World? World? this is Pez Maya, Pez Maya…do you copy? Over.

Greetings from Pez Maya, Mexico. Week one came and went so quickly. After enjoying our last lie in at Hotel Colorado last Friday, we were quickly (or rather slowly and bumpily) whisked off to the beautiful Sian Ka’an reserve where we will be spending the next 5 or 10 weeks. As soon as we arrived, everyone was surprised and excited to see an iguana chilling out in front of base camp and cameras were quickly dug out of overstuffed backpacks: little did we know we’d be getting pretty friendly with them around base (and disturbingly in our beds as well!). After moving into our somewhat humble accommodation, and hurriedly hanging our mosquito nets with some difficulty, we spent the rest of the afternoon meeting the staff and getting acquainted with the beach and the beautiful view. Everyone was excited, pretty exhausted, and slightly anxious about what was to come.

Thankfully the staff took a hold of the first few days, with Lluvia cooking us delicious Mexican food and the rest of the staff taking on our daily duties. Laura then gave us the low down on how we would come to love camp life, manage to become PADI certified coral and fish monitor experts and become “Hello, my name is your name” Emergency First Responders, all in the first week. The majority of our time was spent studying fish and coral so we could pass our tests and progress to the even more exciting topics of soft coral, algae and juvenile fish. Congratulations to Shayle, Shannon, Jimmy, Leela, Liz, Dana, Marcella, Rachel, Eilidh and Jenna who all passed in the first week! Hammocks were put up in honor of their efforts. Speaking of efforts, when we weren’t nose deep in identification books, everyone was either in the water trying hard to get used to their new dive gear (there were a few floaters, more weights guys!) or watching the memorable and amusing PADI Open Water videos, so soon we were all set to “meet people, go places and do things…underwater!” The more advanced group divers were practicing their underwater sprints and swimming through hoops, perfecting their buoyancy. Some groups had the opportunity to dive in one of the famous Mexican cenotes and snorkel over the reef, but unfortunately due to rough waters and nasty strong winds we have been land bound for the last few days.

It’s a completely different world living in Pez Maya, especially with so many people from different countries; we’re all experiencing something new. Surrounded by white sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and a huge diversity of wildlife we all definitely took advantage of our free time, keeping ourselves entertained. There was a beach clean up, studying on the beach, beach volleyball, bird walks on the beach, swimming…just off the beach and a lot of lying in the sun, hammocks and unfortunately not much lying in bed thanks to our 5.30am wake ups.

Everyone got used to the new way of life, from bucket showers (yes, that’s only 3 buckets per week each) to bucket toilets (and yes, that’s flushing using a bucket…as many as you need…please) to managing to cook for 30 people using a limited variety of ingredient. Once we started all our duties our week went pretty quickly and we had our first day off on which we all hired a colectivo to take us to Tulum to pick up some essentials we forgot we couldn’t live without. Lots of people ate a lot of meat in town, missing it after the shock of the new "vegetarian" diet. We all ended up at the local supermarket stocking up on tasty treats for our ‘L’ themed party in honor of Liz’s 21st birthday. The night began with a fantastic Mexican dinner made as a treat by the staff followed up by the beating of a piñata decorated as the Little Mermaid (which was a slightly disturbing activity). Everyone had a great night and we had a lot of laughs as some true colors shone through. We’ve all become surprisingly good friends in such a short space of time.

Hopefully next week will be as fun and eventful as this week has been.

Pez Maya. Standing by 67.

World? World? this is Pez Maya, Pez Maya…do you copy? Over.