Our honeymoon to Cancun was our second trip to Mexico. Since then, our tropical adventures have included Mexico 28 times, Roatan 4 times, Belize, Costa Rica, Bonaire, Barbados, Bahamas, Tobago and Curacao. We are not big fans of the winters in northeast Ohio, right along Lake Erie…
I have to say, we started out at all inclusive resorts and very much enjoyed them. Who doesn’t love to enter into a large beautiful resort ready to have your every whim catered to for a week. However, with Danny working swing shift and since we are getting older, we found quiet time away the perfect opportunity to reconnect. We started to value quiet and private time a bit more than be catered to. I will say, it took us a long time to tire of the all inclusive resorts. We now stay mostly in condos, apartments or houses. I should tell you that we vacation so well together. For years, we had absolutely no problem spending an entire week on the beach doing nothing but sitting in beach chairs, swimming, reading, strolling along the waters edge with numerous adult beverages and snacks scattered throughout the day.
Its not uncommon to see us fist bump at the end of a day at the beach “we just blissfully wasted another day away”!
Things started to change on our first trip to Roatan in 2014. We spent the first few days on the beach and snorkeling. Roatan is fantastic for snorkeling. Danny got too much sun on his back (since we don’t use sunscreen by the reef) and was on the hunt for a rash guard shirt to put on to prevent any further sun. We walked into a local dive shop to purchase a rash guard shirt and the dive master tried to talk us into getting certified to dive. At this point we have each done about 5 “resort” dives where we took the 30 minute class in the pool and then a maximum 30 feet dive. I was NOT a fan of scuba diving. Truth be told, I seriously disliked it and would look forward to it being over so we could enjoy the rest of the day, while Danny thoroughly enjoyed it. After the dive master tried to talk US into getting certified, I tried to talk DANNY into getting certified. A few days before this, we spent the day on a boat circling the island.
Shortly after launching, a pod of dolphins started playing in the boats wake. I squealed like a little girl, couldn’t stop smiling and will never forget the experience. I should also mention that I LOVE dolphins. True be told- I dream of befriending a dolphin. Got a dolphin tattoo in college- and guess what- I don’t regret it! So, as I try to convince Danny that getting SCUBA certified would be a great experience for him, he asks how I would ever be able explain to him the experience of seeing the dolphins playing in the boat wake- without actually being there. He said he wanted to explore the underwater world together (with me). O crap, who can argue with that argument?! As much as I DID NOT want to get SCUBA certified I agreed to embark on this adventure as a couple. So, we completed our first SCUBA certification in May 2014 in Roatan, our open water certification in May 2015 in Roatan, and our advanced open certification in September 2015 in Barbados.
In September 2017, we both did our 100th dive in Curacao! What I have learned is that I am more of control freak than I ever imagined. Once I went through all through PADI SCUBA training, I was comfortable that I could handle whatever was thrown at me under the water and quickly grew to love the sport. Whoever said “knowledge is power” knew exactly what they were talking about.
Since becoming Advanced Open Water Certified, we have chosen to visit tropical destinations that also offered at least decent diving. When I say tropical, I mean places where we can a enjoy a 7 day trip, as we won’t leave our girls (dogs) for more than 7 days. We experienced the reef in Bonaire, Tobago, Cozumel (Mexico), Akumal (Mexico), Barbados, Roatan and Curacao.
Check out Our Other Adventures for trip reports for these locations.
At this point in our lives, we have come to the realization that we love tropical living, as we love being warm (don’t even use our air conditioning at home unless our girls (the dogs) are panting), we HATE winters in Ohio, we love scuba diving, and we have been smart with our investing (not to mention Danny is still one of those rare individuals that will be getting a pension), and so we will be retiring sooner rather later. I should also add that we are frugal people. Yes, we love to travel and SCUBA dive, but we max out our 401K accounts, shop at discount stores and travel using accrued credit card miles. I also drive a 12 year old car and Danny’s car is 10 years old (we should note that both cars are cute little convertibles!). We live on a cul-de-sac with our 2 black labs- we are the stereo-typical suburban house hold.
Our goal in retirement is to be able to live the life style we have become accustomed to and not worry about running out of funds. We researched how to retire early in the United States. The deal breaker for us retiring in the US was the cost of health care prior to being eligible for Medicare. This cost alone would eat a big chunk of our retirement accounts. Initially, the retirement research took us to Costa Rica. As it is close enough for quick flights back home if need be, we love the tropical “greenness” of the country and healthcare is good and reasonably priced (I received quotes- $1,200 for the 2 of us per year with a $500 deductible).
Costa Rica was going to be our home base and we were planning on traveling the world from there. The 2 downfalls were there was no reef for SCUBA within close proximity of the coast line of the main continent and the import tax on goods was very high on everything brought into the country.
We spent a week in Curacao in September 2017. We really did not know about the island when we arrived. We decided that because we were going to spend the week shore diving and would have a car, it wasn’t so important to stay close to all the action (i.e., bars, markets, restaurants) and ended up in the northern portion of the island that is very quiet. We stayed in a development that is just in the beginning stages of being developed. The apartment we stayed in was attached to a single family home, whose homeowner was in the Netherlands. The apartment was on a cliff about 20 feet above the crystal clear Caribbean Sea. A large deck flanked the boundary between the land and the sea and a set of stairs carved into the stone cliff wall gave us access to the water to dive, swim, snorkel or just float on a raft. I am not kidding when I say I have never experienced such peace and quiet. There were nights that there were no bugs or frogs making noises, the water was so calm there wasn’t even any lapping, we were the only house in the development that was occupied and it was pure heaven. It was utterly stunning. 
Upon coming home we dropped the owner of the home an e-mail telling him about how much we enjoyed staying in his apartment. He thanked us for our kind words and then told us the lot next to his was for sale!!! What?!@$*
So- that is how we got here:)
