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I’m sitting here writing this in the airport the day we are leaving Belize. We feel pretty solemn to be leaving this country that we have been living in for the past 2 1/2 months. In all truth, I didn’t think I would feel so sad to go.. but we’ve made wonderful friends, explored amazing places and dived beautiful reefs. How would that not be hard to leave?
So how did this all start? We have been asked what it was like to move to a foreign country and find an apartment, go grocery shopping, what was involved in getting our divemaster, how did we do it, etc. I’ll answer all those questions today.
How did you take off 2 1/2 months to move to Belize and dive everyday?
First off, the most commonly asked question we got over the past few months, and continuously while being in Belize, was “How can you take off 2 1/2 months and come to Belize and dive everyday? It sounds like a dream.” Well, it honestly has been a dream. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows and we had some setbacks along the way. Back in February Matt and I decided we were going to make the move to Belize in the coming fall. Matt picked up hours at the hospital so he was working 70-80 hour work weeks, with lots of overtime and no days off (seriously, he went 2-3 months working Sun-Sun, I don’t know how he did it), and I worked 3 different jobs at once to earn as much income as possible. We worked as hard as we could, rarely went out, and ate in as much as possible in order to save money. After a few months of hard work we had a pretty good savings built up. We decided that at the end of June we were both going to quit our jobs and live off savings we had earned. In short, we worked our butts off, quit our jobs and moved to Belize. No secret there, just lots of commitment to ourselves to carry this out.
Why did you choose Belize?
When Matt and I decided we wanted to pursue our divemaster certifications, we knew we wanted to go to one of three places: Cozumel, Honduras, or Belize. We researched each place thoroughly to find comparisons on dive shops, cost of living, and the quality/type of diving. As you know, in the end, we chose Belize. One of the reasons for this was because we stopped here on a cruise 3 years ago and went on the most amazing excursion. Since then, we have been hoping to go back. In fact, last year we purchased flights to go spend a week vacationing in Belize, but due to covid they got cancelled. While we can’t vouch for what it’s like getting your certification in Honduras or Cozumel, we know we made the right choice for us and we already can’t wait to come back.
What is involved in getting your divemaster certification?
First of all, let’s define what a PADI divemaster certification is. It is the first level of professional scuba diving in PADI. With this certification one is allowed to lead dives such as excursions and assist in teaching and supervising students in classes.
Matt and I decided to come to Belize for 2 1/2 months because we had a few different certifications we needed to complete before getting our divemaster. These included advanced open water, rescue diver, and EFR, then divemaster. One can complete their divemaster course in as little as 2-3 weeks, but we wanted plenty of time to complete our other certifications as well, and gain some experience.
To qualify to start your divemaster certification you must have 40 logged dives and finish with at least 60. You must also complete all of the certifications I listed above, in addition to your open water certification. You will participate in rescue dives, navigation, taking care of gear, assisting in classes, and leading a dive. After you’ve completed all of the requirements you will be certified and it is a great feeling.
However, not every diver may want to go all the way to divemaster. Most divers are content with just getting their open water or advanced open water certifications. You can decide what is right for you.
After arriving in Belize, how did you find a place to live and a dive shop to get certified with?
When we first arrived in Belize we knew we wanted to spend the next few days visiting dive shops and looking at apartments. We used Facebook to get in contact with people who were renting places on the island and Tripadvisor to see which dive shops we were interested in visiting. On our first day we visited 5 dive shops, 7 apartments, and walked a total of 8 miles. Phew, it was a lot. In the end it was worth it because we chose an amazing shop, Amigos Del Mar, and a place to live in town. We rented an apartment above a hardware store right on the main street of town, which was great because we were close to everything. It was helpful for us that it was the slow season and we were renting for an extended period of time, so we were able to get a good deal on rent. The dive shop also worked with us on getting discounts on dives and our rental gear for free since we were going to be doing a lot of dives with them.
Was it a hard adjustment moving to a foreign country?
It can be very different and even difficult moving to a foreign country. Luckily for us, although some things were hard, we had a fairly easy adjustment. In large part this is due to Belize being the only English-speaking country in Central America. Having a language barrier can pose a big difficulty, but we only had one incident where the person we communicated with didn’t speak English (in this incident we told a street vendor that we wanted 15 tacos and instead she gave us $15 worth of tacos, which was 45 tacos, haha). It also helped that we were only going to be living in Belize temporarily, so instead of moving all our personal belongings down, we were able to fit what we needed into a few suitcases and get a furnished apartment with everything else we needed.
Personally, for me, the hardest adjustment was being away from family for so long. Where we live in Utah, my family is within a 30 minute drive or less, and Matt has two siblings and all of our nieces and nephews live only 10-20 minutes away. We would see our families at least once a week or more, so going from that to seeing them only once a week on Facetime was pretty hard. It certainly made me appreciate them so much more.
Another thing to note is that Belize is still a developing country, so some conveniences that we are used to in the states are not yet available there. While a few of those things took adjusting to get used to, we realized that it helped us appreciate the little things and live more simply.
Due to this, Belizeans are some of the humblest and most kind people we have ever met. A day won’t go by without you escaping a friendly “hello” or morning, morning” from a passerby. Everyone waves, even when they don’t know us and they are on the other side of the street. This is one of the reasons we fell in love with Belize.
Now that you’ve gotten your divemaster, what is next?
“What’s next?” One of the most frequently asked questions we’ve gotten over the past few months. In all honesty, we don’t have a concrete answer. Coming to Belize has been freeing and has helped us grow in ways we never thought possible. We know that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to, and this experience has opened our horizons.
What I can tell you is this. We hope to either move temporarily or travel to another country early 2022, covid-permitting. We are leaning towards somewhere in Asia. Matt wants to pursue getting his instructor certification, which is the next professional certification, and I would love to pursue underwater photography. Maybe we will find a dive shop to work at for a time. Maybe we will just travel internationally without diving. We aren’t really sure at this moment in time, but we do know that we don’t want our dreams to stop here. And we are going to do everything in our power to continue accomplishing our goals.
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