Back to the future…

I think that all of us, since we were kids (and even now in some cases like mine…) dreamed about time traveling.

Sometimes to the future to see how things will be or to the past to fix little things that we did not so well… you know … or big things. However, all this is just something that ends up in a movie fantasy and the use of some verbal tenses to express hipothetical and in general semi-absurd thoughts more or less ridiculous such as: “If I ever move to Paris for a year, I am sure I will speak French fluently ” or “If I knew if it’s going to rain tomorrow … but with this terrible weather …” in a futuristic case, or for the nostalgic ones, “If she had known that he was such a loser, she would have never started that relationship in the first place…” or “If I had started studying Arabic 5 years ago, I would have finished by now..” or some other stupid useless expression that means absolutely nothing and it is totally unproductive…

However, when you live in a place like our little beautiful island, you can experience something that feels a lot like a time travel.

April 29th I started a 10 days trip to Miami and New York to celebrate my birthday and to have a break to avoid the “island fever”. In a way, it was also a celebration of becoming Dive Master and to have the chance of “living the city-life”.

Arriving in Miami is always a very nice experience for me. Since the moment my trip starts, I enjoy it. I remember when I saw “Up in the air” with George Clooney (I did not see it “with George Clooney”, I mean he has the leading role in the movie…) I felt very connected with his character since all the things that most of the people hate about traveling (checking in, packing, airport waiting time, etc.) are part of the pleasure for me. It used to be like that when I traveled because of my former job every other week to Honduras or Mexico and it is still now.

So, enjoying also that, I arrived in Miami in Business class thanks to an upgrade that I had from my previous life, and I found this “futurístic world” impression that we have every time we leave the island and get in touch with the “real world”. First, there is something called Customer Services everywhere. And it works. For everything. There is Internet everywhere and also cell signal. There are buses and other alternatives as means of transportation (besides cars and bycicles). I went to the supermarket with organic food Whole Goods and there were all kinds of things… and for everything… lots of different Brands. The vegetables, the fruit, the cheese, the wine, the cereal, everything… I felt like the guys in Lost when they found all the food and stuff from Dharma Initiative.




Of course, I had to pay for the things I wanted but the price was between a third and a half of the prices here.

I stayed the first day in my usual hotel in South Beach and then I moved to my friend Idalmis’ house, where water is not a problem. For some reason I felt guilty anyway if my shower lasted more than 10 minutes… Island habits, obviously.

With her, Zahira and Evelyn (my friends from Puerto Rico), we went to different restaurants every night, and I enjoyed the variety of food, the good prices and the good service. I had a great time with them and I enjoyed so much speaking 100% Spanish again! I learnt several “Puerto Rico” expressions I had a very happy birthday.

Another thing: There is a post office that works!!! The island post office is to sell stamps on cruise-ships days and to manage the limited number of PO boxes. The only chance of getting one (I tried…) is waiting until someone leaves his/hers, or moves out of the island or just dies. That means that you can receive mail in your PO Box (if you have it) or just by FedEx. To send letter with standard mail, no way Jose.

You can also use credit cards out of the island. Now we are limited since TCI shut down and most of the shops work with it, so for now just cash.

So, when I arrived to the city I felt that I was in a future I had visited before. You can imagine being in New York… I went to the movies! A theater again! I was so excited! Again in the dark with excellent sound around me, after months of watching movies in my laptop. And the neon signs on the streets, something that does not exist here (well, usual signs do not exist here only rare exceptions…).

I know, I know. You will be asking to yourselves: Why then, is she coming back to the island? Well, I could be explaining for hours but I said it already, sometimes just a few words are enough. Sometimes one image says it all. Every morning, when I get up, I see what you see in the pic below.

And every morning I feel that there is no other place where I’d rather be right now. And there’s nothing else that I need to feel that life is totally worth it. Who cares about the future or the past, if the present makes us feel this way?

Later I will tell you about the feeling coming back to my island home.

When 5 words are enough...

When I moved to the island, I had the intention of spending a few months here working in something different (bartender/waitress) with a level of responsibility much lower that the one I used to have at the company I worked for as a Project Manager. With very comfortable working hours (12pm-6pm) but above all, something that would allow me to dive some mornings per week. The salary was low but enough to pay for food and diving and I lived at Tonya's place. She had gone to Canada to have her beautiful baby Lola. It was a perfect deal for me.
In that moment, I did not even imagine that diving, even when it was already a big part of my life, would change it in such a dramatic way.

When my work permit expired, I went on a vacation trip to Turkey with my friend Monica and from there to London, to Luke's birthday party (Luke is Felix's brother). From there, I went to Buenos Aires to try to extend my leave of absence at work. But no, it was not possible since my boss had a project in Dominican Republic waiting for me ...
I imagined myself in high heels again, with make-up every day, with perfect matching clothes and on top of that spending a minimum of 8 hours at the office managing a project and I realized that it was an impossible mission. The only idea of being indoors for many hours was almost surreal... No sky, no ocean...no. And the thought of being months without diving??? No way José. So then, like that, I quit. I left the company where I had worked for almost 10 years to come back to Grand Turk and start a diving career.

So far, I haven't written much about the marine life not even in my Argentinian Spanish blog. I will, but today I want to talk about what diving meant and means to me. It is more than the wonderful marine life. Even more than the amazing feeling of being in that unique moment when there is no past, there is no future, nothing else but the pure and absolute moment of being like flying without the risk of falling...

To me, diving was to discover what it means to love something in such a deep way, with such passion, that everything related to it, is absolutely interesting.
I went back to the island and I took my Rescue Diver course. That changed my way of diving dramatically, making me a more responsible diver towards myself and others. Then I took Cpr and First Aid courses and then Master Scuba Diver. This is a set of specialties (underwater navigation, search and recovery, skin dive, deep dive), some of them mandatory, others optional. And last December I started with Dive Master training that is the first step in professional diving. This allows you to go with a group of divers, guiding them and making their dive safer and more interesting and fun. The dive master helps them to be prepared for the dive, guides them, support them before, during and after the dive if necessary.

It's really cool, besides the different level of stress that it may bring because there are always really good divers that allow you to enjoy the dive but there are also those ones who think they are some kind of Jacques Cousteau without the submarine and try to go too deep so it's necessary to stop them so they do not spend all the air in two minutes or get the bends. But it is so good to be down there helping them enjoy that world that is totally worth it.

It is a learning process with training that can be done in different ways and periods of times: from a couple of weeks upto several months, it depends if you just want to get the certification or to have a "real life" training.
In my case, since I was living here, I took the most of it. I studied everything for the 8 theory tests and enjoyed every part of it: physiology, physics, decompression theory, diving activities, helping instructors in training, equipment, etc. Even going beyond the text books, something so unusual in me as a student...
I practiced by going to as many dives as possible, leading dives, helping whenever it was required and even optional, trying to prevent accidents, helping the instructors in some courses.... I tried to do as much as possible and it was demanding and fun at the same time. I took my "in water" tests during the last weeks and I finished today.
And I found this, that I mentioned before: It does not matter how old you are. When you find out which the passion in your life is, it is never late to give yourself to it and fully enjoy it. Not always life is so generous and not always we are so awake to see what it is that thing that we really love.
I saw it in the middle of my life and it was impossible to ignore the call, even if it sounds a little mistic... I saw it and I kicked the board inmediately and changed my suit for the wetsuit and the high heels for the fins. And I realized that even when I enjoyed many things at work, in all those years that I worked "indoors" (about 34 years) not even once I felt the complete happiness that I felt yesterday afternoon, when after the morning dives with beautiful dolphins and after finishing the tests, I was able to say these simple 5 words: I am a Dive Master :)

And tonight is the night....

Well, yes. Tired but with all my stuff (well not my laptop since I am using it in my former home...) in my new home. Tonight I will sleep in my beautiful home by the ocean.
Packing finished at 5 am since I interrupted it several times for chatting with a couple of friends who live in places with very different time zones. But it was totally worth it. I needed some on line friendly support and I got it!

Well, this morning I went to pick up the keys and from there to take my dive master tests. I was really tired and a very hot day but I was able to take 3 out of 4 swimming tests and the rescue exercise. So I have to swim the 400 yards (like 365 meters) free style still tomorrow. Last thing left to be a dive master. I hope I can do it. It feels so difficult right now. I am tired,sleepy and honestly I never tried to swim 400 yards non-stop in the ocean but, anyway it's my last effort for now and my friend Elena from Argentina gave me a great idea to get the motivation to keep on swimming when I feel tired. I will try it and if it works and will tell you, guys, what it is ;)

Going back to the house, it felt soooooo good to be there. When the owners left this morning, I took my time just to sit with Paws (my dog) and look around. This is him ...


I felt so thankful. It is like a gift and the promise of happy days (Yeah, I know. It sounds like a cheap cult sermon). It is such a bright place (please, do not get down on your knees now...). I mean, you know, some places seem a bit dark or depressing or they have a lot of personal history around... This one is just what I wanted and needed.
So I unpacked everything and placed it where I felt it right and enjoyed my first sunset on the pier (yes, I have my own pier..) . It was a perfect moment. And I knew again, like one year ago when I just arrived to live on the island, that there is no other place where I want to be right now. And there is nothing else that I need to be happy but the certainty that I will always follow my dreams.
See you tomorrow, guys.
I will give you the first sunset in my new home.

In Grand Turk, Turk and Caicos, BWI, more than one year after ...

After living for more than 13 months on this beautiful small British island and having a blog in Argentinian spanish for my friends to know about my day-to-day life in here, I decided that it is time to write about what's going on in my life right now, this time in English (or my best attempt of English).

Things are changing a lot for me these days and I want to write a little bit every day, since writting has always helped me to think and discover some things that were hidden inside me.

For now, I just want to start by saying that today I am packing all my stuff to move from the flat where I have been living since July 2009 with my boyfriend and love of my life, Felix, who has recently moved back to the UK. So this packing is being a little difficult and slow, since I am trying to do a "purging and cleansing" process and trying not to get hooked up in nostalgia (now better than ever the beautiful Portuguese word "saudades" not easy to translate...).
Starting tomorrow evening I will be house-sitting a beautiful place on the beach. Actually taking care of part of it only, since the rest will be locked as storage room.

I will have a small and perfect bedroom with a beautiful bed with a Caribbean style mosquito net from the roof, a huge kitchen with everything needed to make me want to cook everyday :) and a bathroom outside, plus... a fantastic deck facing the ocean with a hamac a chairs and small tables. This is a shot of the deck taken a few weeks ago just before a wedding reception.

And this is the view
from the beach ...

I love this house. Since the first time I came to Grand Turk, I thought "I wish I could live here one day ..." Well, my wish came true!
To make it even more perfect: I will have a dog named Paws. One of the many potcakes on the island. Cute, sweet and wild as all of them are. For those who wonder what "potcake" means, I will save you the google search by providing the Wikipedia info: Potcakes are indigenous mixed breed dobs found in two Caribbean territories, namely The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos (here). The dogs get their name from potcake, the food caked, and maybe burnt, on the bottom of cooking pots. These scrapings were fed to dogs, hence the association between the name of the food and the dog.

I am also about to become a dive master, hopefully in the following days. I am waiting to take my last two tests: rescue exercise and swimming test. Not very happy about this last one since I am not a very fast swimmer and, honestly, I never tried before to swim 400 yards non stop but Mitch (Blue Waters Divers owner and instructor) says that he's sure I will pass. I wish I had his confidence. But diving is what I love the most, so this is the last step to be formally a diving pro :)
I have to go back to the packing process and also make some phone calls for some on line remote work (yes, I work sometimes ... I need money to live, you know. Life is not for free in paradise...)
See you later or tomorrow.