#2 Caribbean &
Diving and Kite
My second big project was the time I spent in the Caribbean. In all, it was three and a half years, which was the beginning of my professional diving career, my volunteer work with sea turtles and also the beginning of my professional career in Kitesurfing.
At that moment, after arriving from the trip to Polynesia, I made the decision to really drop everything. I got rid of the partnership at the advertising agency and liquidated the material goods I had accumulated in Brazil: car, house and sold everything. The first difficulty I encountered was to look for a new profession that needed flexibility to travel, quality of life as a priority and a great possibility to get to know new cultures: I decided to become a diving instructor. For this new profession I turned to the most reputable agency in the world, PADI, so that my certification would have a value and that I could have a solid professional career. I ended up discovering the island of Bonaire, an island that was part of the former Netherlands Antilles, which would be my new home for three years.
During the time I was in Bonaire I also got involved with an NGO similar to our famous TAMAR project.
We worked on the conservation of sea turtles: the Sea Turtle Conservation.
My role as an NGO volunteer was to dive, catch the turtles and bring them to the research boat. It was also there where I was able to develop a new skill, which was apnea diving (free diving without a tank, oxygen or equipment).
After almost two years, I unfortunately had an accident diving into a shipwreck on the island of Bonaire. I've had what's called a reverse block, which is when you go down too far and your ear can't equalize anymore. Unfortunately I had 15% hearing loss in my left ear.
That wasn't the worst part, in fact when I got to the doctor I got the information that I couldn't dive anymore. Neither as a professional nor as an amateur. At any time, any dive I took, I could completely lose hearing in that ear.
I was determined that I would not give up that quality of life for which I fought so hard.
After researching for a while I decided that I would become a kitesurf instructor, since the island was also a paradise of winds and natural beauty for the practice of the sport. I felt a great personal fulfillment as I started from scratch once again and reinvented myself again. But it got to the point where I saw a need for new challenges after three years on that magical island.
The dream was now different. My main goal was a desire to live on a sailboat and be able to take this house with me wherever I went. From that came the decision to move to Asia and from there came another chapter in the great projects of my life.