The heart and vision behind Cidade Velha Diving. Two different journeys, one shared dream by the ocean.
Antonio Gómez-Monedero Esteban
Co-Founder of Cidade Velha Diving & Alyne · PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) · Entrepreneur
Tony — Antonio Gómez-Monedero Esteban — is an entrepreneur, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, captain, and outdoor instructor (climbing & kitesurf). He is co-founder of Cidade Velha Diving in Cape Verde and co-founder of Alyne, a mind–body–ocean experience. More than an instructor, he is the soul of this dive centre — guiding people through meaningful, transformative time in the water.
Originally from Fuengirola, a coastal town in southern Spain, Tony fell in love with the sea as a child — exploring rocky shores with friends using old, hand-me-down masks. That curiosity became a vocation: he began diving more seriously at 13, completed his first course at 15, and became a certified PADI Instructor in 2017 after two years as a Divemaster at Abysub in Fuengirola, Málaga — a place he considers his second home, and where he worked until 2024.
As a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT), he teaches multiple specialties and has trained many students. What he loves most is watching people overcome fear — students who start nervous or unsure and finish proud, confident and transformed.
Beyond diving he is a climber and kitesurf instructor, a captain and athlete — and an entrepreneur who spent years dreaming of building a life around the ocean and creating his own dive centre. He changed course, trained hard, and turned that dream into reality as co-owner of Cidade Velha Diving with Leslie.
Together they also co-founded Alyne: mind, body and soul experiences that combine yoga, entrepreneurship, technology and ocean adventure. Tony’s role is the body — nature, diving and adventure — because not everything is discovered by thinking; sometimes you have to go out, explore and live it.
He has explored dive sites around the world; one of his most unforgettable trips was Baja California, sharing the water with whale sharks, bull sharks, sea lions and whales. In Cape Verde he values warm clear water, wrecks, corals, fish schools, caves and space for both recreational and technical diving — in a place still far from mass tourism.
His most touching memory? Guiding a 6-year-old girl — who arrived full of fear — through her first Bubble Maker experience. She later wrote him a letter of gratitude that he still keeps close to his heart.
Whether you are starting out or advancing your skills, diving with Tony is more than a certification — it is an invitation into calm, colour and depth.
Leslie Real
Co-Founder of Cidade Velha Diving & Alyne · Software engineer & entrepreneur · Rescue Diver
Leslie Real is a software engineer, entrepreneur and builder. She has spent more than 18 years creating and running companies, teams and technology projects — she started leading businesses at 19. She is co-founder of AwaLabs and of Cidade Velha Diving with Tony, and co-founder of Alyne.
She has always lived between two worlds: technology, strategy and entrepreneurship on one side; personal growth, yoga and nature on the other. She is also a yoga instructor, a pilot and a rescue diver — curious enough to keep learning across engineering, business, markets, aviation and the ocean.
When she discovered diving — and later Cape Verde — those worlds met. With Tony she created a dive centre where adventure, nature and human connection matter as much as the dives. Leslie built much of the world behind Cidade Velha Diving: digital presence, strategy, systems and organisation so people from everywhere can find this corner of Santiago.
In Alyne she works on the “mind” side — entrepreneurship, technology and AI — helping people turn ideas into something concrete. What inspires her most is how the ocean transforms people: like yoga, it helps us slow down, breathe, overcome fear and reconnect with what matters.
For Leslie, Cidade Velha Diving is where creating and connecting meet — a project built with love for the ocean, for people, and for experiences that change us from the inside.