Pez Maya 092 - Chatty Report

Phase 092: 3rd April to 12th June 2009

We had our last dive yesterday and there were many disheartened faces as we all realised that the time has actually come and we will, tomorrow, be packing up and saying goodbye to Pez Maya for good. It isn’t going to be easy leaving and we never really thought the time would come but we all have so many fantastic memories to take home with us, it slightly softens the blow…slightly…only a little bit. It’s our last Thursday night at Pez

Maya and we’ve just finished eating our last meal, the sun is setting over the horizon and everyone is enjoying the last evening looking over the gorgeous beach, listening to the sound of the waves and of course, in each others company. In some ways it seems like only yesterday that we arrived at Pez Maya and everyone was hastily whipping out their cameras amazed at the sight of an iguana as soon as we reached base (maybe a bit too hastily because obviously at that point we didn’t realise they’d become pretty much

family after a week or so living with them in our huts.) In other ways however, we can’t even remember the days when we would look puzzled at the mention of an ‘Agaricia agaricites’ and a ‘blue tang’…who could imagine?! Those were the days of no diving, no coral, no fish, no Vision, no Ka’ay, no sand…we’ve been here ten weeks but it’s amazing how quickly you adjust to the lifestyle and really start thinking there couldn’t be much better than living the Pez Maya lifestyle.

Of course, getting up at 6am is definitely a shock to the system but you learn to love it (promise) when you actually get the full hours of daylight and can watch the sun rise and set every single day. Duties in the morning certainly get you up and going, along with a coffee and a quick

sugar fix on your pancakes, porridge and cereal. There really is nothing like waking up knowing you’ve got toilets ready to be cleaned, breakfast ready to be cooked, boats ready to be kitted up and sand ready to be raked. What more could you want? It really is all worth it though when you’re underwater exploring the reef and identifying the flora and fauna by only 8am and that really does make you feel special (in the good way.) Learning about the coral, the fish and the whole ecosystem surrounding the reef is one of the most rewarding aspects of Pez Maya and of course why most of us came here. Thanks to Jax, Lluvia, Sophia and Mike for giving us helpful tips on our journey to coral brilliance (for example; ‘Eusmilia fastigiana’ – you smile at a fast iguana. Get it? Aaaah beautiful!) and to Rob and Sam girl for their help with the fish kids (still not as good as

coral though, no way. Never.) Also, of course, to the instructors who managed (somehow) to get us all through our diving incapability and out the other side as excellent, brilliant, fantastic, wonderful Advanced Open water divers! Wahey! And, as of today, just to add to that, SEVEN divemasters! Double wahey!! They had a LOT of work, but it was all worth it and they swam through with shining colours. We also have two BTEC holders. Good job Shayle and Liz and thanks for your Thriller Thursday (complete with Michael Jackson soundtrack) and Fat Friday…nicely done with ease and style none of the staff could ever compete with.

The bad weather during the first five weeks of the phase definitely brought moral down at first but soon we learned not to fight nature but to go with it and instead we thrust our spirits into bird watching, crocodile hunting (go Alan!) and shark spotting, as well as multiple volleyball tournaments, ‘Escape from Pez Maya’ (really embracing the rough and ready jungle lifestyle), hammock chill out sessions, tae bo and yoga practise,

Spanish lessons and of course peanut butter and Oreo eating (well done Leela – the fattest skinny girl I’ve

ever met.) At the end of the first five weeks when we were all set for things to get ever better we never even imagined the next blow, who would have expected the attack of the dreaded SWINE FLU?!…dun dun duuuh!!! Panic struck and no-one knew what to do! Sue and her cough were left very much alone as we all ostracised her and forced her into solitary quarantine, everyone was wearing heavy duty gas masks and full body suits even underwater (bye bye sweet tan), no one was allowed in or out of base, we had to send messages to the outside world via iguana and frigate mail, staff were running around screaming in blind panic and…and…well, maybe not quite an accurate account of what happened but close enough. In fact it was very much chilled out over this side of the border, we kept a close eye on the progress of the flu but in general life went on as normal. As is the Mexican way of life hey. Nothing much changed around base other than a warning against going into to Tulum for a couple of weeks and it

was actually the aftermath of the flu that really brought bad news and that was that we wouldn’t be joined by the next set of five weekers after our own beloved Shannon, Alan, Rachel, Cordi, Lucy and Sue had all left us. What a bummer! We decided to stay positive though and in fact things turned out just dandy. With a smaller number it meant that we became a very tight knit group and pulled together all round to make base life as easy as possible, and easy it was. We realised, after losing the five weekers that they obviously didn’t do much work in the first place, boat push actually seemed to get easier with fewer of us. What a team! We all have a new set of guns to show off when we return home. Pow pow. In the past five weeks things have looked up in every aspect and we have actually managed to dive twice a day pretty much every day of the week which really sped things up and we got some monitoring done finally. Yes! Obviously it was the reason we all came and despite the bad weather at the beginning, we managed to complete monitoring four of the sites which is apparently more than in the past three phases. It’s a great feeling when you’ve completed a monitor and you’re writing up the data, convinced that you actually are making a huge difference to helping the reef. Another thing of course we can’t forget is Punta Allen and the long awaited Earth day. Every Tuesday and Thursday a group of four of us would head South with Lluvia to teach the kids of Punta Allen some basic English. The hours drive along the

bumpy coastal track is so worth it for the blasting air conditioning, a huge relief after the sweltering hot heat on base and of course Lluvia’s awesome soundtracks, preferably Shakira Shakiraa (in Spanish.) It is a hugely rewarding experience to arrive at the school, meet the kids and teach them some good solid words and phrases like “Hi, my name is…”, “dad” and

“you look like a monkey.” You know that they’re having a great time when Dana and Shayle pull out some empty water coolers, sit them upside down between their legs and get all the kids to join in banging them like drums while the other kids dance around clapping. Rhythmic wonder! And the reward after, ICE LOLLIES for the way home! Absolute taste bud bliss! Having visited Punta Allen a couple of times we knew Earth day was going to be something special (although we had to wait a while as it was cancelled a few times due to the flu) when some of the kids came down to Pez Maya to enjoy a day of snorkelling, learn about the reef and the base and play some quality turtle games. Having the kids around really livened up the place and we all really enjoyed their company. We soon realised there was no point even

trying to play volleyball against them, even though they were half our age and half our height, our skills just didn’t compare. So the less athletic of us engaged in face painting, small talk in broken Spanish, picture drawing and many more fun activities, before we all chilled out in the hammock area eating a ham and cheese sandwich picnic. Scrummy McYumyum.

The weekends also brought continued fun and laughter with our themed parties (well, the first one at least with our ‘L’ themed party for Liz’s 21st birthday, the rest were much more imaginative like ‘come as you are’ and ‘turn up’…nice one guys), cenote and ancient mayan ruin visits, trips to town and also the two things we looked forward to the most all week…introducing the fabulous and wonderful Beach clean and Kitchen clean (round of applause!) What will we do without them?! Eilidh has already decided she’s going to help more round the house at home by getting up at 6am every morning to

clean the bathroom, do the gardening, cook the breakfast and service the car…perhaps on the weekends she can go litter picking and empty her kitchen for a nice spring clean…her mum will be proud.

So I’m going to have to say a final farewell to writing the blog, to the mozzies, the sandflies, the bucket showers, the huts, the beach, the boats and of course the staff. It’s going to be one of the hardest goodbyes I’ve ever had to make and I really will miss Pez Maya and the amazing fun I’ve had here and I know that the rest of the group feel the same. I hope that everyone to come experiences the same wonders of the reef that we have and all I can say is make the most of it and even without trying you’ll have the time of your life! So for a final time… Copy that. Standing by 67.