Hey Mickey, you're so fine...

I've just noticed that most of my posts have been about guys that I've met while traveling. Not so many girls. Clearly I'm going to have to make an effort to introduce myself to some chicas when I travel, but in the meantime here's another chico for the records.

Mihailo, or Mickey, as he goes by outside of his native Serbia, is a dive instructor in the Dominican Republic, where he's been living for about a year and a half. This tropical life is something of a reincarnation for him, as a life of bad choices back in Belgrade landed him in a coma, and when he woke up he decided that it was time to make a change. On little more than a whim he started diving.

He is in all respects a man of paradox. At once charming but crude, multi-lingual and multi-cultural but intolerant, a strict vegetarian for health reasons who refuses to wear a helmet when riding his motorcycle, egotistical but self-aware, popular with the lasses and most unpopular with the lads. To put it plainly, he's a jerk (which he readily admits), but at least he's a fun jerk. Good for a few laughs, a couple of drinks, and a trip to the oceanfront boulevard for some fresh air and a much-needed break from work, Mihailo was in many ways a perfect single serving friend...

...Mostly because none of my other friends would be able to stand him for more than one serving.

Hey buddy...

Divers are an interesting lot. I've met all sorts of divers - sweet, egotistical, crazy... but never dull. And they're usually pretty laid-back, too. It's hard to say what's cause and what's effect, but some of my favorite people that I've met while traveling have been people I've gone diving with.

I think there's something about the nature of diving, about choosing to make yourself so vulnerable in such a potentially hostile environment, that makes it easy to forge immediate bonds with your fellow divers. When you're putting your life in someone else's hands and trusting that they'll know what to do if the need arises... well, that gets you to a certain level of understanding that bypasses a lot of those early getting-to-know-you stages.

What's funny is that at the end of the day, I may trust someone with my life, feel completely comfortable around them, and perhaps forge a strong bond, but still know very little about them beyond where they're from and where they've gone diving.

Such is the case with Denis, who was one of the best dive buddies I've ever had, if not the best. He's from Montreal, he certified to be a dive master years ago in the Red Sea, but has only been diving once in the past 10 years. He took a day off from his annual vacation with his dad to do a couple of fun dives in Puerto Plata, and we got paired up as buddies. On the first dive, the visibility was so poor that we got completely separated from our dive master, but being the awesome dive buddy he is, Denis stuck with me and then we decided to surface early to look for the others. Never a fun choice, but it was still very cool that we did exactly what dive buddies are supposed to do - look out for each other and stick together.

The second dive was much better in all ways, and hanging out between dives and after for a little made me sad that I wouldn't have the opportunity to go diving again with this particular cool buddy. Ah well, we take what we can get, even if it's just a few photos and fond memories.