The first day we dive we are joined by two “older” ladies from New York. They have been coming here for many years. Both are close to retirement and have started building a house on the island so they can spend the NY winters in the warmer climes of San Salvador. Super nice ladies, both having a good time diving as they can and missing a dive when they need. Guanahani is their dive centre of choice. They really enjoy the diving here and this is the place they want to settle. B tells Debbie she hopes we will be able to dive when we reach their age. I too am impressed with their moxie.
That same day there are two boat bums (I do not know the proper term but I extrapolated from ski bum) on board. C is an Aussie and from our conversation she has traveled extensively. Z is an Alaskan by birth and for a young guy has lived a goodly number of places but at the moment is living on a boat in Florida. They have been travelling together for five months in and around the Bahamas and are nearing the end of their trip. Both are good divers for their years. They had heard San Salvador was the place to dive so they headed this way and decided to splurge. Later, during the Fourth of July celebration at the Riding Rock we have a chance to chat with C and Z for a good portion of the evening. Our conversation met on the common ground of travel and diving. We end by exchanging emails and I will for sure keep in contact. Even though our ages vary greatly I think if fate were to have our paths cross, it would be quite enjoyable to spend some time in each other’s company.
Day two found us diving with our two NY lady friends and a couple Canuks. M and C are from Vancouver, thirty-five/fourtyish, and seem to live a very enviable life. M is a French girl from Paris. She has an executive type job with a firm in the business of modernizing airports around the world. Her job takes her to places like San Salvador and C tags along. This time they took a few days vacation, came to San Salvador to have a look see and do some diving. We also found common ground in travelling but these two have an interest in visiting galleries in places like Paris. Again we exchanged emails and I will again keep in touch with the hope our paths will again cross.
We don’t always make plans to keep in contact with people we meet on our travels but this time we have crossed paths with several folks of similar thought.
We have made friends on a trip many years ago and we continue to meet up with them every couple of years and spend a week diving. It’s great fun to join up and every trip our friendship expands on common interests.
Travelling provides us with an opportunity of long distance friendships. It is said the world is getting smaller and we are doing our part to make that happen.