Week 3 – Lights, Camera, Action

Tequilla, Tequilla, this is Pez Maya, Pez Maya do you copy….

Over half way through the phase for the 5 weekers now and everyone is not happy as time here has gone soo fast! There have been a few people checking their bank balances for extra money in order to hopefully extend! This week we have been succeeding in completing two dives a day so lots more spots have taken place. There have been a couple dives focused on monitoring training also this week so hopefully next week might see the start of some accurate monitoring data.

More exciting news….due to everyone’s busy diving schedule the volleyball tournament has transformed into the first annual Pez Maya Olympics. This will take place on the 5 weekers´ final Saturday together. Events include tug-of-war, coconut shot-put, snorkel sprint, distance boat push and fastest gear up etc. The training will start on Monday before the final show down. The podium winners will be revealed next week and their prize will not have to do any duties for a whole day. The losing team will have a busy day cooking, cleaning and sorting out the boats.

This week also saw the start of our community work. Our local army guys were treated to a warm Pez Maya welcome and some excellent basic English lessons. They seemed to enjoy it and hopefully it will be beneficial to them too. We will also be teaching kids in Tulum and Punta Allen. We were also set the great challenge with coming up with new inventive ways of destroying Tetra Pak cartons. This will be filmed for an initiative to environmentally dispose of such items in a fun way. So far we have come up with a boat push squish, Simon’s head butt burst and Mario’s flying kick with the carton balancing on little Louise’s head. Hopefully all these will go to plan, otherwise ice packs and hospital trips maybe required.

Spotted this week…. A few loggerhead turtles whilst diving, some more stingrays and most impressive was a baby crocodile seen poking its head up in the waves right where we swim. Our resident Steve Irwins a.k.a Simon and Ian were going to attempt a rescue mission to release it back into the mangroves. This was obviously never going to happen but fairly amusing to watch.

Update for the studying…the advanced groups have almost completed their course having completing their boat, PPB, naturalist, navigation and deep dive. Lots more people have completed the juvenile fish test and also the algae test. We have been studying hard and not just sleeping in the hammocks which can be very, very tempting!!

This weekend the majority of us will be travelling up to Holbox for an exciting trip to see the whale sharks, manta rays and hopefully flamingos. Fingers crossed we will see lots of new and exciting things to be able to show you next week.

Standby 67

Week 3 – Lights, Camera, Action