The wind shall not beat us!

Of course, the main reasons for us volunteers to be here is diving and monitoring the fish and coral. But four windy days in a row have put us in “a cave of broken plastic dreams” as one person so creatively described it. But as the ongoing machine that we are, nothing will stop us! Spanish lessons, oceanography lectures and birding have filled our days (and heads) with inspiration. Also “Earth Day” has arrived for us which means no electricity for the day and thoughts about improving the environment on our beautiful planet. Someone can´t do everything, but everyone can do something!

…Pez Maya Olympics, sounds fun huh? I promise you, it is! Throw in some extra competitions like best costume and “national anthem” performance and your day is a success. Blood, sweat, tears and sand were only a few obstacles that the three brave teams overcame. They fought through “the spinny stick”, “finbarrow race” and “blind assault course”. After a close battle, a winner emerged: the soldiers of the LaLa Legion :)

Between all the fun, we also squeezed in community work in a rural village called Nuevo Durango. It’s a six week project (one day a week) where we help the farmers with their daily routine. This time it involved building a compost heap from scratch. All the digging, shoveling manure (yes, really), gathering and shredding leaves and mixing was hard work but somehow it was soothing to work so closely with the land. Our host taught us Mayan plant names and how to make tortillas for lunch. The farmers and volunteers said goodbye after a long day with big smiles on their faces.

For a good ending to this week’s blog, I will contribute with a great dinner recipe: soak rice in coconut milk for a couple of hours. Then boil it and as a finish, add grated coconut. The rice should be served in a coconut shell for each person, together with a curry made with passion and homemade mango chutney.
Ohh yes………….

Sven out!

The wind shall not beat us!