Week 5 in Pez maya- turtle sightings, Halloween, day of the dead

Hi all, Caz here, reporting from a hammock under the palm trees of Pez Maya, just watching the last waves of the day go out. The diving has been fantastic today. I was on the first 2 waves and I can only assume the conditions have improved as the day has gone on. I`m also rather excited to report my first turtle sighting today! It was 7.30am when I was ascending to the monitor practice sight and naturally I was still half asleep. However as we were swimming along over the reef, I looked below me and there was a huge Loggerhead turtle having a nap, with it`s head under a rock. I alerted the other divers and we stayed there for a good few minutes watching this beautiful creature resting. It almost looked like it had convinced its self, nothing could see it with it`s head under the rock and any passing sharks would be totally oblivious. About 20 minutes into our dive the captain of our boat spotted it surface for air, right where our SMB was floating, so luckily, he caught a glimpse of it too.

Anyway, back to other things on base. As you all know, it’s week 5 here on base and sadly for some people, it marks the end of their time here on base. They all be missed and things will be very different without them around. This also means that for Katie, co-writer of the Pez Maya Blog, this is in fact her last blog. So I thought it would be cool for her to share a summary of her time here over the 5 weeks, which we`ll have at the end of this week’s blog.

Back to the week then. Saturday was of course Halloween and following on with our dressing up rule for Saturday party nights, this weekend was no exception. There was a strong Pirate theme going on, along with Sea Monsters, although I never pictured Sea Monster`s wearing quite so much eye-liner and glitter, call me old fashioned.

On Sunday, while the rest of us nursed hangovers and tried to build human pyramids in the sea, everyone else went to join in with the “Day of the Dead” celebrations. Every year in Xcaret, people from all over Mexico and indeed the world, come to celebrate the lives of those passed away, be it family, friends or revered historical figures. I personally didn`t go, but I chatted to some fellow volunteers who did and they had nothing but good things to say about it. The festival it`s self is classed in some ways as a theme park, but not like Alton Towers or Disney World, just many attractions, shows, live music and theatre. All of it had strong cultural themes and alongside with the spectator aspects, there were art displays, various stand to purchase goods, food and various other things to spend your pocket money on. All in all everyone who went from base had a fantastic time, so if you ever get the chance, do check it out.

Right, that`s it from me for this week, i`m going to hand over to Katie. Cheers Caz x

Week 5 in Pez maya- turtle sightings, Halloween, day of the dead