Tasty Treats from Pez Maya!

It´s “Tasty Treat” week here in Pez Maya while we enjoy the arrival of a whole load of delectable goodies. The tuck box has been replenished with cookies, chocolate and crisps (which will probably not last the week) and our much-anticipated Friday night feast had a most welcome addition. Captain Jim managed to snag 7 large lionfish all in one day, which he brought back to base, 5 of them hanging off the same spear. Maura eagerly whipped out the Lionfish cookbook (an entire book devoted to ways to serve Lionfish!) and spent the afternoon in the kitchen. Come dinnertime, we were treated to beer-battered Lionfish, and there was even enough for seconds :) Needless to say, we are all hoping Captain Jim or the other Lionfish hunters here might bring back a similar catch tomorrow…

In other fish-related news, the volunteers are steadily progressing with monitoring and dive training. Michelle, Jonas, Malin and Jemima are all practice monitoring coral and benthic data, while Mat, Fergus and Marty are nearing the real thing with their fish identification and sizing. Emma, Stephan and Sisse have graduated from Jim´s school of perfect diving buoyancy training and have survived diving 25m down into the Mexican reefs.

Four volunteers have also taken on the challenge of becoming Rescue divers, having been given superhero and villain identities. Black Beauty (Queen of the Nile), Houdini, the Frog and the Dick are under the tutelage of Goat Boy and the Slash for the next week and a half. Spending their free time learning life-saving techniques for panicking divers and their dives towing each other to safety, they will soon have to undergo the test. Nicknamed the ´hell dive´, Goat Boy and the Slash (otherwise known as Ben and Rhu) will put them through their paces by simulating a dive where everything which could go wrong will…

On dry land Dov, Valeria and Fergus spent Wednesday in Punta Allen continuing GVI´s English teaching in the school and the library. This week the excited schoolchildren had

to learn the words for clothes and body parts, aided by a sketch of a teenage boy, a work

of art completed with great care the night before. Valeria meanwhile was busy with the

ladies of Punta Allen, enjoying the sun, sitting outside going through question and answer

words. Valeria and Maura also took three volunteers to Playa del Carmen last week, to take part in the recycling fair there. They put on workshops for the duration of the day, making handbags out of used and unwanted tetra packs (now much in demand) and wallets out of old cookie wrappers(…of which there are now many more on base…). They were accompanied for most of the day by school children from Playa del Carmen, and had a good turnout of people, great news for GVI. They returned back to base with yet more tasty treats…which were put to good use in the kitchen to make a trifle to celebrate Valeria´s

birthday!

Tasty Treats from Pez Maya!

Mexican mayan challenge coming soon!!

The Mayan challenge is coming closer!!! on May 28, 29 and 30 eight brave people will take part on the second GVI Mayan challenge in Mexico. With the aim of raising 500 USD each person the eight challengers will be cycling 135 kilometers throughout the Yucatan Peninsula starting in Valladolid town and heading towards Ek balam ruins passing by several cenotes and Mayan towns. Under the heat of a warm May the 8 challengers are eager to finish the goal and get to the fund raising target!! If you feel like helping please visit their web pages, and help them all get to the target!!

Amanda Cota	http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6926
Cynthia Arochi	http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6953&uauserid=626519&from=myreg
Emma Sherratt	http://www.justgiving.com/Emma-Challenge
Mathew Markides	http://www.justgiving.com/Mathew-Markides
Ruaidhri Le Mage	http://www.justgiving.com/Ruaidhri-Le-Mage
Maura Schonwald	http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6977
Valeria Hernández	http://www.justgiving.com/Valeria-Hern-ndez
Katie Grillo	http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6963

Mexican mayan challenge coming soon!!

Dolphins, Lionfish and Wetsuit Racks…

The gang at Pez Maya grew in numbers by one this, when we adopted a new mascot in the form of a Sooty Tern. Surfacing at the end of a dive, Esther discovered the little fellow perched upon her marker buoy. After the divers had got into the boat, the bird decided he didn’t want to miss out on all the fun and so sat himself on the side. Nicknamed Pete by Rhu, he stayed with us for the whole journey home, not at all phased by the copious amounts of attention he was receiving. After we anchored back at base, Pete had to relocate when we disembarked. However, instead of using the free ride back to land to head into the trees, he chose a different destination. Anchored just 10 meters away was our other boat, Vision, where Pete took up position for the rest of the day. He was only persuaded to go to dry land when we had to beach both boats, and very reluctantly flew off. Sooty Terns disperse out to sea after breeding season, which is perhaps why we found him there - he hasn’t been seen since, but is hopefully still flying around. He wasn’t the only exciting sighting

this week - those aboard Vision on Monday were ecstatic to come across a pod of about 7 dolphins! To the envy of those on the other end of the radio, they jumped in and snorkelled with them, while boat captain Rhu was especially pleased: now he has proof that there are definitely dolphins living by Pez Maya…

We’ve also seen some good underwater action this week too. Two Caribbean sting rays sitting together on the sand as well as two Loggerheads mating were all spotted. We’ve noticed plenty of Lionfish swimming around during our diving, prompting Ben and Maura to whip out their spear guns. Maura’s catch, whilst a baby, turned out to have an entire, intact juvenile fish inside its stomach, eaten just minutes before she caught it. Ben found a 23 centimetre male on Friday, which he speared and bagged on camera, much to the delight of the 5 watching volunteers.

Strong winds and the odd rainstorm have meant we’ve been battling currents and surge to continue 

our diving. Several volunteers have compiled data for Coral Watch, Dov has continued to monitor

fish species and Emma and Sissie have begun their Advanced Open Water. When the weather kept

us grounded on base, the boys took up the challenge of rebuilding the flattened wetsuit rack. After digging holes in the sand they tied together poles of wood, created a palm-tree-leaf roof and proudly erected a pirate flag (which Captain Jim Sparrow tried unsuccessfully to nick for his boat). ‘The rack’ will even have its own hand-painted sign by next week. We were delighted to discover after a particularly rainy night that the wetsuits and rash vests hanging up on the rack had remained dry!

The girls chose the less arduous task of deciding to brush up on their dance skills, in preparation for the weekend. Sissie attempted to teach Joma some Zumba (which he turned out to be fairly skilled at already), while Joma helped Jemima master Salsa in the early hours of Sunday morning. The weekend turned out to be thoroughly educational - earlier during Saturday evening Joma taught 

some marine science to a couple of little children he knew from Tulum. Sitting in a beach camp, he brought out his Fish Species book and gave them a tutorial on what lives in and around the reef. Only 5 years old, but already trilingual, the little girl was thrilled to learn the different names and look at the pictures of all the fish, many of which she recognised. Her brother was equally happy and both protested when it was bedtime. Perhaps next week we’ll take along a coral book and show them more of what we find here at Pez May, spreading the GVI love up the coastline!

Dolphins, Lionfish and Wetsuit Racks…

New people, new monitoring, new animals...

The new week in Pez Maya has brought with it four new arrivals – we welcome Fergus and Emma from Australia, Sissie from Denmark and Stephan from Scotland to our base here in Pez Maya. Already Stephan has started his Open Water course with Ben, while the others have started on their fish and coral spots already. Older volunteers too have been making good progress: Dov has begun to practice monitoring with Sarah, having learnt all of the adult and juvenile fish species as well as how to size them underwater.  Those surveying corals are also racing on: Jonas is well on the way to conquering Coral Communities spots while Malin, Michelle and Jemima are all tackling Point Intercept. Coral Communities is the survey of diseases and other threats affecting the growth and life of the corals – tell-tale teeth marks of hungry parrotfish munching on the coral for example. Point Intercept surveys the algae, sponges and other organisms which coexist with corals – including, we were thrilled to find out, anemones just like the ones in Finding Nemo (apparently a highly educational film)!

  

Our marine neighbours have also been out in force this week, keeping those tracking incidental sightings busy in the evenings. Two turtles, one a Hawksbill and one a Green turtle, were seen on the same dive, with several spotted by Captain Jim`s eagle eyes from the boat. Plenty of large lionfish have also been sighted, and probably already earmarked by Ben and his spear-gun for a weekend feast. Less welcome creatures have also arrived on land – the detested mosquito has been trumped by the even-more-despised horsefly, which has wreaked havoc on several people´s ankles, legs and arms. Hard-earned (and perfect) tan lines have been ruined by small red bites, while the most popular evening activity has become the challenge of eluding these pesky flying menaces. The hammocks seem to be the most popular refuge, with a number of afternoons being spent there horsefly-free. 

Others have stepped up to the task of filling the diving tanks more regularly. With fewer people on base this month, the girls have had to stand in for the boys who are usually much more keen to jump onto the tank compressor. Sophie even used the opportunity to learn some new fish species in between switching the tanks over. Other daily tasks have also proved more strenuous – pushing our boats, Vision and Ka’ay, out in the morning and pulling them back up the beach again in the afternoon is the perfect opportunity for the boys to show off their muscles (or, in some cases, build up a few…).

This week also sees the launch of another physical challenge – the three day 150km cycle ride: the Mayan challenge. Taking place at the end of May, volunteers will raise money towards the Punta Allen recycling centre through sponsorship, the website for which is in the process of being set up. Strangely, when attempting to set up the link to the Punta Allen charity, the Imperial War Museum in London popped up as an option for sponsorship…perhaps they want to donate one of their centuries old bicycles to the effort!

As the end of the week draws near we are all excited for our evening fiesta, to get to know our new recruits a little better, practice the weekly limbo contest and, of course, to enjoy the ever-popular Friday evening feast. Rhu has already been cooking up cakes, biscuits, shortbread and a number of other goodies in the past weeks, and kindly sharing them with (strategically) loitering volunteers. The standard of staff-provided treats has been very high (and long may it continue…)! 

New people, new monitoring, new animals...

Earth day 2012 in Punta Allen!!

At 7am on Friday morning, 10 volunteers piled into a minibus with Maura and Valeria, armed with cameras, tetra packs and old sweet wrappers. All sporting identical t-shirts with GVI´s logo, we were off to Punta Allen to celebrate ‘Dia de la Tierra’. To honour the two-year anniversary of the local recycling centre, built by GVI, we were hosting ‘Earth Day’ to promote recycling and the importance of conservation.

Well-breakfasted on apple crumble, cooked at 5.15am by Julia and Jemima, we had plenty of energy ready for a day with the local primary school children. GVI has recently started teaching English for two hours every week to these 30 ten-year olds, and so they were excited to see us again. The first activity of the day was a beach clean, in which the whole town was invited to participate. We headed out to the nearby stretch of sand with our sacks and returned two hours later with full rubbish bags. All of these were weighed and recorded to monitor the trash washing up on Punta Allen’s beach, and where it may have come from.

Valeria had organized two lectures for both the secondary and primary schools, to explain the thinking behind Dia de la Tierra. She spoke about the ecosystem around us, in particular the mangroves, their importance to the community and how destroying them damages the reef, the creatures living there, the oceans and even inland.

For lunch we were treated to 5 of Lucy’s empanadas, the best in town. For most, the challenge of eating all 5 proved to be too great, but, shocked by the idea of wasting food, Mat, Joma and Manuel heroically agreed to come to the rescue of those struggling to finish. Replenished, we began the arts and crafts part of the day. We had brought with us used tetra packs, old cookie wrappers and ripped up old paper, intending to recycle them into purses, handbags and new paper. The children were soon sewing on buttons and folding the cookie wrappers into colourful decorations, and fairly quickly we had a pile of homemade accessories. Most of us had never tried to recycle used paper or make something useful out of an old milk carton, so it was a learning experience for us too. Particularly fascinating was the method of re-making paper: if ripped into tiny pieces and soaked in water, old paper can be reformed into new paper. Very handy for all those discarded sheets lying in waste paper bins…

Next on the agenda was sign-making. Eager to get stuck into the painting, the children divided into groups to create posters for the beach and town, deterring littering and encouraging recycling. Bright blue posters with lurid yellow writing appeared all over the tables, and some of us even gave into temptation to produce some posters of our own. Of course, once everyone had paint on their hands, the urge to decorate each other’s faces with green paint proved too strong. Soon Julia was engaged in a full-on war, being chased around by children brandishing paint brushes. Eventually cornered, her face, hair and green GVI t-shirt was plastered with red paint and the children declared victory.

The day wasn’t over yet though – we were assembled along with the children in a secluded, shady spot under a large tree. As curious as they were to know what was about to happen, we watched Valeria and Maura emerge in acrobatic clothes and hang a climbing rope from the treetops. With Joma strumming along on the guitar, they launched into a skillful routine of aerobic trapeze. Half an hour of airborne twists and turns, balancing and dancing was a thrilling finale for the children and volunteers alike. We all left in awe of Valeria and Maura’s skills, secretly wanting to try it out ourselves later, but perhaps a little closer to the ground. Mat and Manuel even had a go on the rope, but after managing to hang upside-down they realized they’d need a lot more practice to do anything else…While we packed up to go the children left to return to school, all grinning after a really fun day and excited by the surprise show, Valeria’s own ‘circus dancing on fabric in the sky’.

Earth day 2012 in Punta Allen!!

Summer Arrives in Pez Maya!

Our wetsuits remained hung up on the benches this week in Pez Maya, as the soaring temperatures and warmer water prompted an array of colorful rash vests and shorts to be whipped out of bags and used for diving. The marine inhabitants of the lagoon were out in force too, enjoying the rays: a Spotted-Eagle-Ray and 6 turtles were spotted sunning themselves on just one weekend snorkel trip. The calmer weather has also enabled some of us to reach monitoring stage, and at the end of the week 4 volunteers were heading out to survey sites to monitor fish and juveniles! Jemima meanwhile celebrated her 100^th in the traditional fashion – instead of rash vests and shorts she and her buddy Malin went one step further, stripping off underwater and opting to wear even less…

This new burst of summer weather was officially confirmed when one morning those out bird-watching came across a newly-dug turtle nest. A trail coming out of the sea to about 30 meters inland led to a turtle-shaped dugout, indicating that a turtle had come ashore the previous night and laid some eggs. The turtle then crawled out and headed back to the ocean, leaving a second trail away from the nest along the beach. Turtles are easily spooked when laying their eggs, and so any disturbance would scare them away. Therefore to see evidence of turtle nests on our very own stretch of beach is really encouraging for these endangered species, as well as exciting for us! Hopefully the coming weeks will see more of these nocturnal visits and in a couple of months we might be lucky enough to witness the young turtles hatching and making a dash to the sea.

On the same stretch of beach the bird-watchers were rather alarmed for their own safety, after noticing flocks of Least Terns wheeling and diving rather close to their heads. Martin and Esther have concluded that the terns must have recently relocated from their usual breeding grounds on the far side of the mangrove mouth, to the near side. Terns lay their eggs on the surface of the sand, and become territorial if anyone walks too close. Diving down towards any offending trespasser, in this case Craig, means that these flocks have started to lay their eggs and nest. The baby chicks should hatch in the next 25 days, if the nests remained undisturbed. Some of the eggs are easily visible to anyone strolling along the beach, and even difficult to spot in some cases. So, to protect the birds and the turtles, the stretch of beach has been cordoned off with posts and signs, and will be eagerly monitored for breeding activity in the coming weeks.

Two of our own volunteers also decided to make new homes for themselves. Leaving their rather over-heated huts, Kenny and Manolo marked their new property by settling down with two tents close to the hammock area, waking up every morning to the sound of the waves and a perfect view of the sunrise. Kenny has also converted several people to his 6 am yoga sessions, greeting the sunrise and ending the sessions with a headstand…with varying degrees of success for everyone else!

Sadly after this week the yoga enthusiasts will have to make do without their guru, as this weekend we say goodbye to 6 volunteers, all of whom will be greatly missed.

Hollie is returning home to the UK, while Craig and Julia are travelling onto Brazil and Los Angeles. Kenny is going home to Minnesota, while Manolo and Stefan are continuing their travels in Central America, after heading off this weekend with a group of us to Belize, to dive the Blue Hole. Their monitoring and hard work has been invaluable to the research and conservation here in Pez Maya, and we wish them all the best!

Jemima and Manolo

Summer Arrives in Pez Maya!

Diving a tope!

Incidental sightings are always a highlight at Pez Maya. This week there were lots of them, but only a few of them can be stated as FACT. Dolphins swimming around the boat while all the divers are underwater? Our trustworthy base manager Rhu swears he saw them… [evidence missing].

Other (more certain) dive sightings included a Caribbean Sting Ray and an enormous Loggerhead Turtle at dive site Special K. An Eagle Ray even turned up at the beach, making an impressive tally of sightings for this week. Prize for the best sighting however goes to Michelle’s spot on a dive with Maura and Sophie – hanging upside down in the water the trio spied a Nurse Shark resting in a small cave, the first shark seen this phase.

Fish monitoring has meanwhile started to take off for many at the base. Kenny and Manolo have completed many practice monitoring dives together. A surprise guest gate-crashed one monitoring session, a curious Shark Sucker intent on following them and attaching itself to every and any fin, mask, snorkel, tank or body part it could locate!

Even those still practicing their species identification were witnesses to very rare marine behavior, more widely known as ‘nuclear hunting’. A Green Moray and a two-foot Yellowfin Grouper paired up in a predatory hunting duo to prey upon  juvenile fish using a two-pronged attack. The grouper waits outside the exit of a double-ended cave, while the moray slithers through the entrance in order to flush out the juvenile fish right into the mouth of the waiting grouper. Those who turn back are met by the waiting moray midway through the cave.

The juveniles consequently had no chance to survive. They couldn’t even be rescued by our Rescue Diver Crew, which is about to graduate from a week-long intensive training course. Hollie, Julia, Craig, Dov and Valeria will soon form the Baywatch Gang in charge of our lives. Not fazed by panicked divers, unconscious scuba casualties or rescue-course instructors jumping off boats mid-journey, these five will soon be ready to help if Mat’s new afro hairstyle weighs him down.

Besides all the diving we were able to do during a wonderful sunny week, a few volunteers made the bumpy, potholed journey to Punta Allen to start the weekly English lessons to a class of thirty seven-year-old local children. After two hours of reciting numbers up to 100 and all the colours of the rainbow, the volunteers moved onto more technical language help. Several local ladies turned up that afternoon requesting help with grammar and tourism-orientated English, including tour guiding and restaurant skills.

Next week will bring the beginning of proper monitoring and more diving, hopefully interspersed with some more mega-fauna and exciting species spots. Maybe Rhu’s theory of jumping dolphins in Pez Maya will finally be proved…

Jemima, Mat and Manuel

Diving a tope!

The Chronicles of Captain Jim Sparrow: Part 1

Circling the high seas on Friday Captain Jim Sparrow noticed an ominous dark shadow in the water. Utterly astonished, he realized that first-mate Ben had just driven the boat past one of the largest and most fascinating creatures of the ocean.

“WHALE SHARK!!!!”, he bellowed while the crew clung to their seats as the boat careered back towards the 6 meter giant. They abandoned the ship without a second thought (except for poor first-mate Ben) to catch a glimpse of the shark, never seen before in Pez Maya and the first sighting for most of them. The Whale Shark drifted through the water for half an hour allowing Captain Jim’s pirate friend Martin to get his divers over to see the shark too.

But this was just the beginning of a 5-Star-Rated-Dive. Once down on the sea floor, Captain Jim came across not one, but two Lionfish, an invasive and predatory enemy to Mexican seas. He shot them both through with the same spearhead, ready to bring them back to base to inspect their stomach contents and record the victims.

The crew, already greatly appreciative, were even joined by a Caribbean Stingray chilling out on the ocean floor. Back on board and heading back to base, the crew’s unbelievable luck continued. The radio crackled: “Take care approaching base, there are two Hawksbill Turtles mating on the water surface”

Witnessing such a rare sight of these endangered animals is an encouraging start to the turtle mating and nesting season. Some of the turtles will even nest on the beach right in front of us.

Supposedly, as turtle nesting season is during summer, this should mean warm waters and warmer suns. However, in the words of one chilly diver this morning, “this is not summer weather”. 

All crews were grounded at the start of the week, as the sky churned out tropical storms and torrential heavy rains. Diving was suspended, the wetsuit hut was felled by the wind and Jemima and Julia finally won the ensuing water fights against Manuel who went down fighting to the death.

The excitement didn’t stop there for Captain Jim, who spent his time away from the seas, making a new spiky friend. Attached rather passionately to Captain Jim’s sheets one night, appeared a Mexican Porcupine who proved unwilling to leave the comfort of Jim’s bed. He since been spotted in the boat room and hiding between boards and guitars.

And so goes life for the pirates of Pez Maya, never knowing what adventures the weather will bring the next day…

End of part 1

Pirate WenchJemima, Plank Cleaner Manuel  

The Arrival in Paradise?

Saturday morning, 10 o’clock, Playa del Carmen. Ten unsuspecting volunteers gathered in Hotel Colorado, unaware of what was to come…

Two hairy blonde guys rocked up, to escort us to our new home for the next 1, 2, 3 or 6 months, depending on how hardcore people were. A two hour bus drive and four million health and safety instructions later, the group finally arrived in Pez Maya. The base can be best described, for those who know the TV-Series “Lost”, as a Dharma Station in the jungle – really well equipped, but from the outside resembling, well, let’s call it a ruin. Under the shadow of a looming blue tower which is on the point of collapse, we entered the base and found a fully functioning diving station on top of a huge cavernous well, in a tropical paradise.

The first “person” who said hello was our very own guard dog “Don”, formerly known as a reptile with a very long tail, scales, a forked tongue and long finger nails.

Don shouldn’t be the only incidental sighting at the base who deserves a mention. On inspection of our sleeping quarters with California king beds, our new huts, Malin was dismayed to discover a little scorpion had already made itself a home upon her bed. Jose Maria, our Mexican Mariachi leapt to her rescue, armed with a bucket and removed the unwanted intruder.

Paradise….duties attached

The easy living is constantly disrupted by the duties we have to carry out, starting at 6:30 in the morning. Sweeping sand (?!), cleaning bathrooms, preparing boats, filling tanks of fuel and air, cooking food for 20 hungry bellies or navigating the leaving boats via radio are just a few of the daily tasks we do altogether. No resources are wasted, four buckets of water per person are rationed per week, so you really learn to live with what nature provides– back to basics.

But who cares about scorpions, bucket showers and loud compressors when you have the second largest reef in the world on your doorstep? Diving in a never-before-seen protected area, where no one but us is allowed to dive is an amazing opportunity. Two days of diving and already we have seen a manatee, a Caribbean stingray, turtles, barracudas and of course the different species we have to learn to begin the monitoring. Many many many many many many fish and almost as many corals need to be memorized for underwater identification. In order to behave correctly in and outside the reef, the staff have given us lots of lectures on avoiding hazardous marine animals, stinging corals and dangerous diving amongst others.

Our resident pirate Jim Sparrow, sorry, Captain Jim Sparrow, rules our boats with an iron fist. Once aboard, divers undergo a fast-speed, multi-directional cruise around the reef and a (highly fictional) history of their imminent dive site. Tales of wetsuits returning without divers, dark magic rituals and mysterious disappearances abound before the divers throw themselves backwards over the “emergency exits” – the left and right sides of the boat.

With Friday comes  weekend, that means for us returning to civilization, where we’ll have the chance to explore cenotes, which were used by the ancient Mayans for sacrificing their virgins. Of course there will be one and “MAYBE” another beer drunk. But still we are very much looking forward to returning to Pez Maya to see what week two will hold for us.

Jemima and Manuel  

Welcome and congratulations!

Welcome Manuel, Sophie, Martin, Mathew, Michelle, Stefan, Jonas, Jemima, Malin and Jomar. Our newest 10 volunteers, representing 7 nationalities from around the World i.e. Germany, UK, Switzerland, Mexico, Sweden, Botswana & Australia, arrived to Pez maya a week ago!  They are all working very hard and as they have settled in they have learnt and completed to a high standard their duties on base. Also four of them have passed their coral, juvenile and adult fish tests. Congratulations!

Weather has been kind lately so volunteers on base have been able to catch up with the training and monitoring underwater. On a not so great note, our English lessons to women in Punta Allen community had been slowed down as last week we celebrated Easter and they were busy taking care of their children or visitors. Easter is one of the biggest celebrations in Mexico; schools, governmental offices and a vast majority of private businesses close to go on holidays and celebrate with the family those days. Tourist locations like our state, Quintana Roo, receive a very large amount of visitors from everywhere in Mexico. It is very nice to see so many nationals enjoying this paradise too!

Welcome and congratulations!

A fond adios and latest activities!

The end of a phase has come near – Here’s a cheer to all volunteers and Interns leaving Pez Maya and embarking on new journeys!

Unfortunately the weather which has plagued us for the past couple of months has started to become a little unsettled again in our last remaining days. However the loss of Ka’ay’s engine has had a more devastating impact on our diving but we’ve still persevered.  This last week saw our next fully qualified Rescue Divers completing their course, well done Thalie, Patrick, Ryan and Laurence!  Several monitoring sites are finished and new ones started.  Our time on land has yielded sightings of a Boa Constrictor eating a bird and a South-American porcupine running around base at night. It has been a slice.

Sadly it’s time to say good bye to Brad who has done an outstanding job as the base scholar and taken all the abuse thrown from both staff and volunteers well within his stride! His passing on to pastures greener is not a complete loss…sending  giant smiles to our magical Valeria from Mexico City, who has been awarded the scholarship for the next three months, it’s going to be a tough act to follow but we are sure you’ll be fantastic.

Big props to the Pez Maya staff members for all their hard work, thank you Rhu, Jim, Martin, Sarah, Maura, Ester and Ben. Farewell to those whom will be scattered to the four winds; Freja, Neil, Charlene, Danny, Al, Nicola, Laurence, Charlie, Alastair, Patrick, Ryan, Theresa, Thalie, Kim, Konrad, Will and Dennis. This mass exodus leaving just Dov, Hollie, Craig, Julia and Kenny to man the fort until the new arrivals show up, good luck guys, we hope you continue to have a blast here in our absence.

So just like the Osprey chicks it’s time for us to take flight and leave our happy nest here at Pez Maya. This is our parting of ways and a fond adios…Hasta la vista, amigos.

Thalie, Freja and Neil.

A fond adios and latest activities!

Seven days straight of diving, reef creatures spotted and monitoring!

Hola amigos!

So another week has passed and now week 11 draws to a close. Although this is quite a sad time as many of us approach our last few days on base, we have had little time to contemplate our imminent departure and have been busy making up for lost time.

With moving the weekend and a glorious break in the weather we have managed to make seven days straight of diving! This has meant a lot of effort and hard work from both the staff and volunteers alike but has produced such rewarding returns.

Congratulations to Hollie and Julia for both passing their PADI Open Water, to Dov, Charlene, Craig, Kenny and Will who are latest PADI Advanced Open Water divers and finally to Team Hero (Alastair, Danny, Konrad and Neil) for all completing the rigorous training to become PADI Rescue Divers. A massive thanks also goes to all the staff for their patience and expert tuition which has got us all through.

In science news the monitoring is starting to come along in leaps and bounds. With Al, Charlie, Danny and Nicola moving from practice monitoring onto real monitoring we now have a full Coral monitoring boat and a complete Fish team. This has meant within a few days we have managed to fully monitor two separate sites which is great news. The rest of the volunteers are not far behind with more and more passing tests and moving onto practice monitoring by the day.

There has also been another huge increase in incidental sightings this week with Hawksbill Turtles, Southern Stingrays and even a Marlin gracing us with their presence. This has mainly been helped by a little experiment by the staff and taken a little faith by the volunteers..

Although the news of getting up to start duties at 5am was not the most popular of announcements at dinner we managed to scrape our weary bodies and tired eyes out of our bunks and get the diving day started with boats in the water by 6am, almost an hour before we would normally be up! This lead to some of the most amazing boat rides with the sun bursting over the horizon and everyone keen to get under the water with the possibility of seeing sharks. Although no one managed to spot the elusive sleek hunters there were a few divers circled by Shark Suckers meaning there was definitely something big in the area.

 

Now comes time for us all to relax with the weekend finally here and a well-deserved beer or three.

Until next week.

Neil, Freja, Thalie.

Seven days straight of diving, reef creatures spotted and monitoring!

Fiji disaster appeal

On Friday the 30th of March 2012, the Western Division of Fiji experienced some of the worse flooding in recent history. Today over 11,000 people are living in basic evacuation centres, their homes destroyed by flood waters. Thousands are without electricity and running water. Many people lost their livelihoods and homes in a matter of hours without warning. Supply chains have been disrupted, buildings destroyed and infrastructure damaged, and there are fears that water born diseases will result in a health crisis.


As always and because we have been in that situation before we would like to join efforts and help. Due to the distance the best way for us to give a hand will be by raising funds and then our collegues in Fiji will make sure it goes where it is needed most.  If you would like to help you can spread the word and/or donate at  http://www.gvi.org/disaster-recovery-fiji

Many thanks in advance! 

Fiji disaster appeal

Back to the water and Pezmayalympics!

Sorry, no real blog update for this week, erm, because we’re a bit too busy diving!

After rumoured reports of a return to normal Caribbean weather most of us scoffed at the thought of blue skies, calm seas and little breezes but then it happened. Unfortunately for us it was all due to change on the Saturday and Sunday, days we would normally spend off base. Solution, move the weekend!

So other than a little scratching of heads whilst we try to remember what actual day it is we have all been very glad to get back in the water. This has meant that we’ve managed to not only continue the fish monitoring with Kim making her second set of transects but Valeria and Neil have now also made a start with the corals. Everyone else has been working hard doing their final practice monitoring or fish and coral spots.

In other news Pez Maya was host to the inaugural 2012 Beach Olympics with teams put forward from each of the huts as well as one team from the staff. Needless to say it was extremely competitive with the final victory going to the staff, although there was far more of them than us!

Pez Maya has also seen a few random deaths recently, whilst mostly appearing like random accidents some people are starting to expect we may have several assassins on base. It’s quite hard to explain how someone was killed with a coconut in the BCD room or however a regulator made it to the smoking area and manage to harm someone who doesn’t even smoke? Whilst the game continues everyone suspects everyone else and no one dares to travel anywhere alone.

We’ll let you know who the last man, or woman, standing is next time.

Freja, Thalie and Neil. 

Back to the water and Pezmayalympics!

Out from the stove, 16 new professional divers!

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our 16 new diver professionals that accomplished their dive master training last week. After completing 10 weeks in the Marine Conservation expedition they had a very strong start in December as they took off during a very high season and did an excellent job! 

They completed their 12 weeks in one of the dive centers along the Quintana Roo coast, in which, besides getting their Dive master certification, they learned all about the dive industry like customer service, dive logistics, maintenance and even got a few extra courses and specialties!

We wish you all the best, and to the people going back home we hope you have a good return and safe flights. To the people doing their Instructor dive course (IDC) or hanging around working see you very soon!

As usual we would like thank all the staff from XTC, Dreamtime and Aldora dive centers that made sure the training was up to a very high standard and their time in the shop amazing!

Out from the stove, 16 new professional divers!

Lately in Pez maya...!

During the weekend many GVI volunteers took off on adventures off base. A bunch of the crew visited Cancun to wave goodbye to those who were leaving the expedition for good; a pack of people went wreck diving in Puerto Morelos, whereas several others visited one of the Intern job placements and checked out the excellent diving. This week we have additional volunteers joining us (a big shout out to Teresa, Holly, Julia, Charlene, Al, and Dov!)

So far the ocean has been a bit too unruly to take the boats out so volunteers have continued teaching English in Punta Allen, participating in coral, fish and monitoring tests and even received an interesting lecture about  manatees that can be found in the surrounding aquatic areas.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the winds and waves die down so that all Pez Mayans can get on down in that delicious blueness of an ocean and monitor the reef ecosystem! (We’ll let you know next week..)

Big smiles,

Neil, Freja and Thalie

Lately in Pez maya...!

Earth hour is coming soon!

Like every year, GVI will be participating in Earth hour! Therefore, we would like to invite everybody to join us this 31st March to switch off your lights as a sign of lasting behaviour-changing actions for a sustainable planet.

Earth hour started in 2006 when WWF-Australia inspired Sydney-siders to show their support for climate change action. It showed that everyone, from children to CEOs and politicians, has the power to change the world they live in.

Little by little this movement has added more people promoting to get lights switched off for an hour but also to commit to lasting actions on climate change. Last year 135 countries and more than 400 cities were part of this global movement. 

Now you knos, wherever you are save the date, 31st March, switch your lights off  from 8:30 to 9:30pm, make a commitment and spread the word! 

Earth hour is coming soon!

Winning photos from Pez Maya photo competion!!

 Take a look and enjoy these great shots from Nicola and Tommy!

Winning photos from Pez Maya photo competion!!

A very eventful week with a photo competition, Punta Allen community activities and farewells!

Very British to start talking about the weather but this week has seen lots of storms. The wind has not let up for several days whipping large gargantuan clouds hurriedly across the sky. They seem to be dying off slowly and we’ve seen a welcome return of the Caribbean sunshine but this has all meant we’ve not been able to dive on the reef.

This has given us the great opportunity to rekindle our volunteering relationship with Punta Allen. We’ve started working with the Women’s Co-operative providing English classes as well as setting the ground work for further projects, hopefully more news on that front soon. Some people also put on a follow up to their last play for the local school kids, continuing on their theme of tourism and recycling.

Those left on base took part in a nature themed photo competition which saw volunteers all grabbing their cameras and scurrying off in all directions deep into the jungle. The impressive results were judged by everyone in a movie slideshow shown after dinner, congratulations go to Nicola and Tommy for their winning snaps.

It’s with a heavy heart we say a fond farewell to the next group of volunteers. The first 8 weeks have passed and we now have to say goodbye to Juan, Marina, Anne, Ellie and Tommy. So long guys and good luck for the future, we will miss you all.

Hasta luego!

Freja, Thalie and Neil.

A very eventful week with a photo competition, Punta Allen community activities and farewells!

Pimping up the base!

We are now almost at the end of week 7 and we’ve seen various new improvements on base.

After many years of faithful service the engine on Ka’ay, one of our loyal and trusty dive boats, was finally retired and replaced with one of the spare engines from Punta Gruesa. We now have more horsepower for Ka’ay, speeding up the time it takes to get to and from the dive sites as well as letting her keep up with her big sister Vision.

A bad spell of weather has interrupted our dive schedule but has meant we’ve been able to complete the painting of the huts and cleaning up around base. The huts are now looking rather handsome after their new coats of white. The recycling area has also been cleared after our associates, the Amigos de Sian Ka’an, came and collected what we had been storing from our beach cleans and general waste.

The best news of all came last weekend. After a few, erm, technical issues we have new inverter connected up on base and are now once again running on solar power! The return to a renewable energy source has been welcomed by staff and volunteers alike as we move away from reliance on our gasoline fuelled generator.

That’s all for now. Until the next time.

Neil, Freja and Thalie.

Pimping up the base!