Not even sure where to begin. These people made my trip. This is going to be a long one by the way. Fair warning.
A bit of back story here to give some context: my mother passed away in October of 2014 from pancreatic cancer. One of her life long dreams was to travel with her family, and she brought all of us to the DR in 2009 where she paid for my scuba lessons at a different dive center. I fell in love with it the very first breath under the surface of that pool. It has been my passion and fuel for life ever since that day 6 years ago. This trip for me was a thank you to my mom for everything she did for me while she was with us, and even after she passed away. I brought some of my mothers ashes with me so she could always be on the beach and in the sun. The plan was to dive Monica's Wreck (that was my mothers name), but it wasn't in the cards due to weather.
Now, with that being said, I was a bit sad that the dive shop wasn't the same one that I was at 6 years previous, but after meeting Sylvia on that first day, and telling her what I had planned, that sadness disappeared. She empathized with me right away, and with only knowing me for 2 minutes, gave me a hug and said how sorry she was for my loss. I am a very large man, and most people are usually scared of me. Not her. She knew that we shared the passion of diving and that connection for the sport made her see beyond my size. It meant so much to me. We told her the plan was to put mom's ashes on the Monica, and she said she would do her best. We booked our dives and waited for the next morning.
We showed up at just before 9 am the next day and met our dive instructor, Dima. He was very friendly and personable. We talked about about diving, and he asked us some question about our experience level. I had about 40 dives under my belt, and my friend was freshly certified. I told him I occasionally have issues equalizing in my left ear, and he showed me how he does it. After that, we set up our gear, the porters brought it to the boat, and we were off.
Our very first dive was the wreck of the Astron. I had dove wrecks before, but my friend had not. He was in awe. I had never been so close to such a large ship in my life, let alone a wreck. The visibility wasn't great, but the chance to get under was all I wanted. Dima is an excellent instructor and made sure that both my friend and I were okay throughout the dive. He was checking our air and ensuring we were equalizing without issue. His equalization trick worked incredibly well. At the end of the dive, Dima pointed out a ray on the ocean floor. My partner chewed through air at an incredible pace, and the dive was over after 25 minutes. We didn't care. It was a boat full of huge smiles! We were diving! I was bleeding a bit of air from my second stage reg during the dive, so Dima said he would look at it when we got back to shore. Once we got there, Dima opened up my reg, and cleaned it out, free of charge. There was some gunk in there from a dive I did last August in Haines, AK. After 5 minutes, he had it back up and working perfectly. The porters brought our gear up to get rinsed, and all we needed was to hang it up, and they would take care of the rest.
The next day we headed to the dive shop a bit early to talk with Dima and the rest of the crew. We met Piet and Glenn that day. Both are genuinely nice people who share of a love of the sport. When we got there, our gear was out and ready to go. All we needed was to hook up the tank and get wet. We set up our tanks and headed out for a couple of dives. We did the Bottom's Up wreck and a reef who's name escapes me right now. Both were excellent dives with life and coral to see. We headed back to the shop and got talking with Dima while we were rinsing the gear that the porters brought from the boat. We ended up talking with him for well over an hour. When we made it back, Sylvia asked us if we talked to Dima and Piet about Monica's wreck. I hadn't yet, but it was so nice to see that she remembered about my mom.
The next days dive went off without a hitch. We went out, swam with some fish, saw some coral, and talked with Dima more. He suggested that we do the Bayhibe excursion on Monday, and told us about the diving. My friend and I went for it. We hit up the dive shop, and put our names down for the excursion. Again, while rinsing gear, we spoke to Dima more and more.
We dove again the Sunday and everything came up golden. We got wet, saw the bottom of the ocean surface and blew some bubbles. No better way to spend a day.
Bayhibe was excellent. We met at the lobby early and boarded the bus. We stopped and picked up some fellow divers from Florida we met the previous day and headed off to the Caribbean Sea. We dove a reef and the remains of a Spanish galleon that went down over 400 years ago. Not much left of the wreck but cannons, the massive anchor, and a few cannon balls. I had an issue with my BCD on this dive. It kept leaking air from the inflator button. On the drive over, Dima and Glenn had said they had never seen someone pick up the small cannon ball with one hand before... Challenge Accepted! One handed, all the way over my head. On the first dive we saw spotted rays, a couple of morays, all kinds of fish, and Dima even found us a seahorse! It was excellent! He was SO HAPPY he found one! He kept fist pumping underwater! It was great to see such enthusiasm! Our second dive was on the Atlantic Princess! We dove the wreck and even penetrated it! We swam through it, around it and over it! It was a great day! There were a few lionfish in the engine room, but we made sure to give them a very wide berth. We came up, smiles everywhere and went back to shore. The crew at Global Divers brought us to the restuarant where we all got a 'personal' pizza. They had to be 40cm across! We sat there for a while, laughed and talked about diving. After the hour long ride back to the resort, once again, the crew took care of our gear.
The next morning our gear was out and ready to go. Dima had looking into my BCD issue and found out what was wrong: the button had wore through and it was leaking air from my bladder. He went to Piet, got a new button cap, and proceeded to fix it within 2 minutes. I asked Piet how much he needed for the repairs, and his reply was a smile and he said to tip Dima for fixing it. Done and done.
Our last day of diving was sadly Dima's day off, so we went out with Glenn. He is very professional, but laid back and easy going. Nothing short of praise for this man. He brought us out and dove with us for the morning. Underwater he is calm and nothing phases him. Can't ask for more from a dive instructor. After the dives, we got back and Sylivia again asked me about Monica's Wreck. I thanked her for showing so much concern and told her we didn't do it, and that I was okay with it. I said that I feel mom knew I was doing good, and that she was happy I was diving. Sylvia gave me another hug. It was wonderful.
We went back the next day to dry gear. It was wonderful to pack it up without it dripping salt water. We hung around the dive shop for probably an hour, just chatting with everyone there, telling them how much we enjoyed diving with them, and how much we are going to miss their hospitality. We said our goodbyes and ensured them that we would both write excellent reviews of them and their shop. My dive partner and I are already planning our next trip down to take some courses with them and see everyone again!
All in all, even thought I didn't get to dive Monica's Wreck, it was an amazing experience diving with Global Divers. They made my trip so much better than I could have hoped for. I knew it would be good, but they made it great. If you are diving, do yourself a favour, go see the crew there. They will treat you great, show you amazing things, and you will make new friends. Make sure to tell them Jordan and Mike sent you!
You really went above and beyond my wildest expectations. I can't say it enough, thank you for everything.