Pm 091 Chatty Report

Phase 091: 9th January to 20th March 2008

Hola escorpios locos! Oh where to start……It seems like only yesterday that 24 strangers (and strange people) drove down that long, dusty, bumpy road into the reserve, over the lagoon bridge and onto the beautiful Pez Maya base which has now been our home for 10 weeks. Now it’s all over (boo!) and we can hardly believe it. As a legacy we wish to hand on the knowledge, wisdom (ahem) and experiences we have gleaned over our time in this magical place. The thing we will perhaps all miss most (or not) – the duties, and the kitchen in particular being the perennial favourite. It may be difficult for some of us to re-adjust to cooking for fewer than 30 people each meal time – our families and friends back home will be well fed. We’ve had some exciting kitchen adventures, led mainly by the fabulous hut one who earned a recordbreaking five Michelin stars in the final five weeks...pineapple cake…chilli chocolate bread…caramel, custard and meringues…bruschetta…mmmmmm… As long as you can see life beyond onions and green peppers (learn to love them) the kitchen becomes a world of opportunities – embrace it! Even the compost bin! And the epic weekly kitchen cleans! With the right music you can do absolutely anything – we recommend Marley, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to get you going. Toilet cleaning at 6am is always good for a laugh, of course; nothing like the smell of bleach and poo in the morning to waken those senses. Raking the sand through clouds of mozzies and sandflies is another good way to start your Pez Maya day; if that doesn’t float your boat (boom boom!) try

kitting up your friendly neighbourhood vessels, Vision (she’s not fat she’s just big-hulled) and Ka’ay (bless her, she’s as light as a feather!). Although the duties are not necessarily the highlight of the day the blow is softened significantly by the backdrop – the stunning Pez sunrises are hard to beat and you can’t help but smile as you realise that this beautiful place is where you live. Awesome. The main part of everyone’s day – and the reason we’re all here – is the diving, of course. Those of us who arrived having never dived before may have been spoiled somewhat by the amazing training sites; we all have our favourites depending on experiences (and probably influenced by the coralfish divide). Coral nerds (which you will be, we promise) check out the Dendrogyra cylindrus at Nube which guards the swim through – just watch out for the stalking barracuda. Special K’s another fascinating coral spot and bull sharks have been spotted a few times at Wonderland. A special place in our hearts, however, will always be held by the Gardens – absolute maximum depth of 7 metres and not a chance of swimming on top of the reef (unless you snorkel). It’s location inside the main reef has saved our diving skins on bad weather days when the excessive howling wind has made it impossible to go through the pass and get outside of the reef. Despite the fact that we’ve had a high number of dive cancellations due to the inclement weather, we have managed to finish monitoring for one site and get a respectable number of transects for another – largely due to the dedication of the staff who have given up their weekends to continue our training and get us ready for the science! A majority of us started as nondivers, some of us had never even seen a regulator, and we’ve all got up to Advanced Open Water level. Ten of us have gone on to get our Rescue Diver qualification and 9 lucky (and tired) EMs have reached the dizzying PADI heights of Divemasters. Thank you staff; we love you! The training here at Pez Maya is second to none – not just diving but also the fish, coral, algae and monitoring (known more commonly as ‘The Science’). When you first arrive it’s easy to be overwhelmed by having to learn 50 corals (in LATIN) or 100 fish, but the staff sure know their biscuits, and after a couple of tutorials (where you may learn things like differentiating between Mycetophyllia by checking for ‘sheep’ in the ‘fields’…) you’ll be discussing the species like a raging Lluvia – which is what you’ll see if you get the corals wrong on a spot. Watch out for her wagging finger. Pretty scary (just joking Lluvia, it keeps us in line!). Sometimes it’s difficult to concentrate on your monitoring – we’ve seen some pretty cool stuff on our dives here and we’re always keen to be the one to spot the next marine life treasure. Turtles, stingrays, sharks, manatees and even dolphins have graced us with their presence this phase and most of us have been lucky enough to see something. Heed the warnings not to swim in the sea after 5pm though, or you may get a little closer to the bull sharks than you would want… Speaking of dangerous wildlife, another tip – always shake your wetsuit before putting it on, or you end up with a scorpion up your bum like instructor Luke did. He was fine, just a bit numb, but watching him squeal and try to shake a scorpion out of his wet suit is not a sight we’ll be forgetting

anytime soon. You’ll quickly become blasé about the creatures you’ll encounter wandering around base; Scooty Puff the tropical mocking bird who hangs around the communal area to collect your crumbs, The Godfather Iguana is impossible to miss as he’s the biggest one around, unlike Stumpy who defies you to tread on her as she soaks up the rays outside the kitchen. We believe iguana mating season must have started before the end of this phase – and apparently they’re quite adventurous, they keep falling of the roof. And walls. And hut tarps. Basically, they seem to like sex in high places, but they’re not that good at it.

Another amazing wildlife encounter is the mangrove tours led by the legendary Vidal (wildlife guru and warden); he knows exactly where the manatees hang out, which mangrove roots the crocs sleep under and will take you to the bird island to hear the breathtaking chorus of birdsong before leading you to the ancient Mayan ruins in the lagoon. Some of us were lucky enough to swim about 10 metres away from a group of manatees – pretty darn cool. We feel privileged to have been the first phase to have been offered the chance to study the BTEC in Advanced Certificate in Supervision of Biological Surveys. It’s been tough going in the final few weeks but definitely worth it. If you’re considering taking on both the Divemaster and BTEC try to manage your time wisely over the 10 weeks, or your last two weeks will be utter mayhem. Punta Allen! We love it! We’ve taken the hour-long trip down the road to this fishing village 13 times this phase to go and teach English to the local kids. We cannot emphasise enough how much fun you’ll have doing this; just get stuck in! The kids are great and really bright, and they will insist on playing either football or bulldog with you once the lesson is over – enjoy! Remember, to educate is to liberate! If you get the opportunity there are many diversions in the surrounding areas; Tulum and Coba ruins are both well worth visiting, though

not as impressive as those at Chichen Itza. There was a party trip up to Playa del Carmen at the beginning of phase which proved to be eventful – if you’re going for a party weekend Playa is the place to do it. The thing which ranks highest in everybody’s favourite memories though is the cenote diving; you must take the opportunity to dive in the unique and atmospheric underground rivers which the area is famous for; you won’t find them anywhere else in the world. We highly recommend Temple of Doom – with an awesome halocline where salt water and fresh water meet and make you feel like you’re swimming into another world – and Dos Ojos, with caverns beautifully decorated with stalagmite and stalactites, natural lighting which must be seen to be believed and the awesome bat cave where you can see a vampire! Bat. That’s for you, Ralph! If you’re not venturing off base then you’ll get to experience the legendary Pez Maya parties; we’ve had some incredibly creative costumes made with limited resources – a little bit of imagination (and a tot of rum) goes a long way. Of course the parties don’t stop on a Saturday night; our final day of diving saw a black-tie event (or as close as Pez Maya will ever get to black-tie) as well as a Pirate vs Ninja dive. The ninjas were speedy and managed to head out first, but they may have been foolish in taking on the pirates – at sea. Not too bright, those ninjas… All pirates are still having trouble adjusting to speaking in non-pirate accents. Yarrr.

Sadly there are a two staff who are saying goodbye not only to phase 1 of 2009, but to Pez Maya as a whole. Luke and Gigi have been amazing instructors who have seen all 9 Divemasters through the trials and tribulations, exams and knowledge reviews, in-water demonstrations and dive leading. They are coral and fish gurus respectively, and on top of all this they are two of the biggest and funniest personalities on base. On behalf of the Divemasters we thank you both for everything – you’ve shown true PADI rolemodel behaviour and have had the patience of saints. On behalf of all the EMs thank you for helping make our Pez Maya experience everything it could

have been and more. On behalf of the pirates – yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! We salute you! Pez will also be saying a fond farewell to our trusty interns, Mike and Rhi; another big thank you to you guys for all your hard work, help with coral and fish, boy band hair and for the legendary Pez Maya wave! On that note, we will be leaving our very own Jax here to help guide the new EMs on next phase through the baptisms of fire that will be their first boat push, kitchen duty, mozzie-filled bucket shower and Saturday night/Sunday morning delights. A quick message to all you future EMs; make the most of it, get well stuck in and enjoy every second; it’s the experience of a life time that we will all cherish forever. For the last time from us, manten la fe y serás grande…