About us
Slow Dive Casa Chihuahua
Who we are
We are Julie & David, a belgian couple of dive instructors, tour guides and nature lovers. After learning scuba diving in Belgium at RCAE Plongee (Uliege Sports), as CMAS divers (Lifras), we decided to travel around the world and became PADI Instructors. We finally fell in love with Dominican Republic and decided to settle in Bayahibe.
We bought a typical dominican house and renovated it to create what is now our house, Casa Chihuahua, named like this because of our 4 rescued chihuahua’s dogs. We like to make discover the beauty of Dominican Republic to others, we then decided to built one small but confortable room in our garden. This room is now for rent as a Bed & Breakfast.
After having worked in big dive centers, we realized that we wanted to take more time to teach diving, because everyone has his own speed, and every student is different. We didn’t want to guide big groups of certified divers anymore, having no time to show them anything interesting. The name Slow Dive was inspired by the “Slow Food” movement, based of the concept that the food we eat should be good (quality, healthy), clean (does not harm the environment), and fair (fair price for cosumers and producers).
We created our own small dive center in another part of the house and designed diving and excursion trips. We applied the principle of the Slow movement : GOOD, quality dive equipment maintained in excellent conditions, instructor/tour guide with high experience (us), CLEAN, we try to have as less impact as we can in the environment and we participate in a lot of conservation projects, FAIR, the price is fair for you, for us, and for local businesses we work with.
The Team
Julie
Julie is a geographer, oceanographer and a PADI dive instructor. She worked as a teacher before and loves to share her knowledge about marine conservation, sciences and marine biology. She is also an amateur underwater photographer.
David
Before being a PADI dive instructor, David was working as a body shop painter. He likes all technical part of scuba diving, and is a specialist in equipment maintenance. His imagination is without limits and he is great at building things for himself or his house.
Jeffry
Jeffry is the captain of our boat. He is Advanced Open Water diver and has worked as a technical diver for FUNDEMAR‘s marine conservation program. He is also a fisherman and know which species to fish or not to fish to help the reef!
Maribel
Maribel is like our second mum! She takes care of our house and our dogs with a lot of love. She cooks for hungry divers the most delicious Dominican lunches elaborated with local products and homemade seasonings.
Our boats
Explorer
Our medium boat, Explorer, can welcome 8 divers or 10-12 snorkelers. There are some benches for divers to get ready in the back, with plenty of shade, and the front seats are perfect to relax during the trip.
Wanda
Wanda is our small boat for maximum 4 divers or 6 snorkelers. It is perfect for private trips or very small groups of divers or snorkelers. There are some spaces for the diving tanks, shade, and you can relax on the front cushions.
In the Top 10 most environmentally friendly dive centers
Slow Dive - Casa Chihuahua is a Green Fins certified Gold member. We are in the top 10 of most environmentally friendly dive centers in the world, and we are the only gold certified dive center in the Caribbean!
Green Fins provide to dive centers an international recognition for their efforts in reducing their impact on the environment. We are happy to be part of the Green Fins family and we respect its code of conduct for a better protection of our coral reefs. When diving or snorkeling with us, we inform you and teach you the best practices for sustainable diving and snorkelling, so if you dive with us, your impact on the coral reef will be more positive too.
Slow Dive – Casa Chihuahua is also a member of the Cluster Turistico La Romana Bayahibe, that aims to develop sustainable tourism in the area.
What we do
Scuba diving
Fun dives, diving courses, marine conservation dives
Excursions
Boat trip, snorkeling trips, outback excursions
Bed & Breakfast
Room for rent at Casa Chihuahua