Gvi Mexico Pez Maya October-december 2008 Chatty Report Compress

3rd October 2008 - 12th December 2008 “WELCOME to PEZ MAYA 08 4!!!!”  reads the whiteboard on our arrival to base. But after 1hours drive on the bumpiest road in the universe, that was hardly the first thing that caught our EM eyes. As we entered the communal area we were hit by white sands, blue sea and green palm trees…everything was so bright…oh how we wish it would have lasted! It started so well, they even had some baby sea turtles waiting for us, to be released. But then came…… The weather.

We were hit by tropical storms, high winds and even a mini tornado that flew by several EM’s swimming in the sea. Diving and general base life was disrupted for four weeks, but we did not let it get to us and the troops kept their spirits high….. sort of! (beer – only 3 after 6pm) And every now and then we gave diving a shot…

Sian Ka’an, via monitoring, to help protect the reef we have come to know and love

We were dryer in the sea!!! Base Life As a whole we have not been a bad group and have had minimal complaints concerning the living conditions, in fact we kind of like the open air showers and pervert crabs. Cleaning the communal areas would be better without the persistent sand flies and mosquitoes….and kitchen duty without the lack of meat, cheese and ice, but it was still better than KITCHEN CLEAN!! Never before has a kitchen been so meticulously cleaned. On a serious note though, living on a private Caribbean beach is something else. The view never tires, volleyball is always fun and there is no need to sunbathe as you just get a tan anyway. Diving Diving has been an awesome experience and has combined skills and the beauty of the sea and the fun of diving. We have all been trained to an excellent level, most EM’s are now rescue divers and several have become new dive masters possibly embarking on a career in PADI. We have used our newly acquired skills to gather valuable information for Amigos de

Learning and being taught our coral and fish has improved our enjoyment and appreciation of diving in this area and we all still get excited when we come across a blue parrot fish or a Mussa angulosa or a really cool anemone, not to mention the odd shark or turtle. Sightings Along with the daily monitoring we also keep a record of incidental sightings so that we can keep track of both land and marine animals inhabiting the area. Sharks have often been sighted offshore, especially in the morning. While diving we have seen turtles, a spotted eagle ray, southern and lesser electric rays, octopuses, large moray eels, schools of barracudas, sharks and banded coral shrimp. After a dive one afternoon we were approached by the most beautiful dolphin, everyone got so excited it was really funny, and revving the engine

attracted it even more, it came within about a metre from the boat! On land we see snakes and scorpions…in fact we both have found scorpions in our wetsuits since being here!

If you take a stroll down to the bridge after dark you can see crocodiles reaching 7/8ft long. There are also many different types of birds and each morning 2 EMs take some time off from morning chores to check out what’s about. Parties P A R T……Y? Because we gotta!

M party. Various members have appeared from Madonna, a crazy witch, Michael Jackson and The Ghost Busters. A good time was had by all.

Communtiy Work Turtle festival The turtle festival of Tulum is a celebration of the end of the nesting season, to celebrate the new lives of the tortugitas. This year was the 6th year and over time it has become a rather large event. GVI were to have a stand and various games for the children’s entertainment and education. The first day was spent with our games, which went down a treat.

During our stay at Pez Maya Ritz we have had a few parties to remember with some great themes – Cowboys and Indians (A.K.A Coral Vs Fish), Halloween and the

The kids loved them! And once they had completed a game they got their faces painted as reward. The following day began with a beach clean on Tulum beach. After turning around at 6am due to torrential rain we returned at 9am accompanied by a more optimistic sky and a couple more well deserved winks. Overall it was a success, we were joined by other organisations and locals alike. No matter how many beach cleans we do I am always surprised at the amount of rubbish we collect – they really open your eyes to how we treat our seas.

Punta Allen. Various subjects were covered such as body parts, recycling and directions. With their new words learnt we then played games, both educational and fun, I happened to be given a new name by the locals – LOCO. This was a great experience and very rewarding – I just wish I could speak Spanish as well as the kids speak English.

Birds We have been lucky enough to meet some university ‘birders’ this phase who spend a few hours each morning monitoring birds on the road from base to the bridge close by. We have been able to help with their records by helping them catch the birds, identify their species, sex them, determine their age and health, measure wing and tail span, weigh them, look at fat percentage and finally tag them. It was really very interesting, fun and rewarding.

Once the beach was clean we headed down to Xcacel and the main event, the big turtle festival show and the release of 250 baby sea turtles. GVI volunteers had various roles which mainly involved crowd control and stewarding. The Spanish speakers were assigned a slightly different role: child guides. It was a very enjoyable weekend. Teaching at Punta Allen As part of our community work several of us also got to teach English to local school children in

Away from base Aside from all the on-base activity, we have had multiple opportunities

to explore the surrounding area with ample activities to choose from… Swimming with Manatees Not all great experiences have to cost money; that is something we learnt when we went to a quiet beach to spend the weekend looking for manatees in the mangroves. After a $20 ride from Tulum we were there. Albeit wet, cold and dark we spent the night in tents, and woken by our now inbuilt 6am alarm clocks we set off in the morning for a snorkel. The sun had even shown its face especially for the occasion… By the time afternoon had come we had all spent 45minutes snorkelling around with one very friendly manatee.

Cenote diving is completely different to diving on the reef and offers an awesome experience. Some of the cenotes we visited were Angelita, Gran Cenote, Temple of Doom, Dos Ojos and Aktun-ha. Dos Ojos and Gran Cenote are the two most famous cenotes and offer some beautiful underwater views when the light pierces through the water. Dos Ojos also come with a stunning Bat Cave where you can surface and relax looking at the stalactites, stalagmites and of course the bats. Temple of Doom and Angelita are for the more adventurous, explorer types of diver with Temple of Doom taking you through a massive cave system with no light what so ever that starts with a five meter drop.

There is also a very spooky halocline where your buddy will literally disappear before your eyes, but it can also provide a great light show. Angelita is the deep dive cenote taking you to 40m where you pass through a layer of sulphur that looks like the floor. It also has the resemblance of a Lord of the Rings scene which is very cool for all you fantasy film lovers out there. I think it is safe to say it was one of the highlights of our stay here. We went with the expectation of maybe getting a glimpse, and left feeling extremely privileged having been virtually hanging out with this manatee for so long. They are such beautiful creatures. Cenote Dives The Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead is a well celebrated festival here in Mexico and we wanted to make sure we experienced it to the full. It is a celebration of the lives of those who have passed away. People picnic in graveyards, make shrines for their loved ones and go to festivals to see theatre, dance and song. We all trooped off to Xcaret, a large park just outside of Playa del Carmen where we took full advantage of the face paint and entertainment.

The performances were really impressive, the costumes were amazing with eagles, jungle animals, and the whole atmosphere was great. We also got to see a Mayan Ball game played in the court there, which was a lot of fun. The park is large with lots of stalls of crafts and different dishes. The celebration is a very elated, happy one, celebrating lives that once were. Happy memories. It is really nice to see and nowhere do they do it better than here in Mexico. Belize Half way through our stay a large group of us took a long weekend to head down to Belize and dive the Blue Hole. After leaving base at

5pm we arrived in Belize City at 9 am the next morning having slept on a bus station floor and spent a few hours on a small cramped mini bus. On arriving in Belize City we took a boat taxi to San Pedro. That night we went for a night dive and saw loads of rays and large groupers.

The next day we boarded our lovely charter boat and made our way to the Blue Hole. This was our first deep dive and well worth it. The Blue Hole was incredible and underneath us was the sight of a shark. On the other two dives we came across turtles and eagle rays. This was an experience I would recommend to anyone and would do again myself.