{"id":1205,"date":"2011-09-30T07:59:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T13:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2011-09-30T07:59:35","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T13:59:35","slug":"learn-to-scuba-dive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=1205","title":{"rendered":"Learn to Scuba Dive!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>You, my fellow wanderlusters, know me well. \u00a0You know that I don’t make any decisions without carefully weighing the cost. \u00a0When Nicole and I decided to get SCUBA certified a few years ago, we looked into doing it locally. \u00a0It was going to cost $250 per person for a 10 week course. \u00a0We’d go once per week for a couple hours. \u00a0To finalize our certification, we’d need to go down to Park City, UT and do a few dives – a trip that would cost us another $300 by the time we drove down and stayed overnight. \u00a0Combine that with the cost and the hassle of getting a babysitter every week, and the decision was clear.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, about this time we found flights to Belize for somewhere in the neighborhood of $230 RT. \u00a0We planned a Belize trip that would take us to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, to the Jungle of Belize, and then leave us 4 days to get SCUBA certified on Caye Caulker with Frenchies Dive Shop.<\/a>\u00a0 At that point, we could take the full PADI course for $300 a person. \u00a0They’ve raised the price to $350 since then, but I’d tell you that it’s worth every bit of it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Instead of learning in a pool, we learned in the crystal blue waters of Belize. \u00a0We did our practice dives in the shallow water, and our first full dives in Frenchies holes, where we saw lobster, eels, shrimp, and an abundance of fish. \u00a0In the evenings, we studied our dive instruction books, laid out on the beach and worry-free. \u00a0Caye Caulker has exactly that kind of feel.<\/p>\n

It was a much better experience than 10 weeks of frantic scurrying at home – we learned in a beautiful and serene setting, with the realities of salt water and currents already present. \u00a0Our instructor was pheonmenal and patient with Nicole when she refused to take her mask off underwater… she went through with it eventually, but not without a lot of coaxing.<\/p>\n

If you’re considering learning to SCUBA dive, and I urge it with all of the compelling force I can muster, do it in a setting where you’ll appreciate it and enjoy the learning process. If you’re going to Belize, check out the friendly folks at Frenchies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks for wanderlusting with us.<\/p>\n

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You, my fellow wanderlusters, know me well. \u00a0You know that I don’t make any decisions without carefully weighing the cost. \u00a0When Nicole and I decided to get SCUBA certified a few years ago, we looked into doing it locally. \u00a0It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[317,316,314,315,318],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}