Anyone in Utila?

[mitsuguy]

Good chance once my wife and I get our DM certs, we are going to move to Utila to get out of the country, away from our mundane lives working way too many hours a week in retail management, and to continue our education and do some instructor training...

Anyone on the board from there or been?

[Itsjustme0770]

Oh yeah. Been for sure. Check my signature for a preview. What would you like to know? Happy to answer whatever I can. Get ready for a time warp. Wonderful little place.

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by Itsjustme0770

Oh yeah. Been for sure. Check my signature for a preview. What would you like to know? Happy to answer whatever I can. Get ready for a time warp. Wonderful little place.

Wow, nice site...

Well, any tips you can give a first time visitor would be cool...

We plan on staying for some time, 6 months, more? Anything we need to know? I am already pretty versed on tourist / work visas and such, but any other help would be greatly appreciated!

[Itsjustme0770]

6months.. Hmmm.

I suppose it depends on what you are looking for. I know that you are doing your DMs, but are you expecting to work? Earn funds?

If so, your DM really probably won't carry you very far. Tons of DMs coming out every month. Free diving for you, but not much more than that. Get your instructors and have great people skills and you might make a buck or two. Just way to many people learning and training for a couple to anticipate making money to live on. Beer money, perhaps, but not living funds.

So, if you are expecting to support yourself by diving, its not likely, certainly not in the first 6 months. Sorry to rain on any parade.

BUT, rent can be cheap. There ar apartments up the hill that can be had for @ 300/month. Not air conditioned, but otherwise perfectly habitable. Once you are there, living is pretty cheap. I'd say you could live pretty well on $1500/month each if you didn't need to eat out every night and weren't party animals.

Not sure that this is the kind of info you want, but I am happy to answer any specifics that I know. If what you are looking to do is do your DM and dive your A#! off, Utila is a great (and cheap) place to do it.

Is that helpful at all?

[mitsuguy]

well, 6 months is just a number I pulled out of the air... we plan on having our DM prior to arriving, and getting our instructor training done there...

we aren't looking to get rich... we're looking to end up supporting ourselves enough to travel around a little over the next couple (or more) years... for us, that won't take much... only a few hundred a month which should be easy enough to make either there or somewhere else in that general area... both of us are great with people, as we are both in the people business anyways.. (retail / sales management)...

one of the reasons we aren't already there is that we are going to save some money to allow us to really not do much of anything for at minimum a year...

[Itsjustme0770]

Ok, that helps some. I really wouldn't plan on making any money while in your instructor course. If you do, then you'll be ahead of the game, but DM's are literally a dime a dozen on the Rock. Your diving will be free if you haul tanks, lead dives, etc. You can definately get free lodging if you are doing your instructors (quality of lodging depends on the shop, but shop around). If you really need to make money, I suppose you can look into bartending/cooking/waiting tables, but those opportunities are pretty competitive. I'm not saying it can't be done, but rather that I'd plan on it being a bonus, rather than a given. Just remember that this is an island pretty much dedicated to the backpacker community (e.g. folks who are there for the express purpose of living on practically nothing), so there are lots of folks willing to take alot of jobs where there aren't many. Add to that the local population and you run into a heavy supply and not as much demand.

Again I am absolutely not saying it can't be done. I know several instructors who do quite well on the island all year long and have for a couple of years, but they are the exception, not the norm.

All this said, there are a lot worse places in the world to be broke than Utila. Having a year's worth of cushion would make a huge difference as you could get established, get your instructor's under your belt and then see where you stand.