Project Calypso

The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Caribbean and consists of more than 700 islands. A former British colony, independent since 1973, and a very well known tourist destination. More than half of its GDP is coming from tourism which employ as well more than 50% of Bahamas population. Quite some years ago, we had our first Caribbean holiday there in a Club Med resort which does not exist anymore and it was fantastic. Despite Bahamas is a wonderful place with excellent diving opportunities, it will not be one of our project potential destination since its tourism is based for more than 70% on cruise ships and the rest on luxurious resorts. The real estate choice is limited to very expensive high end residences. The present Bahamas economical model of tourism is a bit too far from our idea of sustainable and personally tailored vacation experience...so let's move on.  

Aruba is an arid and relatively small (30Km x 8Km) island and a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Southern Caribbean Sea. The planned full independence were never reached and actually rescinded in 1995. Together with Bonaire and Curacao forms a group of islands called ABC Islands and they are part of Dutch Caribbean. Total population is estimated around 116.000, official languages are Dutch and Papamiento but English is widely spoken. Tourism and related activities counts for two thirds of the island gross national product. In the recent years, Aruba had around 1,000,000 stay-over tourists, 75% of which coming from North America and around 10% form Europe. The Cruise tourism brings more 800.000 passengers visiting the island. From a real estate point of view, there is a good availability of houses with value for money. The tourism is more hotel oriented than rental houses but there are opportunities especially with reference to European tourists.

Let's start with Antigua and Barbuda, the first Caribbean state of our list. Antigua and Barbuda are part of the Lesser Antilles, in the middle of the Leeward Island and includes other 45 minor islands mostly inhabited with few of the privately owned. Originally an English colony, Antigua and Barbuda gained full Independence in 1981 and nowadays is part of the Commonwealth, retaining Queen Elizabeth as head of state. English is therefore the official language. Population is around 96,000 with 97% of it living in Antigua. The economy is based mainly on tourism which accounts for more than 50% of the GDP. Almost ¾ of the total tourists arrive with cruise ships and the nationalities are mainly American and British. Antigua with the capital St. John’s is the main island, Barbuda is much less developed and even before the hurricane Irma that in 2017 destroyed everything, tourism offers was limited. Reconstruction was started but it remains to be seen how it will progress. There are no d

While working on our project it is important to keep a good Caribbean mood, especially when the Dutch weather seems to forget we are in summer. We staid extremely classic... Pina Colada, one of the most popular Caribbean cocktail which is also very easy to prepare. Beside the pineapple juice and a nice light rum Banks 5 Island Blend , the main ingredient is the cream of coconut and  Coco Lopez  is absolutely the best!! The recipe cannot be simpler to remember and to prepare: - 1 part of pineapple juice - 1 part of cream of coconut - 1 part of light rum Put all together with ice in a blender and you are in the Caribbean!

Making selections is always difficult but unavoidable. We have decided to limit our selection only at independent Caribbean States and Dutch territories. In principle, we excluded French territories because we prefer to not study another language while US and UK territory due to immigration policies which would make difficult to obtain our residence permit. As result, we have to choose between the following: Antigua and Barbuda Aruba The Bahamas Barbados Bonaire Curacao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Haiti Jamaica Saba Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Granadines Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Trinidad and Tobago Starting in alphabetic order, we are going to study all those Caribbean States. We will look at the geography, the climate, the diving peculiarities, the government, the immigration policies, the environment polices, the tourism business characteristics and the real estate market. At the end, we will see how many of this 18 destination have the potentia

The duration of the project will be quite long, for someone maybe too long but it is a massive life change which has to be planned without being in a rush. In addition to this, we also want  our 12 years old daughter to built whatever future she wants and a Caribbean island may not offer what she shall want so we shall wait until she will decide about her life This will also give us time to finance the project by our self since we believe that sustainability means also financial independence. We have now started with the shortlisting of destinations which will take some months. Hopefully, pandemic and economic crisis permitting, next year we will begin to spend our holidays in the shortlisted islands to experience how would be living there and to find their strengths and weaknesses. Those research holidays will take some years but we don't mind. Once the island will be finally chosen, we will need to find a place to live and a place to accommodate tourist guests and this may also t

While working on the project, we did a nice family dive at Zoetersbout, here in the Netherlands. Weather was fantastic, great water temperature and we saw plenty of juvenile lobsters, wonderful. Once back from the dive, to help staying focused on our project we enjoyed a nice Caribbean Breeze!!! We used the following very much recommended recipe: 1 part of dark room Banks 7 Golden Age 1/2 part of Bacardi Coconut Rum 4 parts of pineapple juice 4 parts of cranberry juice

But which island? Well...now that we have decided to change life and the place of the world to go, we actually are just at the beginning. We have plenty of jobs to do before we can start seeing the end of this project. As first, we need to select the actual island within The Caribbean where we shall live. Actually Caribbean means 35 countries and territories in an archipelago with more than 7,000 islands… ...but if you are not ready to "donate" or invest figures with 5 or 6 zeros, it is virtually impossible to obtain a long term residence permit or citizenship in most of the Caribbean countries. Beside the Dutch Caribbean islands, (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius), where, since Natasja is Dutch, we should obtain the permits without too many problems, we want to discover which other islands may be an interesting opportunity for us. So in the next weeks, actually most probably months, we will be working on a shortlist of our potential future residen

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.