money on diving I am relieving the pressure on my budget during traveling the world!

Choose a cheap location

Due to the fact that I already was traveling in Mexico and Central America I had to find the right spot in order to do the training and course that at least takes 5 to 6 weeks. Because I am doing it the “slow way” I choose to spend 7 weeks in order to complete my Divemaster course.

arriving to Utila, a caribbean island in Honduras

It was also very important for me to do a appreciable amount of dives in order to get the most experience out of my training. And for sure I had to choose a location that wasn’t expensive. I would have loved to make the course in Mexico, but unfortunately the prices for diving in south mexico have been climbing over the past years. And now Yucatan can be considered as one of the most expensive places for diving in all America. Prices have almost doubled in the past ten years!

one of the cheapest places worldwide for diving: Utlia, Honduras

So it is already known that Honduras is a very cheap and popular place to start with diving. And also to start professional diving courses.

Honduras is considered as one of the three cheapest places worldwide for diving!

Choose an island

There are not many possibilities in Honduras you can choose between few dive locations on the caribbean coast. And I considered Roatan and Utila and decided for the smaller and more backpacker friendly island Utila. Accomodation was incredibly cheap!

my home for 2 months during my Divemaster training

Simple and cheap! For 8 weeks I spend only € 240 for my appartement! And also general living costs in comparison to other caribbean islands are really low.

The right dive shop

To complete my low budget experience in Honduras I choose a very cheap and poorly maintained dive shop.

With some bargaining I got my course for less than € 350! In some places you can pay € 1.000 and more for the same course!

A very good advice I got from a local dive instructor is to choose a small and familiar dive shop that has only few DMT’s (Divemasters in training). In some bigger diveshops you can find more than 10 DMT’s at the same time. You can imagine that this doesn’t really help you in your training to get a good Divemaster. So I was happy to find the right little dive shop and also the right persons to join me in that exiting time of being a Divemaster in training.

Connect with your Instructor

Your Instructor during your DMT is the most important person in your start in professional diving. All the training, exercised and exams will be done by your Instructor. You will be assisting your Instructor in different dive courses, from Suba Explorer and the beginner course (OWD = Open Water Diver) to more advanced courses like AOWD (Advanced Open Water Diver) and Rescue Diver.

Ernesto Ruiz, my Instructor during my DMT, getting ready for a wreck dive

In order to understand and realize all the preparations of a dive boat and the equipement for commercial diving with guests you need somebody to teach you all the details. Even if I have been diving for a long time I never realized how many details need to be considered to make a dive day on a boat with paying guests a save and unforgetable memory. In this case I really had very good luck! I had the fantastic opportuniuty to do my Divemaster with Ernesto Ruiz, a local Dive Instructor from Honduras. He already has trained many Divemasters and everybody who learned from him, turned out to be a very well prepared diver.

25 different exercises, practical exams and written tests

In the beginning it sounds a lot! And in fact it is the most time consuming course you can make in your diving career. But when you can enjoy diving, the water and the ocean like me, every day in a divemaster course is packed with new and great tasks that are waiting to be fulfilled!

one of many exercises: emergency scenario training

And I have to say that after each of the single exercises, tests or exams I felt more save and confident in the next dive day. To summarize it, I can say that until that point this was the most important time for me in diving!

best time ever as a diver: spending time with buddies

And I am so happy and also proud that I did this step. And doing to course with the right buddies also adds some great friendships for life!

Read more about my Divemaster training on Utila in Honduras in my nextcoming post. I am giving you some more insights in a life of a Divemaster and how my diving changed before and after my DMT.

Lui

P.S.: Thanks Ernesto for your passion and love for diving and the marine life!

Watch me fun diving during my DMT:

The cuban island is filled with great places for diving, nearly anywhere on the coast there are many possibilities and its quite difficult to decide where to go! Because of its beauty and virgin dive spots it is almost guaranteed to have a fantastic time in the underwater world.

choosen dive spots

As a passionate diver I was really exited to do my first dives in Cuba and I wanted to take the chance to explore different dive locations.

In order to get a good overview I choose three locations to go diving!

In the east Baracoa, Cayo Coco facing to the Atlantic Ocean and Playa Giron on the caribbean side.

Dive Shops in Cuba

Almost all dive shops in Cuba are still run by the government and you cannot do dives without official permission.

Thats not an advantage for low budget diving!

There is no real competition and negotiations are not possible, because all prices are fixed. But still there are huge differences in prices between the different regions in Cuba!

good dive standards and safety in Cuba

A very good point is the saftey level in cuban dive shops. Because all shops are under frequent checks, all dive equipment is usually under very good condition.

A big plus for safe diving everywhere in Cuba!

Diving in Cayo Coco

Getting to the sand keys in Cuba is like traveling in paradise. Due to its fantastic waters and awesome beaches all the keys on the northern side are very popular. Therefore they are also one of the most expensive places in Cuba to visit.

paradise on earth: keys in Cuba like Cayo Coco

There are no casas particulares (read about casas particulares) to rent in, because locals dont live in these places. The main possibility is to get a quite expensive hotel starting from € 80/day.

But I found a much cheaper and more exclusive way to spend  4 days and nights in Cayo Coco!

Thanks to my spanish I was able to get very useful informations from locals how to visit the keys for less money! Instead of booking a hotel, you can get into a country residence run by the government.

low budget country residence: best happened to me & my budget

A stay here is much cheaper than any hotel and costs between 35-40 €/day including 3 meals and drinking water.

And a big advantage for my healthy food habits!

Because as a guest in a government country residence your food is prepared as you want it. And I got lots of salads, fruits, vegetables and fresh fish prepared for me. And I asked not to serve me any bread, sugars or processed foods!

living good & eating healthy on a low budget

So this was the most important point to save on my budget during diving in Cayo Coco. Because nearly anything on the keys is costful, also for diving it is not the best place for saving money.

Two dives did cost me € 70 including all equipment rental.

For this reason I decided to do more freediving activities. And for one of my freedives I got a great hint from a local divemaster where to go to see lots of sharks! Unfortunately the sharks where getting fed and a shark feast happened in front of me! Watch this clip about my freedive in Cayo Coco.

Another very important saving tip is getting on and off the keys.

Taking a taxi is the most common but also the most expensive possibility and you can easily spend € 100 and more for a one way drive. When I got on Cayo Coco I found a little group and we shared a taxi together in order to save money .

cuban oldtimer taxi

But using the local buses the cuban workers use to get on and off the keys is still much cheaper. Its a little bit tricky, because you need to tip the bus driver, but with some friendly spanish words and a little “propina” everything works fine.

Instead of spending for an expensive taxi I payed € 10 including the tips to get a ride back by local bus to the main island.

Diving in Playa Giron (Punta Perdiz)

Before arriving to Playa Giron I have already heared many divers talking about this huge bay and its exeptional underwater world.

Playa Giron is a little town and perfect for economic divers!

In comparison to the keys accommodation is possible at local families and I took a nice room including breakfast and dinner for only € 20/day.

driving an Oldtimer in Playa Giron

And the diving itself is also much cheaper in comparison to the keys. Here I payed less than € 20 for a dive, what made me do five dives in total!

And again a local gave me a great tip for a good dive shop!

You can go to the only dive shop in Playa Giron and dive with huge groups of divers. Or you go to a little dive shop in Punta Perdiz (only few kilometers north) where you can enjoy small groups and more individual diving!

a little bit hidden: the dive shop in Punta Perdiz

And every dive was fantastic and I was able to do some great footage underwater!

In this clip you can watch an exeptional fish in its different phases of his live:

And more great things happened during my dives.

Here you can watch a moray eel that fell in love with me and my GoPro cam and tried to give some kisses!

No joking, moray eels can be quite dangerous and I would never try feeding them. Watch this nice clip where a green moray eel is swimming very close with me.

Diving in Baracoa

Unfortunately the weather in Baracoa was very rainy during my visit. It was easy to get a connection to a local dive shop by asking my guest family. And I planed to do some dives with a local Dive Instructor, but due to the weather I had to postpone my diving experience in Baracoa. But even if I did not do dives in Baracoa it was the most magic place in Cuba for me and I would definetly recommend going there!

Baracoa is a perfect hiking location

The expenses for one dive should be around € 25, that seemed pretty fair to me. Nevertheless that gave me possibilities to do other great stuff in Baracoa.

Thanks for you interest and hope you enjoyed my saving tips! If you want to read more useful hints on saving money while traveling Cuba you should read the previous post on my blog Traveling Adventures!

Your Lui

Low Budget Cuba? Too expensive for backpackers?

If you want to know more about how I changed my lifestyle before traveling, get my free E-Book. “3+1 Power Recipes” is now available for downloading on this website. All you need to do is to subscribe with your E-Mail below this post down here or in the side bar.

[lab_subscriber_download_form download_id=2]

Then you have to confirm an E-Mail you will receive from Traveling Adventures. After that you will be directed to a Welcome page with more details about my personal change. There you can download your free version of my E-Book 3+1 Power Recipes in german or english.

Have fun and C U soon on Traveling Adventures!

Since more than ten years I dive the caribbean. Always it is filled with fantastic moments very close to mother nature.

For long times the caribbean sea attracted lot of voyagers and adventurers for many reasons. Also divers frequently travel the different countries of the caribbean. With its hundreds of islands every single one has its own culture, charm and languages. The ocean is full of adventures where you find many things. For example beautiful and colorful coral reefs, many old  and new wrecks, drop offs, giant blocks and walls and for sure lot of marine life to explore. The very warm and clear waters with fantastic visibility, lots of breathtaking beaches make the caribbean a great destination, not only for divers.

Whenever I dive in the oceans of the caribbean, greats things happen and always new experiences are waiting behind each coral and block formation. Sometimes its just about exploring the smaller things and watching out for the circle of life around you. Because like anywhere on our world nothing stands still in the ocean, especially not in the caribbean.

Dive Videos

In todays post you will find  a first video with some great shots of different fish schools and squids changing their colors. Get a view and feeling for this mystic and sensational underwater world.

The next video shows a just hatched octopus, that is so small that it needs a closer look to get whats going on with this little fellow. However, this is my first time ever that I can watch a baby octopus swimming and using his ink to distract us!

Thanks to divemaster Brian from Dos Tiburones on Big Corn Island, Nicaragua for his sharp eye!

Have fun and enjoy!

Lui

The camera gets suddenly attacked by one of the hungry sharks during filming….

During the dive we get surrounded by lots of nurse and reef sharks.

They show their typical behaviour and keep swimming around the divers. The curiosity of the sharks makes some great possibilities for videos. After getting a clip of a nurse shark biting my camera I asked myself is this a shark attack or a love bite? Maybe the nurse shark loves my new GoPro? For sure this behaviour results in continious feeding that is done in order to keep tourists interested. All the sharks you see are craving to get fed and mistake my selfy stick and cam for some tasty fish….

paradise on earth, San Pedro Belize

Thanks for a great dive done with Ramons Village, San Pedro, Belize.

Facts about Nurse Sharks:

Nurse sharks are usually slowly moving what makes them one of the most elegant swimmers under water. For the most part, nurse sharks are harmless to humans. But they can get very big, like more than 4 meters! And as my camera has experienced they have strong jaws filled with thousands of small teeth. And their bites are very strong!

They use their strong jaws to brake and eat shellfish and also hard corals can be cracked easily. Their prefered meals are fish, shrimp and squid. With their gray and brown colored skin they can hide pretty good inside the reefs.

Nurse sharks can be found in warm and shallow waters of the carribean and also in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans. There is no special protection for nurse sharks, although their habit of being close to humans resulting in easy game is putting pressure on this species.

These pictures where made during scuba diving with nurse sharks in San Pedro, La Isla Bonita in Belize. We could even play and dance with these beautiful nurse sharks in the marine park. Most of the sharks expect to get fed and they like getting very close in order to check out food possibilities.

They gracefully swim and you never can predict their next movement, looks like they are dancing in the water….check out this shark video!

Close-Up Nurse Shark

Diving close with a Nurse Shark

Thanks for a great 2 tank dive done with Ambergris Divers, San Pedro, Belize.

Because fishing is strictly forbidden in the marine park the sharks have no fear of divers. When they are comfortable they like to come close and check out who is visiting them. However caution is always recommended when you swim with this great animals.

You can find more information about the Belize National Parks here – http://www.ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/parkintro.html