Project Calypso

Ok... now that we took the decision to change our life, we had to choose where. Luckily we traveled a lot for pleasure and for business and we saw quite a significant portion of our planet, from East to West, from North to South. There is one main factor leading the choice, the weather! Gray and cold days for weeks in a row are banned which means limiting the search area to the tropics. Excluding Africa and South America due to risk of instability, three possibilities remain: Far East Asia Pacific Islands of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia The Caribbean Pacific Islands are not a real option for us since besides luxury resorts there are not many sustainable opportunities for long term stay. So quickly we ended up with two options, Far East Asia or The Caribbean. Both are wonderful places, perfect for diving with good opportunities for long stays. I lived in Far East Asia between Jakarta and Singapore for a few years and there are fantastic locations in the area but the language and ...

Before we proceed further in developing the project, maybe we should tell something more about us and how we arrived here. We are in the middle of our forties and our wonderful daughter is just starting her middle school, our present hometown is Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I am Giuseppe, better known as Beppe, an Italian engineer married to Natasja a Dutch Logistic Manager and we both work for the same company in the oil & gas business. Scuba diving is the family passion. I am a PADI Open Water Instructor, Natasja is also a PADI Open Water Instructor and our daughter is a PADI Junior Master Scuba Diver. We dive all year around basically everywhere possible, including cold and low visibility waters because it is being underwater what really matters. In the last 20 years, our working commitment has been very intense and in particular I have been travelling around the globe almost constantly like a real globetrotter. Our job provided us the means to enjoy life by great holidays, top...

Choosing the project name has been extremely easy, for sure no other choice in the all project will ever be as easy. Calypso was a nymph in Greek mythology who kept Odysseus prisoner for seven years on the island of Ogygia, in Homer's Odyssey. For any passionate scuba diver and every ocean lover, the name is also somehow mythological but for a different reason. Calypso  was the research ship of Jacques Cousteau, the famous scuba diving pioneer, marine conservationist and great documentarian. Cousteau legacy started in 1973 continue still today Foundation . John Denver, after being on board Calypso in Belize, dedicated a song with a wonderful lyric. And talking about music, Calypso is actually also the name of the typical Caribbean music developed in Trinidad during the 17th century which spread all over the islands becoming very popular and being nowadays one of the icons of Caribbean life together with the carnival. For sure, there will be more posts about Calypso music to get i...

We all have our own dreams and most of them remain what they are. We need dreams because they provide us hopes, motivation and sometimes comfort. No, this blog is not about a dream.  It is about a project, our project. Because the project resembles one of the most common and obvious dreams, someone may think a dream was how this all began. In reality the project origin is very much more rational. We have reached the middle of our life and have realized that we are ready for a different one. Our life is great but somehow its meaning is ending, we have changed, the world has changed and so our life has to change as well. Changing life for us doesn't mean better life, it simply means a different life. We are not in search of happiness because we already have it and in any case changing life would not make us happier. Actually, the aim is to live a simpler and more sustainable life, with human contact to transfer our passion. We are passionate about the ocean and its underwater world. ...