I’m starting this year off with a blend of cautious optimism and worried confidence as I take on the world once more. It’s been a year since my trip to SE Asia started, and abruptly ended, with my goals left unfulfilled and my explorations, unexplored. But here I am, taking another stab at it nonetheless. I love scuba diving, and it’s something I want to keep doing as much as possible, so I decided to start this year off by pursuing my PADI Divemaster certification; a professional certification which means I can actually start working as a diver. I want to try my hand at working as a divemaster and diving for my ‘day job’ and see what comes of it. Plus, I really needed to get out of my house and this was the perfect motivation.

So I bought a plane ticket for Cozumel, Mexico. I heard the diving was good, the island was accepting tourists, and I found a wonderful shop to do my divemaster internship through (shout out to Cozumel Dive Academy). With that, I packed my bag and set off.

The travel outfit makes an appearance!

The trip was a breeze, I got picked up at the airport by the shop owner, Phil, and got settled into my new home for the next month or so. The house absolutely exceeded all expectations I could have had, its gorgeous and spacious, and I have my own room! Which maybe isn’t something to be excited about, but I am excited about it.

A whole room to myself!

I pretty much hit the ground running. Day 0 I got settled in, picked up a few essentials from the grocery store and the next day I started diving. The course has been fast paced and honestly a little more packed than I first anticipated, but I am loving every day, and my skills as a diver are only getting better. I am feeling more confident about my diving, and more prepared to be divemaster each day. Which is kind of the point, and that means my instructor is doing a great job!

Under the sea, my favorite place to be

There are couple of students who live at the house with me, pursuing different certifications, some instructors, another divemaster candidate, and they’ve all been lovely housemates. Last week, Brent, who is one of the instructors living at the house, went fishing, and since I love to cook, we made up a big dinner with the fish and lobster he caught. We got the whole house involved. The other instructor, Anthony, and I made up a marinade for the fish, that we grilled in little pockets we made out of tinfoil. Lily, (DM) made spicy sauteed cauliflower and I made coconut rice (which is superior to regular rice in every way).

Our grilled, tin-foiled, fish pockets

Left to right: Anthony, Brent, Lily, Ashley

The house was filled to the brim with savory, mouthwatering smells. Dinner turned out AMAZING! We patted ourselves on the back, and helped ourselves to another margarita. Which is another thing we had the brilliant inspiration to add to this meal.

I did the salt rims and everything.

It was a perfect meal, everything tasted incredible and I had a great group of people to share it with.

Being a divemaster is hard work. At least, for me. I went from sitting on my butt all day, working and playing on my laptop, to diving, and lugging gear back and forth all over the place and doing my coursework, which means I’ve gone from eating 1.5 times a day to eating like 4 meals each day. But being active again has been great, and I’m loving the excuse to eat more, and cook more. So no complaints here.

The underwater world is fantastic as always, there’s always something to explore and enjoy no matter where you’re diving, unless its the Puget Sound. I will never forgive that place. But otherwise, I love looking at all the critters, old and new. Something I’ve found myself noticing here more than anywhere else I’ve been diving, is all the little invertebrates and crustaceans everywhere. Crabs and shrimp and snails, and little worms and slugs. Maybe that sounds boring to you or maybe that’s intriguing, for me, they’ve been just as cool to get to know as the fish.

Like an arrowhead crab nestled in a sponge

And lobster. There’s so much lobster here.

At nighttime, incredible basket stars come out and spread their enormous arms out. They are some of the most fantastic creatures I have ever seen in my life.

My goodness isn’t that just amazing. That’s an animal!

a Caribbean reef octopus

My co-divemaster candidate and buddy, Clare, is going through the divemaster program with me. I’m grateful to have a companion and classmate, to learn and commiserate with. (Don’t worry, there’s very little commiserating).

Meet Clare! I’ll get a normal picture of her in here later, but this is how we look most of the day, in our natural habitat

This divemaster program has been a lot of fun, I’ve learned a ton, and there’s still ways to go! I’m exactly where I want to be right now. I’m loving mostly every day (not every day can be perfect) and I’m really grateful to get to be here with great people, in a beautiful place, doing something I love.

Until next time, stay safe, stay warm, and thanks for reading,

Natalie