Hey Danica! I’m sorry, I haven’t been back or had friends head there lately so I have no insider intel. I apologize! Best of luck!

I am looking at a possible week in Panama and remembered this hostel, however I am having trouble finding it! Any idea if it has been replaced or something?

Thanks!

Absolutely! It would definitely meet your topside requirements. Depending on your diving experience you might not be wowed by the dive sites but you’ll be busy focusing on your course anyway, and if you need some serious underwater excitement you can always make a trip to Santa Catalina for some five star diving. I haven’t dove in Belize or Costa Rica. Good luck deciding!

Do you think Bocas del toro would be a great place to do a dive instructor course? I’m looking for a place with a really youthful atmosphere with a great night life and obviously great diving! somewhere that I would never be bored. How would you say it would compare to places like Roatan/ Utila, Belize or Costa Rica?

Thanks!

That’s what I would do! I enjoyed staying in different spots and checking out different parts of the archipelago that way 🙂 Though really, you can’t lose!

Thanks for your detailed posts about Bocas Del Toro 🙂
I’m heading there in February and we booked two accomodations on Bastimentos. Both have very high ratings and unbelievable reviews. But now I’m wondering if we should have stayed half the time in Bocas Town. What do you think?

Breanne

Hey Brittany! First of all, congrats on your exciting life changes coming up! I did PADI and I found it was very easy to find housing on Gili Trawangan IF you don’t need internet. If you do, things are trickier. Did you check out all my posts on the island? I did a cost breakdown that explained the living situation pretty well.

Some expats are working admin in Gili at villas, restaurants and dive shops but to be honest it will be hard finding work immediately. Most of the people I knew working those jobs were semi-long term expats on the island and got the gig by knowing someone. As for picking a dive shop, things change so fast in the dive industry I really just recommend arriving on the island and walking into every school that interests you and seeing who you click with! Best of luck… sounds like you are in for an amazing ride.

So I fell upon your blog while looking at diving options in Bali and have a few questions for you. If you could shed some light that’d be awesome. First a little about myself…I have spent the last three years living and teaching ESL abroad in SE Asia. However, I began my diving by getting my open water in Vietnam and just absolutely fell in love with it. I did fun dives in Cambodia, Malaysia and the Phillipines. I even did a SSI free diving course in Thailand. Well now I want to pursue my DM and on to instructor. Love to teach but hate the classroom setting. The ocean seems more my setting. I am currently in the process of taking my online course work with PADI for my advance and rescue. I’ve been in New Zealand for the last six months traveling and now back home in Louisiana seeing family and friends till August and then I’m hopping on a plane to Bali (never got to Indo while I was over there so I’ve had my heart set on checking it out). I’ve always been pretty lax with my travel plans, never really fully sussing out my destinations. Figured I would land and check out the dive shops from there, much like you did. Do you suggest Big Bubble as a reputable place? Good learning environment and top of the line instructors? Did you PADI or SSI? Also, how was finding a place to live over there? Easy or difficult task? My biggest question I have for you would be working over there. I would need to work for some extra income while doing my dive master. I am a certified esl teacher and have three years under my belt, however, everything I have read about working in Bali sounds like an utter nightmare with visas and untrustworthy operations. While living over there did you find many expats working? What kind of work seems available? Any light you could shed would be great. Keep on doing what you’re doing. Also nice to find someone with a passion for travel and underwater life.

Thanks,
B

Apparently there aren’t as many as there used to be due to people pulling them out of the water for too long and generally harassing them :/ We tried to be respectful to the ones we found!