2 Weeks, 2 Dives, 2 Much Fun

Week 2 came and went with little diving but a lot of fun. Thanks to rough waters, most of our underwater moments came from body surfing and wave jumping. Though land bound, we managed to stay busy studying, camping, cooking, playing games and so much more.

One day, Boy Sam and Jaen put together an afternoon of competitive team building games for us. After coming up with our team name, song and flag, Sol: We Got It and Stars of the Sea hit the sand armed with buckets and brains, ready to collect all sorts of odds and ends for the scavenger hunt. When the buckets were emptied, Stars racked up points for their coral, floating seed, thing that a turtle would mistake for food, and their most "amazing" sponge. Sol tore it up with something slimy, something a panda would eat, and with the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen…a photo, comprised of GVI members, tourists, and beach going locals spelling out the world "amazing" with their bodies. Amazing. The team songs really showcased the many talents here at Pez Maya. First up was Sol, with a remix of row row row your boat complete with dance moves incorporating the very soles of their feet, followed up by a more complete, fantastically choreographed (and really cute), synchronized Star song and dance. Unfortunately, while hunting for trash, the team flags were stolen, the culprits leaving behind only a small tattered and burned set of directions. Luckily for us, the Expedition Members are sharp on their compass skills. After successfully completing pull up sets, bar bell lifting, and digging our flags out of the rubble, both teams leap-frogged back to the beach, built a magnificent sand fortress compete with a moat, and flew their flags in victory. After all skills were tested, all challenges met, and the final points tallied, the final winner was….

Volleyball was a great source of entertainment throughout the week with many a competitive match ending in cheers, sobs and sore wrists. Shannon was probably most keen, often running around base with the volleyball trying to get the rest of us to join in a game in the basking hot sun – not everyone’s cup of tea. Although, her enthusiasm often paid off and we quickly began to enjoy and look forward to the daily volleyball session. It always provided some good laughs, with Alan’s “Mine! Up!” (good call) and more so when Cordi decided she’d try and play with her “long but weak arms” which definitely lost us a few points to start with, that was until she pulled out her killer serves and suddenly became a vital team player. Go Cords!

When it was too hot to be sweating out on the volleyball court, we spent a lot of time participating in much more gentile activities, such as; yoga, snorkeling, bird-watching, studying and cooking. After a couple of no-dive days, Dana and Jaen decided everyone needed to relax and stretch those over-worked muscles with a long session of yoga under the palms. Dana led the Sun salutation and Jaen led the Preventing sickness routine, giving everyone time to relax and work on their breathing techniques, great practice for the deep and controlled breathing we are supposed to adopt underwater – not so easy when you’re panicking because you don’t have enough weight and the rest of the group are descending nicely, while you hang helplessly upside down at the surface. Good going Reshma!

Along with yoga, another no-dive distraction, and definitely the most similar to diving was snorkeling, which is great because it keeps us active, in the water and still spotting coral/fish. It is a good workout getting out to the reef with the rolling waves and current against you but cool to see bits of the reef without having to worry about bottom time, breathing control, weight belts and checking your pressure gauge every 5 minutes. Shannon even spied a stingray on Sunday along with lots of scary barracuda sightings and luckily no bull shark sightings…yet! The couple of lucky dives that did go out this week, also experienced their first open water dives and one group were welcomed by a school of fish encircling them for a few minutes, somehow Alan missed this, while Emma and Lucy pulled out some underwater moves to show their excitement. Eilidh, Shayle, Sam and Jaen were also surrounded by another school of fish with an attacking barracuda on an advanced dive, definitely the most exciting part since they never managed to find the reef (next time remember a compass guys).

It’s not just underwater sightings we’re interested in though, there’s as much interest above us as below, from grackles to pelicans to herons to ibis’, many of our winged friends frequently show their faces on our 6am bird watches on the bridge over the lagoon. Binoculars at the ready, Sam girl takes a couple of us out early everyday to show us how cool bird-watching really can be. It’s a lovely way to start the day with the sun rise and just to add to all the beautiful bird sightings, we miss our morning duties and then arrive back at base just in time for breakfast. Nice.

With so many activities going on, you’d think we would have no time left over to study...wrong! There is always time to study at Pez Maya with nearly everyone having passed their coral or fish test, we’ve moved on to algae and juveniles and some people have even passed those already. Thumbs up to everyone who’s studied hard and is now ready to monitor, once we can actually dive of course (fingers crossed)! We also had a manatee lecture from Lluvia, unfortunately she didn’t bring one in for us to meet and “hug” (sorry Lucy) but it was very interesting with lots of cute pictures and we can’t wait to go on a mangrove trip and see some for real (and some crocodiles too hopefully). A lot of the group wanted to learn some Spanish too, so Jaen took them down to the hammocks and began a lesson on ‘fruit and veg’ which, from what I heard, quickly turned into translating much ruder words into Spanish. Always useful to know.

Thankfully, after all these activities, this week provided the best food with four Michelin stars being awarded (the best meal obviously being Hut 3’s pizza night…yes?) and everyone feeling full and satisfied after every meal (some people even tried cactus for the first time). This always keeps spirits high, especially when the mozzies are out at dinner time and when we’re left starving after strenuous boat pushes, which weren’t so successful when tried cautiously in rougher seas. We nearly made it, until Vision’s engine died and we had to pull her back onto shore again after half an hour of struggling to get her out in the first place. It’s a good team building exercise though and always quite funny when, as a group of mostly girls, we find it pretty hard getting the boats to budge. Though as we get more used to our physical routine and muscles get bigger, boat pushes are surely going to get much easier…wishful thinking?

There are also a lot of arty things going on around base. Alan managed to create a didgeridoo out of some bamboo he found on the beach (great craftsmanship) and a group of people went up to the bridge one evening to play drums to the lagoon. We spotted bioluminescence and shooting stars while surrounded by the sounds of bumping 5 gallon jugs, maracas, coconuts and the didgeridoo. Liv also spends a lot of her time taking photos and is often called over to capture special moments, like when we spotted a huge locust (about 20cm long) lounging on one of the cars outside base.

This past weekend some of us though it’d be nice to escape our beach front home for a change of scenery. Alan, Jimmy, Shayle, Jenna, Lizzy, Rachael, Leela, Marcella, Sue, and organizer Dana pitched their tents at the beautiful Papaya Play beach front. After downing some leftover noodles, and dodging a few raindrops, the group headed out for a night on the town. Buddy groups were assigned, and remember, if you lose your buddy, search around for one minute before slowly making your way to the bar (safety stop not required!). After a long night out dancing and drinking free cocktails for the ladies, the group fell asleep under the stars, woke up to the sun just as early as we do during the week, and spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach and eating some tasty food before heading back to base.

Hopefully next week will bring more diving and even more fun!

Standing by 67!

2 Weeks, 2 Dives, 2 Much Fun