Well stated. all the way around.
...It would be interesting to hear the perspective of more people who have gone mostly places like the Red Sea, Maldives, Indonesia, etc. because they're closer, then checked out the Caribbean. Was it all you expected, or less than you expected? (Both above and below water.) Was it worth the flight to you?
I am amazed at my British/Northern Euro diving buddies who are so attracted to the Caribbean.
I started diving with these guys and they showed me "their back yard", everything from their cold water to the Red Sea, Maldives, that kind of thing. They look at South Africa like we think of the Galapagos. (and vice versa) What's near and familiar, I guess.
Why they are attracted to the Bahamas and Belize, maybe it's because they still have close family ties. I can not for the life of me why they continue to beat a path to dive the Southern end of Grenada. (Can't get them to consider a charter to the NE Barrier Islands). Many Brits are attracted to Tobago. It's a fine current ride, but they have that thrill elsewhere closer... maybe it's because their relatives have gone there on bird watching safaris?
I have seen North American divers get all Shark crazy, but
usually after six "canned shark rodeos" the wind up quitting or maybe a couple of dozen chance encounters- they get over it and begin to see and enjoy other things. My above mentioned dive buddies seem to be Shark crazy. We would spend hours swimming out into the blue looking for their "Mr. Grey", and the ones that even knew what a Sea Moth was- they weren't interested.
On my last trip with them, we did a week-long "Shark pester" in the outer Bahamas on a liveaboard. As many times as I have been in the water with them, it's as if they had never seen a Shark. I took one of their senior leaders aside and showed him what I was gawking at through a magnifying glass. It must have given me the same effect when one of those door-knockers converts a sinner into the fold. He was forever changed.
But he's leaving London for his third trip to Tobago next month.
I dunno, but I'm thinking it has a lot to do with 300 years of colonization. We have the urge to see the things our fathers saw. That- or maybe it's just Sharks.