Liliana Condrey
From the October, 2008 issue of Scuba Diving Magazine. Why I Dive
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| "I've always been a water person and being underwater brings me to a place where I can put the 'rat race' and job demands out of my mind for a brief time. It's important for me to get away to go diving a minimum of twice per year." |
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Liliana Condrey had a vivid imagination as a young girl. Living far from the water in Bogota, Colombia, she and her sister would frequently "play mermaids instead of Barbie dolls." Dreams sometimes have a way of becoming reality. Such was the case when she met her future husband, Michael--a scuba instructor--while studying at the University of Washington. "My first time breathing underwater was in St. Croix, and it changed my life," she recalls. "And that lifelong dream came true a few months later when I earned my Open Water certification."
Her busy schedule as an industrial engineer for INTEL doesn't let her dive as much as she'd like, but it's not for a lack of trying. She plans her dive schedules a year to 18 months in advance, and that extra effort has scored her dive trips to St. Croix, the Philippines, Roatan and her favorite place: Grand Cayman. "Michael used to work there and he's taken us to some fantastic spots," she says. The two of them love the island so much that they recently joined in on the restoration of the Cayman Diving Lodge, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan several years ago. The popular East End resort will be billed as one of the first "all-green" eco dive resorts. "The underwater world is something we all want to treasure and protect, and Michael and I are committed to preserving the wonderful places where we dive," she says. "We can't wait for this resort to open." --Scott D. Jones
