Project Calypso

This project started as an answer to our need of change but at the beginning it wasn’t really clear which direction we wanted to take. The reasons for such a need were pretty unclear and so were the expectations, in fact what we had was nothing more than the feeling that something was not correct, somehow. But there was actually nothing we could say we were missing because we actually had and still have everything. Things started clearing up few years ago after a short swim in the wonderful crystal-clear sea waters of one Elba island’s beach, when I got my hand full of tiny small pieces of plastic. By looking at the sea from the beach, the Mediterranean water was appearing to be one of the cleanest on hearth, but the reality was different: it was a soup of tiny pieces of plastic garbage, almost unnoticeable. That hand covered in plastic was for us a punch in the face. As ocean lover, we were quite familiar with everything endangering our oceans, and more extensively our planet, but su

Portoferraio - Elba Island - Mediterranean Sea Do we really need a plan C?  Actually not, one back-up plan is normally more than enough unless you are NASA trying to send people on Mars and we definitely are not. The fact is that in the last weeks....maybe more months....thoughts went wild, focusing a lot on ocean conservation, minimalism, freedom, scuba diving as inner peace and self rediscovery experience. So these new ideas coming up are now slowly distancing us from a classic touristic model and moving to explore alternatives which are looking more at our impact on the environment, on our and others lives and less at how to get an income, even if low.. Plan C in fact starts from a totally different prospective. It is not about finding the best way to ensure a minimum income to be able to live sufficiently comfortable in a warm place with limited responsibilities. No, this plan starts from thinking which would be the best way to live with the minimum possible cost in a warm place wi

Every serious project has a contingency plan to ensure irs successful completion also in case of unavoidable problems and since our Calypso is far too important, we need our own plan B.  Relocating to the Caribbean is not a simple task with a lot of aspects which has to fit together at the right time and sometime one single unexpected issue may be enough to stop the all plan. The geographical and cultural distance from Europe are positive aspects of the Caribbean but they may become problems in case of changes in our families or in the political and or economical status of countries. Similar porblems may prevent or make extremy difficult our relocation outside Europe. As divers we learned to accept the unexpected and therefore we are prepared to continue with the Calypso project witout changing its principles just the place, somwehere closer, an European destination. We looked at the map of Europe to find places which are warm through all the year, with great diving site, effortable re

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is the island country of the Lesser Antilles laying between Saint Lucia on the North and Grenada on the South. The territory is composed by the main island of Saint Vincent with the capital Kingstown and a chain of 32 smaller islands many of which are inhabitated by a total population of 110,000 people. After an intial period when the islands were under French control, they has been maintly a British colony till the 1979 when they gained full indipendency. Nowadays Saint Vincent is a parlamentary democarcy and a constututional monarchy with Elizabeth II as Queen. Since its indipendance, the state had political stability without any major issues. Saint Vincent is a volcanic island with moist forest while southern islands has dryer forest ecosystems. In April 2021 the main volcano La Soufriere erupted, 16,000 people had to be evaquated and ashes covered part of the island. Climate is the typical tropical one, hot and humid with dry season from December to

  Saba is the smallest special municipality of The Netherlands and a small Caribbean island of 13 square kilometres where less than 2000 people are living permanently. Located in the northern Leeward islands of the West Indies, Saba is essentially composed by the potentially active volcano Mount Scenery which reaches 887 meters of altitude. Historically since the 17 th century, the island has always been under Dutch dominion apart from a period of 150 years under the British Kingdom which ended at the beginning of the 19 th century. During the British period, Saba was a hideout for Jamaican pirates often joined by English people who were send to the island because considered “undesirable” by the homeland authorities. After the Dutch regain control of the island in the 1816, the legitimate trading and sailing become the main activities till when stating in the 1960s tourism was steadily growing importance also thanks to the construction of an airport and a vessel pear. Nowadays touris

  Jamaica is one of the most famous island countries in the Caribbean thanks to its history, nature, rum and lifestyle but also to popular Jamaicans such as Bob Marley and Usain Bolt. The Island is located 145 km south of Cuba and 191 Km west of Hispaniola and after them, it is the third largest one of the Caribbean Under Spanish domain till 1655 when the island was conquered by British who renamed it Jamaica. During the English period, Jamaica was leading the sugar export with its plantations.  Independent since 1962, today Jamaica has a population of almost 3 million people, a stable democratic government with a constitutional monarchy headed by Elizabeth II as Queen of Jamaica. In the last decade, the island saw an important economic growth and a general improvement of life quality. Mining, agriculture and tourism are the main pillars of the Jamaican economy. With an average of 4,3 millions visitors a year, in 2019 tourism accounted for 20% of the Country GDP with a positive trend