Flight Recap: Amiga Airlines SCUBA 0825→ Mexico
SCUBA 0825: Sirenitas in the Making
Dates: September 2025
Route: Puerto Morelos → Cenotes → Cozumel
👩🏽✈️ Meet Your Crew:
Pilotas:
Ned — Founder of Adventure Amigas and certified callejera. Leading with corazón since 2017.
Carol — World traveler with over 20 countries under her belt. Brings logistics, laughter, and that global amiga energy.
Capitanas (Mexican Mermaids):
LuzMa — NAUI-certified dive director, Mexicana powerhouse, and real-life sirena with 50+ years of diving experience.
Sarai — NAUI-certified dive instructor, former teacher turned underwater educator, bringing kindness, patience, and grounding glow.
Juntas, we co-created year two of Amiga Airlines—a sirenita ceremony where first-gen Latinas found their fins, faced their fears, and dove into a whole new world. 🌊✨
📚 Curious how Amiga Airlines started?
🌊 Sirenita Ceremony
We kicked off year two of Amiga Airlines with a splash—literally. SCUBA 0825 was a whole sirenita ceremony.
One by one, a crew of first-gen Latinas found our fins and faced the ocean with a mix of fear, grit, y corazón.
🤿 Training Day Reality Check
We all read through our theory before ever setting foot on the boat. But you can read all you want—nothing prepares you for that moment when you’re actually in the water, doing it with your own hands.
The jitters showed up at different times. For some, it hit while getting ready in our room. For others, it was on the boat ride out, staring at the horizon. And for a few, the nerves punched in right before descending into the ocean.
The beautiful part? We inspired each other. Our amigas training for their very first Open Water Certification drew courage from watching the amigas going for their Advanced Certification. And when doubt crept in—because of course it did—we were all right there, validating each other, whispering encouragement, locking eyes and saying, “You got this, amiga.”
🪸 Xtabay Buceo
We were connected to Xtabay Buceo through our amiga Xana, who introduced us to la mera mera herself: LuzMa.
The name Xtabay comes from Mayan legend in the Yucatán. The X’tabay was said to appear beneath the sacred Ceiba tree—a tree that connects the underworld, earth, and the heavens. Some feared her, others admired her, but all respected her as a powerful, untamable force of nature.
By naming her dive school after Xtabay, LuzMa carries that spirit forward: mujer energy that is wild, rooted, and deeply tied to land and sea.
“SCUBA runs deep in her blood—her dad was a diver, and her mom? A baddie who dove until the age of 98 and passed at 99. Rest in Power, reina.”
At 65, LuzMa is still gliding through the water in her signature pink gear like a total badass. With over 50 years of diving experience, she briefs with knowledge, safety, and wisdom you can only get from a lifetime under the waves.
Her daughter-in-law Sarai brought the grounding glow—right there to help us equalize ears or calm our breathing. LuzMa’s husband captained the boat. Xtabay Buceo is family-run, 100% Mexican-owned, Amiga-approved. No shiny shop fronts. Just skill, intention, and a lot of love.
🧜🏽♀️ The Sirenita Pod
Every single amiga on this trip got certified in her 30s. Mujeres who didn’t grow up around oceans. Mujeres with real fears of the ocean. Some who had never even snorkeled before.
For some, SCUBA 0825 was the start: earning the Open Water Certification, the entry into the diving world. For others, it was leveling up to the Advanced Certification: deeper dives, new environments, and handling more complex conditions.
Day 1 humbled us. The gear was heavy. Breathing underwater felt unnatural. Doubt was loud: “Can I really do this?”
But by Day 2, something shifted. Skills clicked. Our bodies remembered. Es parte del show. And the pride in our eyes? That glow hit different.
✨ Cenote Certification
Our advanced sirenitas completed their training in a cenote—a cavern dive that was dark, cold, and sacred. Floating through shadows with flashlights felt surreal, like moving through another world.
It wasn’t lost on us that this cenote is where LuzMa wants her ashes spread one day. That knowledge gave the whole dive a sacred weight. It was more than a certification—it was stepping into legacy.
🌴 Cozumel Deep Dive
Six amigas weren’t ready to go home, so we extended for Cozumel, the second largest barrier reef in the world. Drift diving—letting the current carry us along the reef—felt like straight out of Finding Nemo.
Paradise. Coral blooming. Schools of fish swirling like confetti.
Then the current hit. One second we were cruising, the next it was full force. We lined up, scanning each other constantly. When an amiga lost sight of LuzMa, we telephoned the message—underwater, through hand signs.
It was intense, but we stayed calm through the fear. We grabbed each other’s jackets, trusted each other, trusted LuzMa, and began our ascent. A scene straight out of a movie.
🫧 Camaraderie, Amiga-Style
Diving pushes your body in ways you don’t expect. After our dives, we were wrecked. Face masks, naps, then cute beachy restaurants to refuel. Laughs about tangled regs, salty hair, and sore muscles turned exhaustion into joy.
There was even a moment mid-dive when an amiga’s weight belt slipped right off. A serious situation. But the way the advanced amigas and instructors reacted—calm, fast, protective—showed exactly what this journey built.
We got us. Always.
“It’s knowing you’re underwater with mujeres who will literally protect your life. That kind of trust? Unmatched.”
🐚 Shoutout to Our Pilota
Big love to Carol, our Pilota for this trip, who handled all comms and logistics that made SCUBA 0825 possible. Without her, none of this would’ve flowed.
💌 Mujeres in the Water
This trip was about diving, but it turned into so much more.
Most of us grew up with fear of the ocean—told it was dangerous, or never believing we could do something like this. The terror was real, but it wasn’t ours to carry. We did it anyway.
Every dive was a release of that miedo. Every bubble, proof that we were stronger than the doubts we carried.
If you’re asking yourself if it’s too late to learn—spoiler: it’s not.
We’re proud. Proud of our sirenitas who did it scared. Proud to be opening a whole new world for mujeres of color. Proud knowing this isn’t the end—it’s just the beginning.
SCUBA 0825—you changed us.
📲 Dive With Xtabay Buceo
Wanna learn from the OG sirenas themselves? Follow @XtabayBuceo or message LuzMa directly on WhatsApp: +52 998 845 0174.
We’re beyond proud to support a native-owned, women-led dive crew.