Breaking Even

I took a gamble not going on the last Dominican Boat, hoping that the next one would arrive exactly when I needed it to. I found out it won't. With some help, I called our contact who crews the boat, and he said the boat was out of the water all week for "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) and he wasn't sure when it was going back in. I was pretty bummed out for a few days thinking that I was either going to have to wait several weeks to go over the Dominican Republic or pay a lot of money to fly.

Then I got an email back from a dive shop I had emailed. I took a long shot and made an unlikely offer; I would give them the rights to use all the photos I take while diving with them if they let me dive for free. And they agreed! They said as long as the boat was going out with other customers, I could go along free of charge! I wasn't expecting that at all. But I guess it's a good deal for both of us - a professional photographer would charge thousands for that much work and me going along with them costs them little. Win-win.

So I started thinking, now that I don't have to pay for diving I can fly over and my budget stays just about the same. Not only that, but I don't have to deal with the hassle of the boat, the long journey, or the seasickness. The flight is 15 minutes to Provo and 45 minutes to the DR, whereas the boat is no less than 18 hours.

This morning I went and bought tickets. I leave on Friday and stay for about 3 weeks. I'm excited to get off of isolated South Caicos for a little while.