Midlife Adventure Crisis!

[JamesBon92007]

I'm now working on a new bucket list item which is a trip to a small, peaceful, Caribbean island that has no cruise ships, minimal places to stay, but is developed just enough to have a dive shop to rent tanks and possibly boat dives. There seems to be many places that used to be like this. One place is getting a new airport so I assume it won't be secluded for much longer. Part of the problem is that from LAX it will be about two days of traveling to get to most of the prospects with 10 hour layovers at airports I'd never heard of before. I suppose one way to approach it would be to simply stay a few days at each layover spot and leisurely move on to the next step as to avoid stress (which would, of course, be contrary to the whole point of going to such a place). I would love to find a foreign country that doesn't think that everyone who visits wants to be blasted by American rock and roll and day and night--limited electricity might help to reduce or eliminate that. One island boasts that it was a hideaway for rock stars so I'll skip that one Peace, quiet, natural beauty, and some good seafood ought to do it for me. It seems that whenever I try to "get away from it all" everything I'm trying to get away from is in abundance at most places I've been to. My idea of "live music" is a couple of guys with ukuleles and possibly a bongo drum and you nave to seek it out if you want it, not be constantly exposed to it while trying to relax on a beach or in a hammock. For me, paradise is free of the man-made unnecessary noises.

I'm thinking this is going to be a long trip and some of the transportation will likely be time-consuming and by a small boat so it also needs to have fairly inexpensive accommodations etc.. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[drrich2]

Have you been to Saba? I haven’t; what I read sounded pretty rustic on the whole.

 

[Subcooled]

OK, so I'm a tiny bit over 50, and one of my pools recently shocked me by saying I now qualify for a senior discount.

Let the children < 49 years play

according to PADI I'm now supposed to plan my dives as if they were 10 feet deeper"

An old body is more fragile, so please plan your 300ft dives as 310ft dives.

Part of me feels like I could risk MORE now... less time left, gonna die anyway, you know.

You are absolutely correct. When you die, you loose nothing. Only your relatives loose something. Only seconds alive mean something...

 

[cneal]

Have you been to Saba? I haven’t; what I read sounded pretty rustic on the whole.

And across the channel from Saba, Statia meets the descripton as well.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Have you been to Saba? I haven’t; what I read sounded pretty rustic on the whole.

Sounds interesting, but maybe I should have added "without active volcanoes" to my requirements. We just left Pahoa two days before the ground started opening up and lava flowing out two miles away from where we were staying. Now the Halemaumau crater is exploding with large rocks flying long distances and they are anticipating bigger explosions with bigger rocks and small rocks possibly reaching all the way to South Point. We were thinking of buying a small vacation home there but are now adhering to the philosophy that "sometimes things happen for a reason." We did not find "just the right house" and are glad we didn't.

 

[drrich2]

Sounds interesting, but maybe I should have added "without active volcanoes" to my requirements.

Picky, picky, picky.

If I wanted what you're describing, I'd do a little forum searching for the Corn Islands out of Nicaragua. Might check enough of the boxes to be worth a look. Not sure if it's a good match, but from the very few threads I've seen about the area, it sounded like you could get away from some things...

Richard.

 

[JamesBon92007]

And across the channel from Saba, Statia meets the descripton as well.

At least that particular volcano is considered to be "dormant." Oh wait, so was Mount St. Helens. But I suppose the chances of it erupting again within my lifetime are quite small.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Picky, picky, picky.

If I wanted what you're describing, I'd do a little forum searching for the Corn Islands out of Nicaragua. Might check enough of the boxes to be worth a look. Not sure if it's a good match, but from the very few threads I've seen about the area, it sounded like you could get away from some things...

Richard.

Corn Islands eh? I think that might be the place that has a dive op that was considering not accepting any divers over 50 on their boat. The concept was not well-received here on SB.

Meanwhile, I'll look into that and Statia. There's also a small island off Puerto Rico (Celubra) that sounds interesting. That one might be too easy to get to though

 

[Wookie]

Corn Islands eh? I think that might be the place that has a dive op that was considering not accepting any divers over 50 on their boat. The concept was not well-received here on SB.

Meanwhile, I'll look into that and Statia. There's also a small island off Puerto Rico (Celubra) that sounds interesting. That one might be too easy to get to though

Culebra is OK, nothing to write home about. The south coast of Puerto Rico is excellent. Mona and Desecheo are outstanding if you can fins a boat to take you there. Vieques is nice, again, too easy to get to. I think very highly of Saba, but their signature dive site was badly damaged by a hurricane last summer (tent wall/reef). Not that I have my own boat, Corn islands are only 2 days away.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'm now working on a new bucket list item which is a trip to a small, peaceful, Caribbean island that has no cruise ships, minimal places to stay, but is developed just enough to have a dive shop to rent tanks and possibly boat dives. There seems to be many places that used to be like this. One place is getting a new airport so I assume it won't be secluded for much longer. Part of the problem is that from LAX it will be about two days of traveling to get to most of the prospects with 10 hour layovers at airports I'd never heard of before. I suppose one way to approach it would be to simply stay a few days at each layover spot and leisurely move on to the next step as to avoid stress (which would, of course, be contrary to the whole point of going to such a place). I would love to find a foreign country that doesn't think that everyone who visits wants to be blasted by American rock and roll and day and night--limited electricity might help to reduce or eliminate that. One island boasts that it was a hideaway for rock stars so I'll skip that one Peace, quiet, natural beauty, and some good seafood ought to do it for me. It seems that whenever I try to "get away from it all" everything I'm trying to get away from is in abundance at most places I've been to. My idea of "live music" is a couple of guys with ukuleles and possibly a bongo drum and you nave to seek it out if you want it, not be constantly exposed to it while trying to relax on a beach or in a hammock. For me, paradise is free of the man-made unnecessary noises.

I'm thinking this is going to be a long trip and some of the transportation will likely be time-consuming and by a small boat so it also needs to have fairly inexpensive accommodations etc.. Anyone have any suggestions?

Look at Carriacou. It's an island in Grenada. I don't think they have shore diving though you'll be able to confirm that for yourself. I loved it there and will probably return for a much longer stay.